The demands of ideological conformity have ruined several generations of MFA-trained American writers.

A framed poster of a stamp depicting Langston Hughes, who wrote some of the best poems in American history. Poetry provides the perfect way to indulge in the escapism of reading without the commitment ...

The brutalities of American life have left deep scars in our literature, few more evident than the long absence of African American poets. Among the exceptions, at least two black poets published work ...

Poetry has been an essential part of many countries’ popular culture for centuries. Italy, Russia, Iran, Chile, Poland, and Nicaragua are good examples, to name just a few. In these places, professors ...

On July 17, Kay Ryan became the 16th U.S. poet Laureate, one of the most coveted positions in American letters. Yet when Senator Spark Matsunaga, himself an amateur poet, pushed Congress to create the ...

There might be no better time to engage with poetry than right now. “Poems allow us to explore very fraught issues,” says Elisa New, host of the PBS series “Poetry in America.” “Maybe that’s some of ...

Joy Castro rustled through a collection of her father’s belongings after his passing in 2002, finding among them a fragile, paperback book she recognized. It was the collection of poems written by her ...

Chinese poetry carved on the wall of the Angel Island Immigration Station in the San Francisco Bay. Text from Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940 These lines ...