National Poetry Month 2024: WEATHER!
Celebrate National Poetry Month 2024 with the theme of WEATHER. Through sun, snow, rain, wind, fog, and many other iterations, we find the captivating presence of weather. With poetic flair, weather dictates the rhythms of our lives from coast to coast.
This April 2024, we invite poets and poetry lovers to delve into the experiences, feelings, and inspiration that weather offers. Whether the serenity of a snowfall, exhilaration of a summer downpour, or the familiar whispers of a gentle breeze, the League of Canadian Poets invites you to explore WEATHER this National Poetry Month – April 2024.
April is National Poetry Month!
National Poetry Month began in the US in 1996, spearheaded by the Academy of American Poets on the steps of a post office in New York City. There, the story goes, Academy staff members handed out copies of T.S. Eliot’s poem, “The Waste Land,” which begins, “April is the cruellest month…” to individuals waiting in line to mail their tax returns. Established in Canada in 1998, NPM now brings together schools, publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, and poets from across the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in Canada’s culture.
Each year, the League of Canadian Poets selects a theme to ground our conversations, inspirations, and focus of National Poetry Month. LCP produces posters and bookmarks reflecting this theme, which are free to request for your home, school, library, or community!
National Poetry Month
Pick up some poetry
There are so many ways to incorporate poetry into your April 2023. The League of Canadian Poets is proud to share our NPM Celebration Collection which includes a variety of resources, activities, events and of course– poetry!
Celebrate NPM
National Poetry Month
NPM Event Funding
The League of Canadian Poets offers annual funding for poetry events that take place during National Poetry Month.
National Poetry Month funding opens to applications from January 15 to February 15 annually, supporting digital and in-person events anywhere in Canada that celebrate NPM; open to non-members and associate members)
Application details will be posted here when available.
National Poetry Month
Poem In Your Pocket Day
One day in every National Poetry Month is Poem In Your Pocket Day: an international movement that encourages people to center poetry within their daily interactions. On PIYP Day, select a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, coffee shops, street corners, and on social media using the hashtag #PIYP
National Poetry Month began in the US in 1996, spearheaded by the Academy of American Poets on the steps of a post office in New York City. There, the story goes, Academy staff members handed out copies of T.S. Eliot’s poem, “The Waste Land,” which begins, “April is the cruellest month…” to individuals waiting in line to mail their tax returns.
Established in Canada in 1998, NPM now brings together schools, publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, and poets from across the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in Canada’s culture.
Learn and discover more about past National Poetry Months: