Poetry

These 2 funny books give readers a reason to smile in tough times

1:35pm April 21, 2025

Dorothy Parker's posthumously published collection is Poems; Camilla Barnes' debut novel is The Usual Desire to Kill. Both affirm: sharp humor can be grounded in pain.

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Two books delivered beauty, inspiration and humor — just when I needed them most

11:08am November 14, 2024

Sometimes, the right book shows up just at the right time. Our book critic encountered two such books this week: Water, Water, by Billy Collins, and The Dog Who Followed the Moon, by James Norbury.

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Louise Glück attends the National Book Awards on Nov. 19, 2014, in New York City.

Books
Arts

Nobel Prize-winning poet Louise Glück dies at 80

5:45pm October 13, 2023

by Chloe Veltman

The winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature and Poet Laureate of the United States from 2003-2004 was 80 years old.

Kwame Alexander (left) and Jerry Craft have each won a Newbery Medal for their children's books. Alexander invited Craft on a trip to Kenya this summer to speak to schoolkids about reading. The kids were impressed. So were the authors.

Snow, scorpions, Dr. Seuss: What Kenyan kids talked about with top U.S. kids' authors

7:38am September 17, 2023

Newbery prize winners Kwame Alexander, a poet, and Jerry Craft, an author and illustrator, went on a mission to Kenya to encourage reading. The kids learned a lot. So did the authors.

The cover of Daughters of Latin America.

These poems by Latin American women reflect a multilingual region

6:01am August 19, 2023

Sandra Guzmán once heard an alarming statistic: Every 14 days, an Indigenous language dies around the world. So she created a new multilingual project centered on Latin American women.

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A woman holds a picture of Victoria Amelina, as pallbearers carry the writer's coffin at the end of her funeral ceremony in Mykhaylo Gold Domes in Kyiv on July 4, 2023.

Opinion: Remembering Ukrainian poet Victoria Amelina

8:29am July 08, 2023

by Scott Simon

NPR's Scott Simon remembers Ukrainian writer and poet Victoria Amelina, who was among those killed in a Russian strike at a pizza restaurant last month.

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Ricardo Alberto Maldonado will become the Academy of American Poets' first Latino executive director and president since its founding in 1934.

Arts
Books

The Academy of American Poets names its first Latino head

6:09pm June 21, 2023

by Elizabeth Blair

Ricardo Alberto Maldonado will become the almost-90-year-old academy's executive director and president.

Denise Lajimodiere speaks at the Minnesota Children's Book Festival in Red Wing, Minn., on Sept. 18, 2021. This week, Lajimodiere became the first Native American state poet laureate in North Dakota's history.

Denise Lajimodiere is named North Dakota's first Native American poet laureate

1:40pm April 07, 2023

by The Associated Press

A citizen of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians, Lajimodiere has written several award-winning books of poetry and is an expert on the history of Native American boarding schools.

Poet Charles Simic is photographed at the City University of New York, May 13, 2003.

Books
Arts

Opinion: Remembering poet Charles Simic

9:30am January 14, 2023

by Scott Simon

NPR's Scott Simon remembers Charles Simic, former U.S. poet laureate who was born in Belgrade right before World War II. He died this week after a long career of writing and teaching.

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Kwame Alexander's latest crowdsourced poem explores the world through the eyes of Morning Edition listeners' pets.

Arts

What would Fido say about you? This community poem takes pets' point of view

5:56am December 15, 2022

by Rachel Martin

We asked Morning Edition listeners to share what their pets might be thinking about. Then NPR poet-in-residence Kwame Alexander combed through more than 700 submissions to create a community poem.

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