The Academy was founded in 1934 to support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry.

To fulfill this mission, the Academy administers many important programs, including:

• Poets.org, our award-winning website, which provides a wealth of content on contemporary poetry and receives 400,000 unique visitors each month
• National Poetry Month (April), established by the Academy in 1996 and now the largest literary celebration in the world
• Online Poetry Classroom, which provides free poetry lesson plans and other tools to teachers
• Poetry Audio Archive, a recorded collection of nearly 500 Academy readings dating back to the 1960s
• High School Poetry Workshops for New York City students
• and American Poet, our biannual journal and literary magazine.

In addition, the Academy administers the most important collection of poetry awards in the United States, including the Wallace Steven Award, the Walt Whitman Award, and College Prizes at nearly 200 schools across the country. Through its awards program, the Academy awards well over $200,000 each year to individual poets.

The Academy is supported by nearly 8,000 dues-paying members, as well as private foundations, corporations, and government sources such as the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Address
588 Broadway
Suite 604
New York, New York 10012-3250
[New York State]
Phone: 212-274-0343
Fax: 212-274-9427