The Academy of American Poets has announced the 2023 recipients of its Poet Laureate Fellowship program.

Twenty-three individuals will each receive $50,000 to serve as poets laureate of states, counties, and cities across the United States. This year’s fellows include Jennifer Bartell Boykin (Columbia, South Carolina), who will partner with The Watering Hole to conduct debate slam poetry workshops with local youth; Oliver de la Paz (Worcester, Massachusetts), who will collaborate with the Worcester County Poetry Association to promote a series of public art installations; Brandy Nālani McDougall (Hawaiʻi), who will promote poetry as a way to connect with ʻāina (land and water) in partnership with the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities; and Shin Yu Pai (Seattle, Washington), who will organize a year of large-scale poetry activations with additional support from the Windrose Fund of the Common Counsel Foundation.

Made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the program has awarded a total of $5.45 million to 105 poets since 2019.

“The Academy of American Poets celebrates the unique position poets laureate occupy at state and local levels, elevating the possibilities poetry can bring to community conversations and reminding us that our national spirit can be nourished by the power of the written and spoken word,” said American Academy of Poets president and executive director Ricardo Maldonado. “We are inspired by these projects—which include intergenerational workshops, city- and statewide festivals, community-generated publications, and more—that the 23 fellows will carry out, and grateful to the Mellon Foundation and the nonprofit organizations supporting this life-affirming work.”

For a complete list of 2023 fellows and their projects, see the Academy of American Poets website.

(Photo credit: Getty Images/FG Trade)