National Poetry Month is in full swing, and April 21st is designated . Celebrated across the country, the 鈥減ocket poem鈥� is a simple reminder of how powerful and overlooked poetry can be. Spread poetry in classrooms, libraries, offices, or wherever you happen to be by printing out either an old personal favorite or a poem you鈥檝e newly discovered. You can share your choice on Twitter using the popular hashtag #pocketpoem.
Although Poem in Your Pocket Day was founded by the office of the mayor in New York City in 2002, it quickly gained national momentum. You can find more information about the event at , which features news, updates, and additional programs that are taking place throughout April.
To promote and celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day, av福利社 is pleased to present a selection of six printable PUP poem cards you can take with you throughout your day.
Troy Jollimore is the author of two previous collections of poetry, (Princeton) and Tom Thomson in Purgatory, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. His poems have appeared in the New Yorker, 惭肠厂飞别别苍别测鈥檚, the Believer, and other publications. He is a professor of philosophy at California State University, Chico.
Alvin Feinman (1929-2008) taught literature at Bennington College from 1969 to 1994. He was the author of Preambles and Other Poems and an expanded edition of that work, (Princeton). He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and educated at Brooklyn College, the University of Chicago, and Yale University.
Jessica Greenbaum鈥檚 second book, (2012), was chosen by Paul Muldoon for Princeton鈥檚 Series of Contemporary Poets. She teaches inside and outside academia, and as a social worker she designs workshops for nonconventional communities. She received a 2015 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, is the poetry editor for upstreet, and lives in Brooklyn.
Anthony Carelli鈥檚 poems have appeared in various magazines including The New Yorker, Columbia, and Commonweal, and on various websites including theparisreview.org, AGNI online, and Memorious. His first book, (av福利社, 2011) was a finalist for the 2011 Levis Reading Prize. Recipient of a Hodder fellowship and a Whiting Writers鈥� Award, he currently lives in Brooklyn, New York and teaches at New York University.
Gary J. Whitehead鈥檚 third collection of poems, , was published by av福利社 in 2013. His previous books include Measuring Cubits while the Thunder Claps and The Velocity of Dust. He has also authored three chapbooks of poetry, two of which were winners of national competitions. His writing awards include, among others, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, the Pearl Hogrefe Fellowship at Iowa State University, and the PEN Northwest Margery Davis Boyden Wilderness Writing Residency Award. His poems have appeared widely, most notably in The New Yorker.
Austin Smith has published four poetry collections: In the Silence of the Migrated Birds; Wheat and Distance; Instructions for How to Put an Old Horse Down; and , which was chosen by Paul Muldoon for the Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets. Austin鈥檚 poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, Yale Review, and Sewanee Review, amongst others. He was the recipient of the 2015 Narrative Prize for his short story, 鈥淭he Halverson Brothers.鈥�
Fiona Sze-Lorrain is a poet, literary translator, editor, and zheng harpist. The author of three previous books of poetry in English, My Funeral Gondola, Water the Moon, and , she also writes and translates in French and Chinese. She lives in Paris.