It’s National Poetry Writing Month!

While poetry is for life and not just for April, when National Poetry Month comes around I can’t help but get excited. It is the largest literary celebration in the world according to Poets.org, and was first started by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. Whether you celebrate by sharing the work of your favourite poets, or by penning your own and taking part in National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), April can be a magical time to enjoy and celebrate all things poetry.

National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) first started in 2003, when Washington-based poet, Maureen Thorson, shared daily poems on her blog during the month of April. Thorson was inspired by was inspired by National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which usually takes place in November. Others soon joined in and a few years later, due to its increasing popularity, Thorson launched her own independent website for the project (NaPoWriMo.net).

I first took part in NaPoWriMo in 2019 after my college lecturer recommended it. I was in my first year of a creative writing degree, and as a poet and mature student (43 at the time), I was struggling to write creatively alongside my course work. The challenge of writing a poem-a-day for 30 days helped me get out of my writing funk. I’ve taken part each year and fast forward to today, now nearing the end of my degree, I am once again excited to join in and hopefully find my poetry mojo after an assessment-heavy semester.

If you’re taking part this year, good luck! I’ll look out for your poetry posts. I’m going to try and share a mixture of my favourite poems and poets alongside my own NaPoWriMo creations.

~The H Word~

References

NaPoWriMo.net (n.d.) About [online]. Available from https://www.napowrimo.net/about/ [1 April 2022]

Poets.org (n.d.) National Poetry Month FAQ [online]. Available from https://poets.org/national-poetry-month/faq [1 April 2022]