In 1996, the Academy of American Poets designated April as National Poetry Month. What exactly is National Poetry Month? The Academy of American Poets website, poets.org, lists the following definition:

National Poetry Month is the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K-12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, bloggers, and, of course, poets marking poetry’s important place in our culture and our lives every April.  

If you’re looking for a unique way to celebrate National Poetry Month, check out the winning haiku poems from the annual Ode to the Zip Code poetry contest available on the Toledo City Paper’s website. It’s a wonderful way to honor local poets in the Greater Toledo area. The contest is in its sixth year, created through a community partnership involving Adams Street Publishing, The Fair Housing Center, The Arts Commission and the Toledo Lucas County Public Library. Additional inspiration can be found at the Library where you’ll find a variety of poetry collections including recent works, anthologies and award-winners that will surely help poetry fans in our area celebrate during National Poetry Month and beyond.

Looking for more poetry collections?

To find the latest poetry books, use the advanced search feature in the Library catalog to limit by subject and year. For example, a subject search for “poetry” combined with “women authors” and limited by specific years (2020 to 2021) will yield very specific results. This search strategy will also eliminate hundreds of unrelated titles that would appear in a keyword only search.

To find the latest poetry books through hoopla, use the advanced search to limit by format (eBooks), release date (last 12 months) and subject (poetry).

If you’re interested in recommendations, reach out to our knowledgeable librarians in the Fact and Fiction department at the Main Library by calling 419.259.5311, or send us a message at Fact.Fiction@ToledoLibrary.org.    

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