“Poetry is experiencing a new golden age, with young writers of color taking the lead,” reads the headline of an article published by CNN recently. The article cites the recent rice to prominence of poets like Rupi Kaur who has millions of followers on Instagram, Tyehimba Jess who won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, Ada Limón whose latest book, “The Carrying,” won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Presidential Inauguration poet Amanda Gorman who assumed the role poster child for America’s surging poetry movement when she became one of the major talking points of Joe Biden’s inauguration in January this year.
“Though poetry has always existed and experienced waves of acclaim, the genre is finding new prominence in today’s mainstream collective imagination, stripping itself of its previous relegation to sleepy high school English classes. And, for the most part, poets of color are leading the charge,” reads the article in part.
It quotes Jess; “What has happened in the last 25 to 30 years, is that there has been a renaissance of Black poetry and a lot of that is particularly due to the kind of work… of organizations and fellowships such as Cave Canem,” Jess said, also naming organizations like Obsidian, a literary magazine dedicated to work from the African Diaspora, and the Watering Hole, a writing retreat for poets of color from the South.”
There are lots of gems for poetry lovers in this article. We will share one more: “Poets.org, which publishes a daily poem as part of its series Poem-a-Day, has seen its readerships for both the website and its daily poems grow every year since 2013, said Jennifer Benka, executive director of the Academy of American Poets, which produces Poets.org and Poem-a-Day.”
Read work by the poets mentioned in the article
Ada Limón
Bright Dead Things | The Carrying | The Hurting Kind | Sharks In The Rivers
Amanda Gorman
The Hill We Climb | Call Us What We Carry
Morgan Parker
Magical Negro | Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up at Night | There Are More Beautiful Things than Beyoncé
Ocean Vuong
Night Sky With Exit Wounds | Time is a Mother
Rupi Kaur
Milk and Honey | The Moon and Her Stars | The Sun and Her Flowers | Home Body
Tyehimba Jess
Author: Team VoW
Valley of Writers provides resources, tools, ideas and training for new writers. We work with a writers and contributors based around the world. Our primary focus is to equip new writers with skills to help them reach new audiences and achieve their goals.
