The Academy of American Poets is distributing $1.1 million in fellowships to 23 poets laureate across the United States, according to a bulletin from the organization released on July 31, 2025. Each poet will receive a $50,000 fellowship, designed to support their community-related poetry projects and acknowledge their literary contributions. An additional $95,000 will be shared amongst 21 nonprofit partners assisting with these projects. Tess O'Dwyer, Board Chair of the Academy, expressed excitement for the diverse "projects produced by poets laureate in big cities and small towns alike" in a City of Dallas press release.
Funded by the Mellon Foundation, the fellowship program was initiated in 2019 and has since established over forty laureate positions, donating a total of $7.65 million to 149 poets. The fellowships have championed numerous projects, ranging from prison poetry workshops to statewide billboard campaigns. Notably, a new poetry form, the "2-1-Form," will be utilized in Dallas's "Sidewalk Poetry Project" by Poet Laureate Fellow Mag Gabbert, for which the poems of residents will be stamped into sidewalks throughout the city. Gabbert, who has accrued her literary accolades, including a Pushcart Prize, is coordinating with the city's Office of Arts and Culture on this project that aims to balance historical acknowledgment with contemporary creative expression.
The list of 2025 Poet Laureate Fellows is broad, ranging from Kweku Abimbola in El Segundo, CA, to Raffi Joe Wartanian in Glendale, CA. Each fellow has proposed a unique, community-focused project that seeks to leverage the power of poetry to engage and inspire residents. Projects this year cover a spectrum of activities, including public readings, poetry hotlines, and anthology publications. In her Dallas-based "Sidewalk Poetry Project," Mag Gabbert aims to leave a lasting impression of community voices embedded in the literal foundation of the city streets.
