We’re getting so close to April 1!

Yesterday, we featured some tips on how to read your poetry in public. But reading series don’t just need readers — they need listeners, too! So, during April, why not try to take in a poetry reading? Most towns have at least one poetry reading series, whether it’s an open-mike at a coffee shop or a more formal series with invited readers.

Poetry readings are a mixed bag, of course. If you started going to concert venues to listen to lots of live music, or patronizing galleries to see lots of art, you’d find some music and art you liked and some you didn’t. Similarly, if you start attending poetry readings, you’ll hear some stuff you like, some stuff you hate, and you’ll hear things you think you would like if only the poet were a better reader! But going to poetry readings will expose you to poetry you didn’t know existed, help you to develop your own taste, and give you the opportunity to meet other people interested in poetry.

And if you google around for local poetry series and don’t find anything, you might just consider starting a reading series yourself! (If you do, here’s an article that might give you a little insight into how to get started).

Five days to go, and NaPoWriMo will be here! As we count down to April 1st, let’s look beyond the process of getting the poem on the page to – gulp – reading them out loud. Like any form of public speaking, reading your poems to an audience can be very intimidating. But here are some tips and tricks for your next open-mike appearance, which should help you to give a good reading. And also – next time you’re at a poetry reading, watch the hands of the poets – you’ll find they’re often shaking! Even experienced poets still get nervous at readings, but they’ve learned over time to use that energy to make their readings better, and not let it stop them from getting up and speaking in the first place.

We’ve got just six days left until NaPoWriMo begins!

Today, as we count down to April 1, let’s explore some of the poetry resources available on Twitter. Yes, there is poetry on twitter! In fact, both poets and poetry journals have taken to twitter in spades, leading to lists like these: 38 Gifted Poets on Twitter and Twenty-Five Literary Magazines to Follow. Following your favorite journals on twitter is a particularly good way to keep on top of submission periods, new issues, and other news.

Of course, it’s not all straight-faced and straight-laced. Every profession, hobby, and lifestyle, from extreme snowboarding to competitive crochet to – yes – creative writing, has both its ups and downs, its foibles and follies as well as its merits and achievements. And where there are foibles, there is . . . the internet, and, in particular, there are parodic Twitter accounts. One that may give you a laugh – or possibly, have you cringing — is Guy in Your MFA. Why get a Master of Fine Arts degree when you can get the wisdom of an over-pretentious classmate for free?

If you have a Twitter account yourself, you might find some amusement in Poetweet, the website that turns your tweets into poetry. Really! Just enter your twitter handle and the website will build a rhyming poem from your old tweets.

And finally, you can follow us on Twitter, too — @napowrimo2015!

There are seven days to go until NaPoWriMo! As we count down to the big day, why not take a look at this intriguing article on a video game that teaches you to write poetry?

Or if you already know how to write poetry, but also like video games, you might consider this article on a serialized anthology of poems about video games. Or perhaps you’ll enjoy perusing the offerings at Cartridge Lit, an online journal devoted to literature, including poetry, about video games.

After all, Who’s to say that, were he alive today, Lord Byron wouldn’t be writing odes to Clash of Clans?

We have just one week to go until NaPoWriMo. I hope you are as excited as we are for the challenge of writing thirty poems in thirty days. To help keep that excitement going, we’ll have countdown posts each day over the next week until April 1 is here.

If you’re interested in including a NaPoWriMo button on your blog or or website, here are a couple to choose from:

And remember, you can check us out on Facebook and Twitter.

A very happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone, as well as a very happy Two-Weeks-Until-NaPoWriMo. We’re busy drafting prompts and researching online poetry resources to share with all of you once April comes around. If you have ideas for prompts or resources, please let us know at napowrimonet-AT-gmail-DOT-com. We’ll credit you if we use your idea!

In the meantime, one sometimes-overlooked resource for poetic inspiration is . . . Twitter. In addition to thousands of people chatting about their everyday lives, you’ll find twitter accounts for Walt Whitman (where the entirety of Leaves of Grass is being tweeted, a line at a time), the British Romantic poets, and revolutionary Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. Perhaps a perusal of these poetic accounts will help you to get your poetry muscles primed for NaPoWriMo!

Hello, everyone! There are just three weeks to go until NaPoWriMo. Signups are now open, and we’re happy to see both new and familiar faces in our participants’ list. Whether you’re trying NaPoWriMo for the first time, the second, or the twelfth, we hope that the process of writing a poem a day will loosen up your writing process, and get you a wealth of new poems to play with.

As always, we’ll be posting optional prompts each day, featuring a participating site, and suggesting online poetry resources for NaPoWriMo-ers. If you have ideas for prompts, or participants or sites to feature, we’d love to hear from you. Send your suggestions to napowrimonet-AT-gmail-DOT-com.

We’ve also put together two blog buttons, for those of you who would like them!

More soon, and in the meantime, maybe this list of poetic forms will help you get your poetry engines revved?

Hello, all! It’s that time of year again — time to dust off your pencils, feather pens, typewriters, and notebooks, and get ready to write a poem a day for the month of April.

In addition to hosting a searchable list of participants’ websites, we’ll be featuring optional prompts each day, as well as poetry-related websites, and the daily work of participants. If you have an idea for a prompt, or an online poetry resource you’d like to see featured here, please drop us a line at napowrimo-AT-gmail-DOT-com. If I select your prompt or feature a website you’ve suggested, I’ll credit you, and if you are participating in NaPoWriMo, I’ll link to your site as well.

And if you’d like to follow along on social media, check us out on Twitter at @napowrimo2015, or onFacebook.

Hello, everyone. NaPoWriMo is over for 2014. I hope you enjoyed flexing your poetry muscles! Thanks to everyone who submitted prompt and journal/press ideas, and thanks to all of you for participating.The best thing about NaPoWriMo is seeing how many people are able to use the project to clear through their mental underbrush and just sit down to write — whether they are trying poetry for the first time, returning after a long while, or just using it to further what has already become a lifelong practice.

I hope to see you all again next year. In the meantime, happy writing!

Well, everyone — it’s finally here. Today is the last day of NaPoWriMo. We had over 1500 participants this year, a very good turnout indeed. I hope you’ve enjoyed the challenge and if you didn’t quite make it to 30 poems this year, no worries. NaPoWriMo will be back next year!

But for now, let’s meet our final featured press: Ahsahta, which published NaPoWriMo’er Kirsten Kaschock’s first book, A Beautiful Name for a Girl, back in 2011. The press has published many wonderful books over the years, and reads book manuscripts for its Sawtooth Prize in January-March of each year, and also occasionally has open reading periods. Right now (and I mean, really right now), the press is reading chapbook manuscripts — today is the last day to submit, so if you have something you feel is ready to go out into the world, why not send it their way?

And our featured participant for Day 30 is Jennifer Liston. I love the playfulness of these poems!

And now for our final (yet still optional!) prompt. Today, as befits the final poem of NaPoWriMo, I challenge you to write a poem of farewell. It doesn’t have to be goodbye forever — like I said, NaPoWriMo will be back again next year. If you need a little inspiration, you might find some in perusing this selection of goodbye-and-good-luck poems from the Poetry Foundation website.

Happy writing, everyone, and good-bye, and see you next year!