Ever wonder what the process is of the Academy of American poets in choosing poets for their online poetry encyclopedia?

Additions to our poet pages are based on committee decisions by our staff, often with input from our chancellors. Because our goal is to create an online encyclopedia of poets, we regularly add new authors to the site. However, due to limitations in funding and staff time, the number of poets we plan to add always outstrips the number we are actually able to add. There are many fine and deserving poets that are not yet included on our site. While we have over 500 poets on our site, our "to do" list includes over one hundred poets, many of whom won awards from the Academy of American Poets, or participated in the Academy's programs, dating back to 1934.

The poets featured on our site are selected according to three primary
criteria:

1. To create a representative selection illustrating the history of poetry
in America.

2. To provide background information in support of the Academy's other
programs.

3. To provide resources on those poets who are most often researched online and taught in classrooms--as determined based on requests from our site's visitors, poetry-related surveys, and statistics garnered through analysis of search patterns and traffic on our website.

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Robin Beth Schaer | Chief Online Editor
The Academy of American Poets
584 Broadway #604 | NYC NY 10012