The official 2026 National Poetry Month poster marks the thirtieth anniversary of National Poetry Month. The poster features original artwork by Puerto Rican artist Alfredo Richner and an excerpt from “The Chance” by Arthur Sze, Chancellor Emeritus of the Academy of American Poets and the twenty-fifth United States Poet Laureate, 2025–26. The excerpt reads, “even if the darkness precedes and follows / us, we have a chance, briefly, to shine.”
The first National Poetry Month poster, issued in 1996, featured a photograph by Arthur Tress and was designed by Michael Ian Kaye, establishing the poster as a central public expression of the celebration from its inception. Produced by the Academy of American Poets with the support of leading literary publishers, the inaugural poster set a precedent for bringing poetry into public spaces through bold visual language—a tradition that continues thirty years later.
Since its founding, National Poetry Month posters have featured lines by numerous notable poets, including, Lucille Clifton, Emily Dickinson, Joy Harjo, Ada Limón, Naomi Shihab Nye, Tracy K. Smith, and Walt Whitman, alongside artwork by leading designers and artists including Marian Bantjes, Roz Chast, Milton Glaser, Chip Kidd, and Christoph Niemann. The 2026 poster continues this lineage by returning to a focused presentation of a single poem excerpt as an entry point into the celebration.
Free copies of the 2026 National Poetry Month poster are made available to educators, librarians, booksellers, and poetry lovers nationwide in advance of National Poetry Month. Requests for mailed copies of the poster can be made at poets.org/national-poetry-month, where a special digital version of the poster with print-at-home instructions is also made available.
About National Poetry Month
Launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996, National Poetry Month celebrates poets’ integral role in our culture and affirms that poetry matters. Over the years, it has grown into the largest literary celebration in the world, reaching tens of millions of readers, students, K–12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary event organizers, publishers, families, and poets each year.
Print Run: ~90,000
More information about National Poetry Month 2026: https://poets.org/national-poetry-month