Here are the 2025 recipients of the $50k Academy of American Poets Fellowship prize.
Today, the Academy of American Poets announced the recipients of their 2025 Laureate Fellowships, which award $50,000 each to 23 poets laureate currently serving in cities and states across the country. The Academy will also “provide more than $95,000 total in matching grants to 21 local 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations collaborating with the 2025 fellows on their work.”
“The Academy of American Poets is jazzed to champion wide-ranging poetry projects produced by poets laureate in big cities and small towns alike—all across the country—spanning poetry festivals, anthologies, nooks, and cookbooks to toll-free poetry hotlines, prison workshops, public beach readings, and billboards,” said Tess O’Dwyer, Board Chair of the Academy, in a statement. “At a time when more readers are turning to poetry to make sense of the world around us, American poets are beacons of free expression, cultural insight, and civic engagement.”
The 2025 Poet Laureate Fellows are:
Kweku Abimbola, Poet Laureate Fellow of El Segundo, California
Mateo Acuña, Poet Laureate Fellow of Auburn, Washington
Tommy Archuleta, Poet Laureate Fellow of Santa Fe, New Mexico
Esther Belin, Poet Laureate Fellow of Durango, Colorado
Colin Channer, Poet Laureate Fellow of Rhode Island
Jen Cheng, Poet Laureate Fellow of West Hollywood, California
Steven Espada Dawson, Poet Laureate Fellow of Madison, Wisconsin
Mag Gabbert, Poet Laureate Fellow of Dallas, Texas
Nancy Miller Gomez, Poet Laureate Fellow of Santa Cruz County, California
Salaam Green, Poet Laureate Fellow of Birmingham, Alabama
Lester Graves Lennon and Sehba Sarwar, Poet Laureate Fellows of Altadena, California
Jennifer Militello, Poet Laureate Fellow of New Hampshire
jessica Care moore, Poet Laureate Fellow of Detroit, Michigan
Caridad Moro-Gronlier, Poet Laureate Fellow of Miami, Florida
Jennifer Polson Peterson, Poet Laureate Fellow of Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Poetic X, Poet Laureate Fellow of Caddo Parish, Louisiana
Jewel Rodgers, Poet Laureate Fellow of Nebraska
Mattie Quesenberry Smith, Poet Laureate Fellow of Virginia
Ruelaine Stokes, Poet Laureate Fellow of Lansing, Michigan
Bianca Stone, Poet Laureate Fellow of Vermont
Dujie Tahat, Poet Laureate Fellow of Seattle, Washington
Raffi Joe Wartanian, Poet Laureate Fellow of Glendale, California
