Happy National Poetry Month! As we celebrate the power of words and the beauty of expression, we want to make sure every Boston-area poet knows: the deadline to apply for the 2025 City of Boston Mayor’s Poetry Program is fast approaching—applications close Monday, April 7 at 5 PM!
Each year, the City of Boston selects 15 poems to be displayed in City Hall and hosts a public reading to celebrate the selected poets. This year’s reading will occur on Friday, April 25, 2025, at 2 PM at the Speaker’s Corner outside City Hall (weather backup: Mezzanine inside City Hall).
This Year’s Theme: Experimental Poetry
Curated by former Boston Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola, the theme for 2025 is “Experimental Poetry.”
We are interested in poems that create new structures for sharing stories or poems that shift our understanding of the world as we know it. Visual poems, form-breakers, invention, and subversion—this is a chance to push boundaries and reimagine what poetry can be.
So go ahead: take risks, defy tradition, and reinvent the narrative. Show us what a poem can become.
Details:
- Deadline to apply: Monday, April 7, 2025, at 5 PM
- Honorarium: $150 for selected poets
- Public Reading: Friday, April 25, 2025, at 2 PM at City Hall
- Apply via Submittable
Whether you’re a poet, a teacher, a librarian, a mentor, or a friend to someone with poetic talent, we’d love your help spreading the word. Let’s celebrate Boston’s vibrant poetry community together.
Click here to learn more and apply
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