Welcome to Poets Reading the News, the newspaper for poetry on current events! Substack is where we share our newsletters featuring our latest poetry, letters from the editors, archive picks, and news about the publication’s latest events, workshops and collaborations. Of course, you can always find our latest headlines on our journal’s front page.
This newsletter is our favorite way to stay updated about not just the headlines but the feeling of the world around and within us - and we hope it will soon be yours too.
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About Us
Poets Reading the News was founded in Oakland, California in 2016 to provide the world with a dedicated, rigorous and pathbreaking platform for poetry about current events.
Our mission is to enact poetry’s vital cultural function as a processor for violence, cultural complexity, and political change in a society overwhelmed by the headlines. We’re out to prove what we know is true: in times of darkness, poetry is essential reading.
This work is urgent and extraordinary, tackling issues including the COVID-19 pandemic, politics, identity, gun violence, climate change, technology, and immigration in real time. We’ve published over 1,000 poems by hundreds of poet-journalists from over 25 countries, including the U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, as well as established and emergent writers.
We are home to a dynamic publishing house, event series and curriculum program. Read all about it right here and get in touch with us here.