Today's Featured Books— Events

Free online: Poetry for National Creativity Day. Join some of the most creative voices in contemporary poetry for a burst of imagination and invention! Featuring: Julie Stevens, Mark Antony Owen, Sarah Reeson, Beth Brooke, Maggie Mackay, Nina Parmenter, Sarah Doyle, Martin Kennedy Yates, and Corinna Board. Saturday, May 31, 1:00 - 2:30 PM CDT. 

"The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it." ~Dylan Thomas

Free online: Join the Academy of American Poets for the 2025 Blaney Lecture on "Poetry and Spirituality" delivered by acclaimed poet Kaveh Akbar, author Pilgrim Bell (Graywolf Press, 2021) and Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James, 2017). He is also the editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine. His first novel, Martyr! (Knopf, 2024), was a New York Times Bestseller. Thursday, May 29, 6-7 PM CDT. 

“Bewilderment is at the core of every great poem.” ~Kaveh Akbar

Free online: What's New in Historical Fiction. This special event features four powerful authors whose novels uncover hidden histories, challenge the status quo, and illuminate the human experience across time and place. Join for conversation with Alina Adams (author of Go On Pretending), Kyra Davis Lurie (The Great Mann), C.W. Towarnicki (Notes from a Deserter), and Marie Bostwick (The Book Club for Troublesome Women). 

"Events are as much the parents of the future as they were the children of the past." ~John Galsworthy

Free online: Scribente Maternum (Write Like a Mother), a reading that celebrates the works of writer-moms who have new or forthcoming works. Thursday, May 22, 1:00 - 2:30 PM EDT. 

“A mother is the one who fills your heart in the first place.” ~Amy Tan, Saving Fish from Drowning

Giveaway: Teen & YA Books. Hosted by CraveBooks, there are 19 books to be won in this Teen & Young Adult Giveaway. First prize is ALL of the books, in either print or ebook format. Second and third prize winners get an e-book. Deadline for entry is June 2, 2025. 

"Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs." ~Charlotte Bronte

Free online: Artful Dodgers Poetry Saturday. Join online or in person for a poetry open mic at the new Brooklyn Heights Public Library. Saturday, May 17, 1 PM CDT. 

"The most important thing in life is to stop saying 'I wish' and start saying 'I will.'" ~Charles Dickens

Free online: Strong Women, Strange Worlds. Join for a tasting menu of science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories from six authors who will each have 8 minutes to tempt and tantalizing you with their reading. Thursday, May 15, 6 PM CDT. 

“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” ~Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Free online: Pen Parentis Salon, an open discussion about writing while parenting and the creative practice of our featured authors Susanna Sonnenberg, Sonja Curry-Johnson, Miranda Schmidt, and Annie Wenstrup. Tuesday, May 13, 6 PM CDT.

“Don’t worry that children never listen to you: worry that they are always watching you.” ~Robert Fulghum

Free online: Virtual Mother's Day Celebrations. Sunday is Mother's Day, and this list suggests 12 ways to celebrate Mother's Day across the miles. 

"Behind all your stories is your mother's story, for hers is where yours begins." ~Mitch Albom

Free online: Mapping the Unmappable. Poets Michelle Latavala and Maya Stein will read their work, using the theme of the reading (mapping the unmappable) as a loose guide for which poems they'll choose to share. Interspersed with the readings will be an informal conversation and Q&A with participants. Wednesday, May 7, 6:00 - 7:30 PM CDT. 

“Literature is not only a mirror; it is a map, a geography of the mind.” ~Margaret Atwood

Free online: Writers LIVE! Presented by the Enoch Pratt Free Library, join for a reading and conversation with poets Jalen Eutsey and Dora Malech. Saturday, May 3, 3:00 - 4:30 PM EDT. 

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”  ~A.A. Milne

Free online: Bellevue Literary Review Spring Reading. Join to celebrate the publication of BLR's latest issue and meet the winners of the 2025 BLR Literary Prizes. Pia Jee-Hae Baur, Fiona Ennis, and Sandra Dolores Gómez Amador will read from their winning work and be interviewed by BLR editors. Wednesday, April 30, 7:00 - 8:00 PM EDT. 

“Don’t wait for inspiration. It comes while working.” ~Henri Matisse

Free online: Writers' Room of Boston - Readings from the Room. Join us for an evening of readings and discussion, hosted by Spencer Storey Johnson and featuring the work of Anu Kandikuppa and Jake Hargrove. Tuesday, April 29, 7 PM EDT. 

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke

Free online - Unwritten: A Life Writing Workshop, a guided journey to uncover and reflect on the stories that shape your life. Sunday, April 27, 12:00 - 1:30 PM CDT. 

"Experience is the teacher of all things." ~Julius Caesar

Free online: Poetry and the Creative Mind. Presented by the Academy of American Poets, this celebratory broadcast features actors, artists, and leaders from across the arts and honors poetry's important place in our society and its impact on the lives of readers. Thursday, April 24, 7:30 PM ET. 

"I was reading the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything." ~Steven Wright

Free online: Literary Editions from the University of Alberta Press, an online listening party featuring readings from UAlberta Press’ newest poetry collections: This Sweet Rupture by Omar Ramadan, When Whales Went Back to the Water by Lisa Baird, and Python Love by Shannon Arntfield. Wednesday, April 23, 6:00 - 7:30 PM CDT. 

"Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash." ~Leonard Cohen

Free online: Earth Day Film Festival, an online documentary film festival that invites you to explore both the wonders and the challenges facing our natural world. Presented by Earth Day Orcas and the San Juan Islands Makers Guild, in collaboration with the Friday Harbor Film Festival. April 19 - 28. 

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” ~Rachel Carson

Free online: WEHO Reads. Presented by the West Hollywood Arts Council in honor of National Poetry Month, join for readings and conversations with Richard Blanco, the fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet and a National Humanities Medal recipient, and Kim Dower, former City Poet Laureate of West Hollywood. Wednesday, April 6, 6:30 PM PDT. 

"Poetry is the deification of reality." ~Edith Sitwell

Free online: Black Mountain Institute Reading & Conversation with Cherry Lou Sy, author of Love Can’t Feed You. Wednesday, April 16, 3 PM EDT, 12 PM PDT. 

“There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time.” ~Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

Free online: GetLit! Festival. The GetLit! Festival is Washington State’s longest-running annual literary festival, featuring a diverse lineup of highly sought-after authors and local literary talent. The Festival concludes this Sunday with a full day of online events! Sunday, April 13, 9 AM to 6:30 PM PDT. 

"She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live." ~Annie Dillard

Free online: Academy of American Poets Event featuring Distinguished Poet in Residence Ilya Kaminsky, a finalist for the National Book Award and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Thursday, April 10, 5:30 - 6:30 PM EDT.

“All that is musical in us is memory.” ~Ilya Kaminsky

Free online: Authors Discuss Addictions/Compulsions. Pen Parentis Literary Salons feature short readings by writes who are also parents, followed by moderated, audience-driven chat surrounded a curated theme. Tuesday, April 8, 6-7 PM CDT. 

"It is never too late to be what you might have been.” ~T.S. Eliot

April is National Poetry Month, and the Poetry Near You page of Poets.org has a great calendar of poetry readings, workshops, festivals, conferences, and more. Search by zip code to find an in-person event near you or select an online event that you can join from the comfort of your own home.

"There is no money in poetry, but then there is no poetry in money, either." ~Robert Graves

Free online: Seabird Hallelujah: A Conversation in Poetry. Poets Julia Fehrenbacher and Maya Stein meet to read their work. Interspersed with the readings will be an informal conversation in response to the poems. Thursday, April 3, 7:00 - 8:30 PM EDT. 

"Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn." ~Thomas Gray

Free online: Get the Word Out Fiction Reading. Join Poets & Writers for a celebratory reading by the current fiction cohort of Get the Word Out, a publicity incubator for early-career authors. Wednesday, April 2, 6 PM CDT. 

“I write to discover what I know.” ~Flannery O’Connor