poetry

For Ward, who won the fiction prize for Sing, Unburied, Sing, it was her second National Book Award. For Bidart, whose poetry collection spanned 51 years, it was akin to a lifetime achievement honor.

The National Book Foundation winnowed the list of contenders for its literary prize to just 20 — or five finalists each in four categories. Among them are Jesmyn Ward, Min Jin Lee and Frank Bidart.

Dorothea Lasky and Alex Dimitrov of Astro Poets want to bring astrology up to speed with shifting views of gender, sexuality and pop culture.

Years of treating grievously injured people starts to wear on a person, a trauma nurse in Minneapolis says. She explores "compassion fatigue" in a semi-autobiographical poem.

After an incorrect dose of a chemotherapy drug for Crohn's disease caused Anne Webster's bone marrow to shut down, she decided that, if she survived, she'd write about her experience.

An anesthesiologist and poet says her medical work is well-suited to poetry, as patients move in and out of consciousness under the doctor's watch.

Juan Felipe Herrera is the 21st Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. NPR met with Herrera on World Poetry Day, March 21, 2017, to talk about the role of poetry in society.

It embodies the belief that anyone can take the stage and interpret one of the most accessible art forms and "reveal poetry as a living art."

Dr. Hussam Jefee-Bahloul writes poems to capture his longing for his troubled homeland.