Digital Learning Commons: Poetry: Poets

Naomi Shihab Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye is the Poetry Foundation’s Young People’s Poet Laureate, serving from 2019 to 2021. Awarded by the Poetry Foundation for a two-year term, the Young People’s Poet Laureate aims to raise awareness that young people have a natural receptivity to poetry and are its most appreciative audience, especially when poems are written specifically for them.

Created in partnership with Motionpoems, this film adaptation of Naomi Shihab Nye’s “Famous” meditates on the human desire to be seen and the individualized ways in which we define recognition.

Contemporary Poets

Jack Prelutsky
Jack Prelutsky is an American writer of children's poetry who has published over 50 poetry collections. He served as the first U.S. Children's Poet Laureate from 2006-08 when the Poetry Foundation established the award.
Joyce Sidman
Joyce Sidman is an award-winning author and poet known for her inventive nature poetry for children.
Margarita Engle
Margarita Engle is a Cuban American poet and author of many award-winning books for children, young adults and adults. Most of Engle's stories are written in verse and are a reflection of her Cuban heritage and her deep appreciation and knowledge of nature.
Marilyn Nelson
Marilyn Nelson is an American poet, translator, and children's book author. She currently serves as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and was Poet Laureate of Connecticut, 2001– 2006.
Nikki Grimes
New York Times bestselling author Nikki Grimes is the recipient of the 2017 Children's Literature Legacy Award, the 2016 Virginia Hamilton Literary Award, and the 2006 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children.

Famous Poets

Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre.
Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson was an American lyric poet who lived in seclusion and commanded a singular brilliance of style and integrity of vision.
Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. He moved to New York City as a young man, where he made his career.
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou was an American poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years.
Shel Silverstein
Sheldon Allan "Shel" Silverstein was an American writer known for his cartoons, songs, and children's books.
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.