World Poetry Day 2026; March 21st.

 

FORUM: "Write a Poem Today." World Poetry Day 2026.The UNESCO first adopted March 21st as World Poetry Day during its 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999. Practiced throughout history, poetry includes various forms of language, expressions and signification. It is often accompanied by music and performed during special occasions. The universal nature of this artistic expression is shown by the number of elements linked to poetry on the Lists of the 2003 Convention, from the most recently inscribed Pasillo, an Ecuadorian musicalized poem, to the Lebanese Al-Zajal, inscribed in 2014, and the Ukrainian Cossack’s songs of Dnipropetrovsk region inscribed in 2016 on the Urgent Safeguarding List. Being one of the five domains of the 2003 Convention, oral traditions and expressions encompass an enormous variety of spoken forms including proverbs, riddles, tales, nursery rhymes, legends, myths, epic songs and poems, charms, prayers, chants, songs, dramatic performances and more. Oral traditions and expressions are used to pass on knowledge, cultural and social values and collective memory. They play a crucial part in keeping cultures alive. Follow the conversation with the hashtags #WorldPoetryDay; #21March, #Poetryforlife.

EVENTS: On Saturday, March 21st, at UNESCO HQ; The 27th Edition of World Poetry Day will be held. Several activities, public lectures and books fairs will be organized in the Caribbean; Africa; Asia; Middle East; North America; Europe and Pacific regions. Join UNESCO in celebrating poetry across the globe and keep your poetic heritage alive!; During the the World Poetry Day 2026; Participants will be able to celebrate one of humanity’s most treasured forms of cultural and linguistic expressions. This celebration will be an opportunity for each and every one of us to move into the living heart of ourselves and of the world. Register to participate!

Several major poetry and book fairs are scheduled for 2026, featuring dedicated poetry sections, independent presses, and readings. Key events include the Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair in London (April 25), the AWP Conference & Bookfair in Baltimore (March 4–7), and the Get Lit! Festival in Washington (April 17–19).

Major 2026 Poetry and Book Fairs

• On April 25th, 2026 - Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair (London, UK): A dedicated fair for poetry books and magazines with exhibitors and a gala reading.
• From March 4–7, 2026 - The AWP Conference & Bookfair (Baltimore, MD): A massive gathering for writers, publishers, and literary magazines.
• Get Lit! Festival (Spokane, WA): April 17–19, 2026. Includes various readings, workshops, and a book fair.
• From March 20–22, 2026 - The Virginia Festival of the Book (Charlottesville, VA): Features poetry, fiction, and non-fiction.
• From June 6–7, 2026 - The LitLit: The Little Literary Fair (Los Angeles, CA): A fair highlighting small and independent presses.
• From January 16–19, 2026 - The Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway (Galloway, NJ): Focuses on writing workshops for poets and writers.
• From September 20–28, 2026 - The Brooklyn Book Festival (Brooklyn, NY) -  A major literary festival with various genres.
• On October 3, 2026 - The Collingswood Book Festival (Collingswood, NJ):Offers multiple, specialized "book nooks," including poetry.

STATEMENTS: Statement from the UNESCO Director-General, on the occasion of World Poetry Day 2026; March 21st.

Poetry reaffirms our common humanity by revealing to us that individuals, everywhere in the world, share the same questions and feelings. A final suggestion about bringing poetry into your lives: don't analyze it, don't ask others to analyze it. Don't deconstruct it or try to make meaning of it.

ACTIVITIES: POETRY PAUSE.

The UNESCO is celebrating the power to question certainties in order to remain open to others, to welcome the world in all its diversity – all essential foundations for building peaceful societies. That is why the Organization stands by poets, especially the younger generation, to enable them to take full advantage of this literary form, and to support the publication of their works.“PROMOTE POETRY”.

PUBLICATIONS : You are invited to read:

The "ART OF POETRY'' - A poet can use the same theme, but in different words and the meaning would not change. There is a need to have art in society today. From the Journal of English language and literature. Read the full publication!

Contemporary Notions of Poetic Imagination in Poetry - These modes of creative imagination as discussed in the previous section include: Prosaic imagination, Pictorial imagination, Fancy imagination, Fancy-realistic. From the University of Waikato, New Zealand, the Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities.

ARISTOTLE ON THE ART OF POETRY - Expression of the poet, ' sowing a god-created flame '. There is still another way in which this kind of meta- phor may be used. From the Cornell University Library, Read the full book!

World poetry Day 2024; March 21st.

FORUM: "Keep your poetic heritage alive!" World Poetry Day 2024.

The UNESCO first adopted March 21stt as World Poetry Day during its 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999. Practiced throughout history, poetry includes various forms of language, expressions and signification. It is often accompanied by music and performed during special occasions. The universal nature of this artistic expression is shown by the number of elements linked to poetry on the Lists of the 2003 Convention, from the most recently inscribed Pasillo, an Ecuadorian musicalized poem, to the Lebanese Al-Zajal, inscribed in 2014, and the Ukrainian Cossack’s songs of Dnipropetrovsk region inscribed in 2016 on the Urgent Safeguarding List. Being one of the five domains of the 2003 Convention, oral traditions and expressions encompass an enormous variety of spoken forms including proverbs, riddles, tales, nursery rhymes, legends, myths, epic songs and poems, charms, prayers, chants, songs, dramatic performances and more. Oral traditions and expressions are used to pass on knowledge, cultural and social values and collective memory. They play a crucial part in keeping cultures alive.

Statement from the UNESCO Director-General, on the occasion of World Poetry Day 2024; March 21st.

Poetry, whether in prose or verse, symbolist, engaged in society or objectivist, has a unique propensity to make us perceive the world around us differently.On this World Poetry Day, UNESCO is celebrating the power to question certainties in order to remain open to others, to welcome the world in all its diversity – all essential foundations for building peaceful societies. That is why our Organization stands by poets, especially the younger generation, to enable them to take full advantage of this literary form, and to support the publication of their works. For example, we facilitated the participation of 10 young Caribbean authors in the 40th Marché de la poésie, in Paris in June 2023. At this poetry festival they were able to showcase their work, discuss it and meet publishers to assist in the publication of their poems.As part of our efforts to safeguard living traditions, UNESCO has also included a number of poetic forms on the Representative List of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity: the Hudhud chants of the Philippines in 2008; the Mapoyo oral tradition of Venezuela(Bolivarian Republic of) in 2014; the Eshuva, Harákmbut sung prayers of Peru, in 2011; and the Koogere oral tradition of Uganda, in 2015.Poetry is a powerfully living art, but it has also, through the centuries and continents, been the key medium societies have used to write their history and preserve the memory of their culture, as well as to record ancestral knowledge. As the Ivorian poet Bernard Binlin Dadié so aptly said in his poem “Tu dors” (“You sleep”), from the collection Hommes de tous les continents (Men of all continents), the poet is “the old watcher/who stands guard over the ramparts”, and has “in his eyes, the dawns of ancient times/And in his head, the song of future times”. The poet is that in-between figure who stands at the crossroads of a bygone past and a future yet to be built.This is why UNESCO is helping to preserve some of the most emblematic poetic texts of their time. In 2023, the Codex Manesse, a collection of medieval German lyric poems, the collection of Turkmen manuscripts of Magtymguly Fragi, and the stone inscriptions of Tsogtu Khung-Taiji, Prince of Khalkha, which are among the finest examples of Mongolian poetry, joined our Memory of the World Register, which aims to safeguard documentary heritage and make it more accessible to the general public.World Poetry Day is thus an opportunity for each and every one of us to move into the living heart of ourselves and of the world, to paraphrase the great Martinican poet and politician Aimé Césaire, in a gesture of peace as internal as it is universal.

Mrs. Audrey Azoulay; UNESCO Director-General.

EVENTS: Join UNESCO in celebrating poetry across the globe and keep your poetic heritage alive!

On March 21st at UNESCO HQ and in the regional offices will observe the World Poetry Day 2024; Participant will celebrate one of humanity’s most treasured forms of cultural and linguistic expressions because Poetry continues to bring people together across continents and is found in a myriad of forms throughout the world. 

World Poetry Day 2023; March 21st.

FORUM “Poetry for Life.” World Poetry Day 2023.

World Poetry Day, which takes place each year on March 21, was first declared by UNESCO during its 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999, with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard. 

EVENTS AND POETRY READINGS

Granada City of Literature in Spain leads the Cities of Literature World Poetry Day activity each year, and in 2023 their chosen theme is “Poetry for Life.” Granada’s celebrations commence with an opening ceremony at the City Hall central court, with the attendance of the City Mayor and other authorities from the cultural sphere where three poets will perform a poetry reading. This will be followed by 90 poets reading f in the gardens of the University of Granada Law School, 18 city bookstores and the long-running Poetry Slam Granada, in which 10 poets will compete to be judged the winner by public vote.

In all, a dozen of the 42 Cities of Literature are marking World Poetry Day with programs;

Dunedin, New Zealand: Dunedin has filmed performance poet David Eggleton, New Zealand Poet Laureate 2019-22, reading his iconic poem “What the future holds,” for sharing with our friends around the city, across the country and in other UNESCO Cities of Literature.

Durban, South Africa: Durban will celebrate with a short educational cartoon audio book compiled and written by Qap’s Mngadi and Artmatem Projects and Tradings Pty LTD that is based on true life issues that reflect peer pressure and teaches youth about the dangers of drugs.

Heidelberg, Germany: Heidelberg celebrates with a variety of events, embracing readings, poetry exhibitions and lectures organized by stakeholders such as the Heidelberg Forum for Arts, private initiatives and by writers from the city and the region.

Melbourne, Australia: Celebration includes an online video series with five poets from the cities of Heidelberg and Melbourne, to celebrate the culmination of a unique online writers room, Expedition Poetry.

Milan, Italy: Milan will hold several events between March 14-25 that feature poetry performances with poets and citizens, at Fondazione Mudima and at Triennale Milano.

Nanjing, China: Nanjing Literature Hall will receive a group of student visitors from special education institutes, Nanjing School for the Blind and Nanjing School for the Deaf for a shared poetry reading.

Nottingham, England: Nottingham Playhouse, Writing East Midlands and Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature join efforts for the project “Speak Easy for World Poetry Day,” a spoken world open mic night for young writers.

Seattle: Seattle City of Literature will celebrate by hosting bilingual readings in
Spanish and English according to the theme “Poetry for life.”

Tartu, Estonia: Tartu will celebrate with a diverse program that involves different venues, age groups and audiences. The celebrations begin with poetry performances by children and youth at Tartu Literature House, including members of Tartu Poetry Theatre carrying out poetry happenings in cafés and restaurants.

Wonju, South Korea: Wonju will celebrate with written poems and promotion on the Wonju city-run Facebook. The participants will be citizens from Wonju. Each participating citizen will contribute a poem of their own creation which will be illustrated by Wonju City of Literature posted between March 17-21.

¡Dale vida a la poesía con Poetry Out Loud!

World Poetry Day 2016, March 21

Всемирный день поэзии , 21 марта.

世界诗歌日, 3月21日.

World Poetry Day, 21 March.

 Día Mundial de la Poesía, 21 de marzo.

Journée mondiale de la poésie, 21 mars.

اليوم العالمي للشعر ,21 مارس.

 

 

 

 

UNESCO Director-General's Message for the World Poetry Day 2016.

Shakespeare, who died 400 years ago, wrote in A Midsummer Night's Dream that: “The poet’s eye, in fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from heaven to Earth, from Earth to heaven. And as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name”.

By paying tribute to the men and women whose only instrument is free speech, who imagine and act, UNESCO recognizes in poetry its value as a symbol of the human spirit’s creativity. By giving form and words to that which has none – such as the unfathomable beauty that surrounds us, the immense suffering and misery of the world – poetry contributes to the expansion of our common humanity, helping to increase its strength, solidarity and self-awareness.

The voices that carry poetry help to promote linguistic diversity and freedom of expression. They participate in the global effort towards artistic education and the dissemination of culture. The first word of a poem sometimes suffices to regain confidence in the face of adversity, to find the path of hope in the face of barbarity. In the age of automation and the immediacy of modern life, poetry also opens a space for the freedom and adventure inherent in human dignity. From Korean Arirang to Mexican Pirekua, the Hudhud chants of the Ifugao people, Saudi Arabian Alardah, Turkmen Koroghlu and Kyrgyz Aitysh, each culture has its poetic art that it uses to transmit knowledge, socio-cultural values and collective memory, which strengthen mutual respect, social cohesion and the search for peace.

Today, I applaud the practitioners, actors, storytellers and all those anonymous voices committed to and through poetry, giving readings in the shadows or in the spotlights, in gardens or streets. I call upon all Member States to support this poetic effort, which has the power to bring us together, regardless of origins or beliefs, by that which is at the very core of humanity.

 

FORUM : 21 march is World Poetry Day

 

One of the main objectives of the Day is to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their communities.

The observance of World Poetry Day is also meant to encourage a return to the oral tradition of poetry recitals, to promote the teaching of poetry, to restore a dialogue between poetry and the other arts such as theatre, dance, music and painting, and to support small publishers and create an attractive image of poetry in the media, so that the art of poetry will no longer be considered an outdated form of art, but one which enables society as a whole to regain and assert its identity.

Pay with a poem: coffee for poetry deal spreads around the globe.

Poetry will become the new currency in coffee outlets around the world for a day as World Poetry Day campaign spreads to 34 countries

• Find out about the participating cafes in your area here
• Share a snap of your handwritten poem with us

Resources :

• Documentary heritage inscribed to the Memory of the World Register related to poetry
• Articles on the world of poetry spanning 60 years
• Recommendations on teaching poetry in secondary schools
• UNESCO's Proclamation of 21 March as World Poetry Day