Academy of American Poets

The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets. The Academy was founded by twenty-three year-old Marie Bullock in 1934 in New York City and it was officially incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1936. Marie Bullock served as the president of the Academy of American Poets for the organization’s first fifty years. During the first thirty years, Mrs. Bullock operated the organization out of her apartment, centering on a core program of awards to poets. In 1963, Elizabeth Kray was hired as the organization’s first executive director. Today, the Academy of American Poets is supported by the financial contributions of more than 8,000 individuals members nationwide, and funding from private foundations, corporations, and government sources such as the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.