April 18, 2026

by Colin Dwyer, NPR books contributor

Hey newsletter readers! Last week, we touched on the controversy brewing over state-required reading lists. This week, we’re bringing you something a little lighter. As always, the inbox is bookoftheday@npr.org. And if you want to hear the latest author interviews from across NPR, subscribe to NPR’s Book of the Day podcast. Here’s this week’s letter!

In praise of poems

We interrupt your regularly scheduled dose of existential dread – aka “the news” – to bring you this humble reminder that, every now and then, something good can last: National Poetry Month in the U.S. turned 30 years old this April. In other words, if this annual celebration of the literary art and its practitioners were a person, it’d be old enough to run for Senate.

The event’s longevity certainly vindicates the Academy of American Poets, which inaugurated it with a 1996 ceremony featuring former and future U.S. poet laureates and Pulitzer winners. But the whole exercise would have withered quickly if it only celebrated the kinds of poets you could find on bookshelves. That National Poetry Month is still around today is a testament, rather, to the folks who have made the month their own: readers, students, and amateurs bold enough to dare writing some poetry themselves. In other words, people like you, dear newsletter reader.

Send us a poem in honor of National Poetry Month! Annette Elizabeth Allen/NPR

I’m not normally this sappy, I swear. I suppose this time of year just has me feeling nostalgic: Back when I was an NPR full-timer, I’d often get to help out with the annual #NPRPoetry callout. It meant reading a lot of poems written and submitted by listeners – a time-consuming addition to my usual workload, sure, but also invariably the highlight of my day. Each poem – no matter how clever or trite – offered a dazzling little glimpse of the writer behind it and their ways of seeing and expressing the world, in good times and bad, from just about every conceivable corner of the world.

So why not another round for old times’ sake? If you’re game, why not write up a poem of your own – any length, form, or shape – and send it along to bookoftheday@npr.org. Or just tell us something about the role poetry has played in your own life. And while you’re at it, feel free to dip into NPR’s past coverage of National Poetry Month for a trove of good stuff: conversations with poets, tips for becoming more comfortable reading and writing poetry, and more.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with the questions posed to us last year by recent Poet Laureate Ada Limón: “What if poetry can bring you back to wonder, to kindness, to care, to sensitivity, to tenderness? And even in that small moment, isn't that a radical act? Isn't that saving yourself so that you can become stronger? So that you can become braver?”

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TBR Pile

One of my favorite literary awards announced its winners earlier this week. For more than four decades, the Whiting Award has aimed to boost promising writers near the start of their careers, plenty of whom later became stars of the literary firmament. The list of past winners boasts big names Colson Whitehead, David Foster Wallace and Lily King, among many, many others. Check out this year’s crop for 10 names to keep an eye on.

Forgotten Souls tells the stories of the Tuskegee Airmen who went missing during WWII. Archive Photos/Getty Images

Up First centered last week’s big Sunday Story on a recent book from one of NPR’s own, investigative correspondent Cheryl W. Thompson. In Forgotten Souls, Thompson delved deeply into the stories of more than two dozen Tuskegee Airmen who went missing in action during World War II: “They had people who loved them, who cared about them, who never, ever forgot them,” Thompson told Ayesha Rascoe. “And now they have no closure.”

Mailbag!

Last week, we discussed Texas' consideration of a state-mandated reading list for its public schools. Here are some of your thoughts on required reading:

Paul H. wrote: “It’s not a bad idea to mandate titles that have a universal importance or significance. The problem for me is when a particular viewpoint or set of beliefs dominate. I worked at a school where every major religion was represented. I would not have approved reading the Bible as a mandate, for example. A mandated list should be carefully curated to resonate universally.”

Elizabeth A. wrote: “It seems ironic that the state that pushes for parental rights is telling teachers they have no choice in the books they teach. When I teach a novel, I want to bring my students to the table with me. I want to open the door to a world they haven’t discovered. My passion for the book draws them in. I want my kids to love reading. That passion is fostered by texts that are varied and meaningful ... This list leaves out important voices in American literature. It looks like the list from 30 years ago when I was in high school: Dominated by white men. That world is represented in our lives already.”

Rosemary K. wrote: “I am British, went to school in London but have lived in northern Scotland for many years. All three of my own children were born up here and went to Scottish schools ... In our education system, we do have ‘set books’ which pupils have to read to be able to pass English Lit exams. I hated every set book (apart from LP Hartley’s The Go-Between) as did my children. I believe that forcing people to read certain books is guaranteed to put them off those books — and often off reading in general — for years, and sometimes for life."

That’s all for now. See you next week!

P.S., if a friend sent you this newsletter and you want to sign up, the place to do it is npr.org/newsletter/books. :)

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