It seems only a  few days ago that it was World Poetry Day – and now we’re into April and National Poetry Writing Month is already well under way. NaPoWriMo, as it’s known, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April. One enthusiastic participant is Write Out  Loud regular Andy N. He said: “I first got involved last year and thought it amazing to even attempt in writing such a burst after being taught at university to really take your time with every word. No two ways about it, it is a challenge and it caused me a few moments of mild panic … but the rewards if you are patient enough are great as I came away with drafts of a number of poems I have used elsewhere.”

A number of names familiar to those on Write Out Loud, such as Charlotte Henson, Katie Haigh, Rebecca Audra Smith, Anna Percy, and Melanie Rees have also signed up for it, says Andy. 

Meanwhile another Write Out Loud regular, Winston Plowes, pictured, is one of 85 poets from seven countries who have been chosen to create found poetry from the 85 Pulitzer prize-winning works of fiction as part of Pulitzer Remix, a National Poetry Month initiative. Each poet will post one poem per day on the project’s website  during April, resulting in the creation of more than 2,500 poems by the project’s conclusion.

In an interview with the organisers Winston said: "I asked the organisers if it were possible for them to choose the book for me, and thereby make it more of a found poetry experience. I had never heard of my Pulitzer prise-winning book, One of Ours, or of its author (Willa Cather). It was written in 1922, and actually I have not read the book still! This may sound odd but as a poet composing found poems I don't want them to follow the narrative of the book."

Winston added that most of his found poems would be composed by finding words and word strings from a single chapter and rearranging them, as well as randomly selecting words from the whole book. You can follow Winston’s found poems from Willa Cather’s One of Ours here

The project is sponsored by the Found Poetry Review, the only literary journal in print dedicated to publishing found poetry. Strictly speaking, the "National" in National Poetry Month refers to the US and Canada, a pedant adds.