NYT’s five‑day poetry run

The New York Times Book Review is starting a five-day poetry challenge on April 20, with daily installments delivered through April 24. (nytimes.com) The sign-up page says the 2026 challenge will center on one poem and unfold through games, videos and writing prompts. It calls the series the Book Review’s “second poetry challenge,” after a similar run last year. (nytimes.com) Readers have to sign up through the Book Review newsletter to get each installment as it is published. The page says subscribers will keep receiving the newsletter after April 24, along with notices for the paper’s weekly book recommendation column. (nytimes.com) The challenge lands in the final stretch of National Poetry Month, which is observed each April in the United States. The Academy of American Poets has run the monthlong program since 1996 with readings, lessons and poem-sharing campaigns. (poets.org) The Times is packaging the project as an activity series, not just a set of reviews. That fits with a broader Book Review push into participatory features, including recurring quizzes such as Lit Trivia and Literary Quotable Quotes. (nytimes.com 1) (nytimes.com 2) (nytimes.com 3) The Book Review itself is one of The Times’s oldest sections. The newspaper began publishing a book review supplement in 1896 and moved it to Sundays in 1911. (britannica.com) (wikipedia.org) What the Times has not yet published on the sign-up page is the poem’s title or the names of any contributors attached to the challenge. For now, the pitch is the format: five days, one poem, and a newsletter slot reserved for readers who sign up before April 20. (nytimes.com)