By Brian Dunlap

Last week the American Academy of Poets announced its 2021 Poet Laureate Fellows, including West Hollywood Poet Laureate, Brian Sonia-Wallace. Sonia-Wallace, along with 22 other individual awardees “serve as Poets Laureate of states and cities across the U. S. and will be leading public poetry programs in their respective communities in the year ahead,” the Academy said in a press release. The Fellows will each receive $50,000 (or $25,000 each in the case of the shared Poet Laureate position in Montana) for a combined total of $1.1 million. In addition, the Academy will provide $100,000+ total to 14 local 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations that have agreed to support the Fellows’ proposed projects.