From cookbooks to billboards, poets laureate hope to spread the words with help of $50,000 grants

NEW YORK (AP) — Twenty-two poets around the country each will be receiving $50,000 grants for projects ranging from a poetry cookbook in Kansas to a billboard campaign in Michigan celebrating contemporary verse. On Tuesday, the Academy of American Poets announced its latest round of gifts through the Poet Laureate Fellowship Program. Among this years Fellows are Michigan laureate Nandi Comer, whose billboard project includes excerpts from Michigan poets and a QR code directing readers to the Library of Michigan’s website, and Kansas laureate Traci Brimhall, who hopes to bring chefs and poets together for a state community cookbook.