Bards Against Hunger

Bards Against Hunger was founded in 2013 by the Bards Initiative, a poetry group on Long Island, NY that hosts many readings and publishes local anthologies. The leaders of this group came up with the idea to host a poetry reading that would gather food for the hungry around Thanksgiving time as a way for poets to give back to their local community. The poets of Long Island loved the idea and flocked to help organize, read at the event, and gather food. The event was such a success that the group decided to make it an annual event--and keep the tradition strong and growing each year. Then, the sister-group NoVA Bards in Northern Virginia decided to do the same thing in solidarity and raise food for the local pantries in their area. Then, poetry groups in other states started to join in the cause one after another and there were events in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kansas, Texas, California, Maryland and Delaware, North and South Carolina, Florida and more. To date there have been almost 100 Bards Against Hunger readings across the country. And we aim to continue the tradition for many years to come. This 10 year anthology is a celebration of a lot of the poetry that has been shared in the spirit of giving, and is comprised of 200 poets from around the world. The proceeds from the sale of this anthology will go to helping Bards Against Hunger grow, and host more events to raise more food for local pantries and food banks.