The Sealey Challenge 2023
Read poetry daily in August
The Sealey Challenge was initiated by American poet nicole sealey in 2017 as a personal challenge to read more poetry. After she announced her intention to read a book of poetry daily every day in August on social media, the challenge was taken up by many others and inspired the hashtag #TheSealeyChallenge.
I buy a lot of poetry every year. I seldom read more than a little bit here and there, unless it is directly related to something I am working on: my own poetry, essays etc. Last year I did the Sealey Challenge for the first time. Perhaps I didn’t read all the books and chapbooks as carefully as I might have if I wasn’t trying to get through each of them in a day, but on the other hand, at least I read them and they didn’t sit on my shelves unread. Also, the habit of reading and prioritizing poetry daily was wonderful and fun and insightful. Summer is a good time to do such a challenge because it tends to be less active and hectic than the rest of the year.
I also love the grassroots and community aspect of this challenge. I love that the challenge also encourages reading work by marginalized voices. I also like that there are usually lists of free sources for books, chapbooks and ebooks. The idea is to share what you’ve read using the hashtag on social media. Here are the social media links for the Sealey Challenge so far:
https://www.instagram.com/thesealeychallenge/
https://twitter.com/SealeyChallenge
https://www.facebook.com/TheSealeyChallenge/
I’m going to write little write ups for books and chapbooks I read on GoodReads.com (here’s my profile there: https://www.goodreads.com/amandaearl
if the books are listed there. I will include small excerpts from the write ups on my IG: https://www.instagram.com/earlamanda/ and possibly on Twitter @KikiFolle, and BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/amandaearl.bsky.social and Mastodon: @AmandaEarl@zirk.us
I think it’s a good practice for poets and those new to poetry alike. If you’d like to take part, visit https://www.thesealeychallenge.com/