ZU Arts InitiativeZU Arts InitiativeThe Patio Poets selects twelve poets each year, gives them an audience, pays them fairly, and puts their work on walls across the country. Applications are open now. Deadline April 30, 2026.
Poet applications close April 30, 2026 | Subscriptions open once poets are selected Get Notified →
One poet. One month. One poem printed as a broadside and mailed to subscribers anywhere in the United States.
Submit one original poem and a brief bio. Every application is read. A pool of finalists is curated and shared privately with ZAI members, who select the final twelve. The work is what gets you in. Applications close April 30, 2026.
The twelve selected poets gather inside ZU Gallery before the year begins. You meet each other, read each other's work, and help one another choose the right poem for the right month. No agenda beyond that.
Your poem is printed as a beautifully designed 8.5x11 broadside and mailed to subscribers anywhere in the United States. It gets framed. It lives on walls. People come back to it.
During your featured month, you read at ZU Gallery or wherever the program naturally takes root. Free and open to anyone who wants to be there.
Every featured poet is paid. A flat fee plus an equal share of the annual royalty pool, split twelve ways at year end regardless of which month you were featured.
Every featured poet receives a guaranteed flat fee upon submission of their chosen poem, paid regardless of subscriber count.
Your share of the annual royalty pool at our starting goal. The pool is split equally twelve ways.
The pool grows as the program grows. We say the numbers publicly because you deserve to know.
A full year subscription at no cost. Your frame ships first, then twelve broadsides mailed monthly. Your work arriving in your own mailbox alongside eleven other poets.
Every poet receives a professional portrait session on cohort meeting day. Cohesive, beautiful, and yours to keep for your own use.
A poem arrives at your door every month. Not a newsletter. Not a digital file. A broadside — a single poem printed beautifully on its own sheet, one of the oldest ways poetry has ever been shared.
We are currently accepting poet applications. Once the inaugural cohort is selected in spring 2026, subscriptions will open. Be the first to know when they do.
When you join, your front-opening frame and first broadside arrive together. Every month after that a new poem arrives. Swap it in, display your favorites alongside it, or build a collection. At the end of the year you will have twelve original works from twelve regional poets, framed and lived with.
You are also invited to each monthly reading at ZU Gallery, free and open to anyone who wants to be there.
Frame and first broadside ship together with your first payment. Cancel anytime.
Save $30 compared to monthly. Frame and first broadside ship together. Helps us plan the full year.
Back issues available at $20 each. Available to anyone.
Subscriptions open once the inaugural cohort of poets is selected. Drop your email below and we will let you know the moment they are available.
Leave your email and we will reach out when subscriptions open.
Or email us directly at grow@cortezarts.org
Support the poets and the program. Every dollar goes directly toward fair artist compensation.
Pay a full year subscription on behalf of a school, library, senior center, or community member. Your name appears in ZAI communications as a program supporter.
Sponsor a SubscriberSponsor a featured month. Your name appears as a small acknowledgment on that month's broadside. Twelve available per year.
Sponsor a PoetIncludes the full subscription plus named acknowledgment on every broadside printed that year. Limited to twelve. A seat at the table from the very beginning.
Become a Founding PatronA full year subscription for someone else, shipped with a card explaining what is coming. An extraordinary gift for anyone who believes poetry belongs in a home.
Gift a SubscriptionApplications close April 30, 2026. Up to twelve poets will be selected for the inaugural year. The Patio Poets is a Montezuma County program open to poets from across the Four Corners region, with local voices prioritized.