The Sealey Challenge: How to Prepare for 31 Days of Poetry
In the summer of 2017, poet-educator Nicole Sealey (author of The Ferguson Report: An Erasure, Ordinary Beasts, and The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are Named) was burnt out from juggling her responsibilities as the executive director of Cave Canem and promoting her debut poetry book. In an article for Lit Hub, she wrote, “I could literally count on one hand the number of poetry collections I’d read in full from January-July of last year.” August 2017, she decided, would be different. She posted on social media that she intended to read 31 books in 31 days, and she invited her community to join in.
Now in just two weeks, the Sealey Challenge is turning eight!—and, as of July 2024, #thesealeychallenge has 16.6k tags on Instagram alone.
“The Sealey Challenge, at heart, is a big, raucous, joyful celebration of poetry. It’s an invitation to immerse yourself in words. It’s a way to connect with other poetry readers. It’s an opportunity to make space for poetry in your life—whether that’s by reading one book of poetry a day, or one poem a day.”
If the prospect of reading 31 books over 31 days sounds both exhilarating and daunting to you, you are in excellent company. I first learned about the Sealey Challenge in July 2021. Both that year and the next, I piled up my books in a gloriously messy stack. I visited some indie bookstores (and many more libraries), got to Day 3 or 4 of the challenge, followed the hashtag #thesealeychallenge, liked some posts online, and really relished in the online community. And then Week 2 would hit. Life kept happening. When I inevitably missed 3 or 4 days in a row, I’d feel frustrated and guilty—even though, if I had been honest with myself, from the start I already knew that reading 31 books over 31 days was not sustainable (for me).
(Ironically, over these past few years I have been teaching slow reading to my writing students as a life-long reading practice. I also spend a lot of time coaching writers on how to make realistic, self-compassionate goals for themselves. Sometimes it’s hard to take your own advice, ok?)
Before last August, my third go at the Sealey Challenge, I finally slowed down long enough to ask myself some questions: What draws me to the Sealey Challenge? What do I want to get out of this month? Why do I feel like I need to follow its parameters to a T—and how can I adapt those parameters to meet my needs?
Instead of reading 31 poetry books over 31 days, I committed to reading one poem from 31 poetry collections over 31 days with the hope (but not expectation) of returning to these collections in full over the following 11 months. Some days, despite my stated commitment, I ended up reading entire books, which delighted me; other days, I read a single poem, which was its own kind of victory. And, some days, I read nothing, which I (re)learned to accept as profoundly human.
Now that I’m approaching my fourth year of participating in the Sealey Challenge, I’m calling out to the readers of this newsletter—will you be reading poetry this August too? Here are some questions I am asking myself to ensure that I am cultivating a sustainable reading practice to complement my writing practice.
Why are you doing the Sealey Challenge? What do you want to get out of this experience?
Over the past few years, the Sealey Challenge has become part of my summer rhythm. A recurring question I ask myself at the beginning of a season is what does this season lend itself to? For me, summers are a time when I recommit to exploring outdoor spaces (including ice cream stands), cooking fresh fruits and vegetables, writing drafts in the morning, and—more recently—participating in the Sealey Challenge.
It’s grounding to know that in August, regardless of how inconsistent my reading may have been in June and July, I will spend a month in community reattuning to my reading practice and honoring the importance other writers and artists hold in my life.
Two weeks before August 1, and #thesealeychallenge2024 already has a few fledging posts on Instagram. You can follow the official account of the Sealey Challenge on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. If you’d like some inspiration from me too, you also can follow my Instagram where I will be posting a poem each day of August on my story.
Who and what do you want to read?
For the past few years, I’ve constructed a tower of books on my desk ahead of August 1 for the Sealey Challenge. (Last year’s pictured!) This year, though, I’ve decided to commit to The Mirror of My Heart: A Thousand Years of Persian Poetry by Women, translated by Dick Davis. My friend Ayesha gifted this anthology to me and, despite my best intentions (and several false starts), it has been on my nightstand for literal years.
No time like the Sealey Challenge for some gentle accountability.
I plan to read 1 poet’s contribution per day, so by the end of the month I’ll be just about one third through the collection. My hope is that by that point my initial resistance to starting the task will have shifted, and I will have enough inertia to keep going! My other hope is to use this anthology as a launchpad to read more Iranian women writers in the coming months – I am going to dogear the poems I especially love.
Ready to make your list, but need some inspiration? Check out the #thesealeychallenge on Instagram to see what has been on other readers’ lists in previous years. And check out my Bookshop booklist for the Sealey Challenge in 2023 and the aspirational booklist I made for 2024 (before deciding to read The Mirror of my Heart instead, whoops). If you decide to purchase anything on that “shopping trip,” woohoo! I hope you’ll feel fabulous supporting an independent artist (me!) as Bookshop will give me a portion of the proceeds.
How are you going to make this work, logistically?
If you’re going by the book (pun intended), the Sealey Challenge is one book per day for 31 days. Like NaNoWriMo, this requires some planning. After you look through other people’s book lists for inspiration, consider visiting your local library and indie bookstore(s). Make sure that you include shorter poetry collections and chapbooks in your pile for days that are less flexible. Also consider journaling about when in the day you anticipate reading and where you anticipate reading. I love “habit-stacking” listening to audiobooks while I do my dishes in the morning, for example.
What are some obstacles you anticipate facing throughout the month, and what are some adaptations you might need to make to support your needs?
In other words, what can you decide beforehand that will set you up for success? Life happens, but there are already circumstances in August that I already know will impact my experience. For example, I know that I will get my period during the month and, because my periods are sometimes debilitating, there may be a few days when resting takes priority over reading. I also know that I will undergo a medical procedure toward the end of the month that will temporarily impact my ability to read. Instead of trying to push through or guilting myself into “making up” these days later, I’m going to go into the month with the adapted goal of participating 25/31 days.
If you already know that reading 31 full books in 31 days is not sustainable for you, consider these adaptations as well:
Read 1 poem from a different book each day.
Sample an anthology, collecteds, or literary journal each day.
Read for 15 minutes a day. (This is a time-based challenge.)
Subscribe to Poem-a-Day from the Academy of American Poets!
Check out which poetry books Libby offers as an audiobook.
Mix and match!
How can you check in with yourself throughout the month to make sure you are honoring a commitment to a sustainable reading practice?
This might mean rather than committing to reading a book a day for 31 days, you commit to reading 1 book on Day 1 and then, based on this experience, adapt your commitment for Days 2-7. This also might mean you check in with yourself daily, weekly, or biweekly. Or you might want to plan intentional check-ins with another reader participating in the Sealey Challenge too.
At the end of the month, these are the reflection questions I will respond to in my journal:
What about this experience felt good? What felt bad?
What do you want to do differently next year?
What do you want to bring from the Sealey Challenge into the next 11 months?
Inspired? After you hit the library, take a pic of your Sealey Challenge bookhaul and share it with me by replying to this newsletter!
Happy reading!
