NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The Academy of American Poets announced last week the 23 recipients of its Poets Laureate Fellowships, who will use the $50,000 grants for civic projects throughout the United States, even as the coronavirus pandemic limits the in-person, community-based initiatives they typically develop.

The program, in its second year, was expanded from 13 poets in 2019 and funded through 2022 thanks to a $4.5 million grant that the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which finances the fellowships, announced in January. In addition, the academy “felt strongly about supporting as many poets as we possibly could,” said its president and executive director, Jennifer Benka. (The program is separate from the one run by the Library of Congress, which in April appointed Joy Harjo to a second term as U.S. poet laureate.)

Elizabeth Alexander, a poet and the president of the Mellon Foundation, said the financial impact of the coronavirus has made supporting artists even more urgent.

A survey conducted by Artist Relief, a coalition formed to help artists affected by the pandemic, found that nearly 62% had become unemployed because of the crisis.

“These are workers,” Alexander said, adding that it’s important to view “culture work as being crucial in communities to bring people together, to have a sense of history, to learn from each other, to excavate history.”

The $50,000 grants, which total more than $1 million, will fund creative projects that focus on community engagement across the country. Last year, fellows largely worked with people in physical spaces: The poet laureate for Washington state, for instance, traveled the length of the Columbia River hosting workshops about its ecological and historical significance.

But such projects are impossible today, when the spread of the coronavirus has limited travel and social activities. This year’s recipients have the added challenge of adapting their projects to a changed world.

“It’s been wonderful to see how effectively poets have been able to move into the digital space so quickly,” Benka said.

This year’s projects include workshops, conferences, readings and slams. Mary Ruefle of Vermont will send handwritten poems to residents of the state selected at random from a phone book. Stuart Kestenbaum of Maine will develop a series of podcasts and a radio program featuring the work of young writers in that state.

The 23 recipients include the poets laureate of seven states in addition to Ruefle and Kestenbaum: Tina Cane of Rhode Island, Beth Ann Fennelly of Mississippi, Margaret Gibson of Connecticut, Alexandria Peary of New Hampshire, Emmy Pérez of Texas, John Warner Smith of Louisiana, and Nnamdi Chukwuocha and Al Mills, twin brothers who are the poets laureate of Delaware.

The others are Honey Bell-Bey of Cuyahoga County, Ohio; Tina Chang of Brooklyn, New York; Rosemarie Dombrowski of Phoenix; Angelo Geter of Rock Hill, South Carolina; Rodney Gomez of McAllen, Texas; Elizabeth Jacobson of Santa Fe, New Mexico; Susan Landgraf of Auburn, Washington; Maria Lisella of Queens, New York; Porsha Olayiwola of Boston; Janice Lobo Sapigao of Santa Clara County, California; Laura Tohe of the Navajo Nation; Amie Whittemore of Murfreesboro, Tennessee; and Assétou Xango of Aurora, Colorado.

“I think all of us in this uncertain moment are trying to grapple not only with the present and the fear around the present but also trying to imagine where we go from here and what it’s going to look like,” Benka said. “I’m hopeful that the poets that we’re funding will help their neighbors understand, process, reconcile this moment in time and find hope.”

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