Poet Laureate in Bellingham
November 26, 2018
Washington’s Poet Laureate, Claudia Castro Luna, will visit Western Washington University for a reading of her poetry on Monday, December 3, 2018, at 4:00pm, in Academic West 210. Sponsored by Western’s English Department, the reading is free and open to the public. Additional details here.
take five
October 5, 2018
Got five minutes? Poet laureate Tracy K. Smith will fill your ears with poetry for five minutes, five days a week, starting in November when “The Slowdown” goes live.
The free podcast, produced by American Public Media in partnership with the Library of Congress and the Poetry Foundation, will present Smith reading works by a wide array of poets from around the world.
Read more about the program, listen to a preview, or sign up now.
laureate lore
June 30, 2018
If you visit the Washington Poet Laureate website, you’ll find a profile of the current PL, Claudia Castro Luna, and a list of the state’s previous poets laureate: Samuel Green (2007 – 2009), Kathleen Flenniken (2012 – 2014), Elizabeth Austen (2014 – 2016), and Tod Marshall (2016-2018).
Western Washington University professor Laura Laffrado is, pretty much single-handedly, working to correct a very significant omission from that list: Washington’s first poet laureate, Ella Rhoads Higginson.
An article by Ron Judd in the Sunday, June 24, 2018, PacificNW magazine section of The Seattle Times details Laffrado’s monumental task and the passion she shares with her WWU students. If you missed it in print, you can still read it online.
Oregon Poet Laureate
May 20, 2018
Congratulations to Kim Stafford, who has been appointed as Oregon’s ninth poet laureate. Read all about it.
on poetry
April 16, 2018
“Wasn’t it strange that a poem, written in my vocabulary and as a result of my own thoughts or observations, could, when it was finished, manage to show me something I hadn’t already known?”
Tracy K. Smith
(b. April 16, 1972)
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Tracy K. Smith has recently accepted an appointment to serve a second term as the nation’s 22nd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, for 2018-2019. Congratulations and Happy Birthday!
the latest laureate
March 25, 2018
Congratulations to Susan Landgraf, who has been named Poet Laureate of Auburn, Washington. Widely published, her most recent book is What We Bury Changes the Ground (Tebot Bach, 2017). A former journalist, Susan was a 2007 Jack Straw Writer, a professor of writing, media, and diversity/globalism classes at Highline College, and has taught hundreds of workshops, including at the San Miguel Writers’ Conference, Centrum, and the Marine and Science Technology Center. Her book of writing exercises is expected later this year from Two Sylvias Press. Susan Landgraf takes over from previous Auburn Poet Laureate Marjorie Rommel and will serve until 2020.
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photo
“Poetry Rides the Bus”
February 12, 2018
Bus riders in Olympia, Washington, will now have a chance to enjoy poetry on their journey, thanks to “Poetry Rides the Bus.” The project, coordinated by Olympia’s First Poet Laureate, Amy Solomon-Minarchi, received more than 120 submissions, from which 22 were selected for posting in buses and bus shelters around the city.
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photo by Jeff Chew
