A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) of Arezzo were the first to be crowned poets laureate after the classical age, respectively in 1315 and 1342. In Britain, the term dates from the appointment of Bernard André by Henry VII of England. The royal office of Poet Laureate in England dates from the appointment of John Dryden in 1668.
Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and essayist. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She is the first African American to have been appointed since the position was created by an act of Congress in 1986 from the previous "consultant in poetry" position (1937–86). Dove also received an appointment as "special consultant in poetry" for the Library of Congress's bicentennial year from 1999 to 2000. Dove is the second African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1987, and she served as the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2004 to 2006. Since 1989, she has been teaching at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where she held the chair of Commonwealth Professor of English from 1993 to 2020; as of 2020 she holds the chair of Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing.
Pamela Y. Duncan is an American novelist. Her novels include Moon Women (2001), Plant Life (2003), and The Big Beautiful (2007). Her awards include the Sir Walter Raleigh Prize in 2003, and in 2000 she was chosen as one of the Ten Best Emerging Writers in the South. She won an American Library Association award in 2007. Her work often focuses on the lives of working class Southerners.
Joy Harjo is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to have served three terms. Harjo is a member of the Muscogee Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv. She is an important figure in the second wave of the literary Native American Renaissance of the late 20th century. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, completed her undergraduate degree at University of New Mexico in 1976, and earned an MFA degree at the University of Iowa in its creative writing program.
Natasha Trethewey is an American poet who was served as United States Poet Laureate from 2012 to 2014. She won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her 2006 collection Native Guard, and is a former Poet Laureate of Mississippi.
Minnie Bruce Pratt is an American poet, educator, activist and essayist. She retired in 2015 from her position as Professor of Writing and Women's Studies at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York where she was invited to help develop the university's first LGBT Study Program.
Blair is a literary small press publisher based in Durham, North Carolina, founded in 1976 as Carolina Wren Press by Judy Hogan. The press mainly publishes poetry, but also publishes fiction and nonfiction, biography, autobiography, literary nonfiction by and/or about people of color, women, gay/lesbian issues, health and mental health topics in children's literature.
The Sam Ragan Awards are an annual fine arts award presented by St. Andrews University in Laurinburg, North Carolina. The award honors Sam Ragan who was a North Carolina Poet Laureate and North Carolina's first Secretary of Cultural Resources. It is presented annually for "outstanding contributions to the Fine Arts of North Carolina over an extended period--including, but above and beyond--the recipient's own primary commitment."
The North Carolina Arts Council is an organization in the U.S. state of North Carolina that provides grants to artists, musicians and arts organizations. The group's mission is "arts for all people." It was founded by executive order in 1964 by Governor Terry Sanford, and it became a statutory state agency on April 11, 1967. It is an agency of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which is the United States' first cabinet-level state agency for the arts, history and libraries. It operates from headquarters in Raleigh.
Julie Madison Suk is an American prize-winning poet and writer from Charlotte, North Carolina. She is the author of six volumes of poetry - The Medicine Woman, Heartwood, The Angel of Obsession, The Dark Takes Aim, Lie Down With Me, and Astonished To Wake, and co-editor of Bear Crossings: an Anthology of North American Poets. She is included in The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry. Her poems have appeared in many literary journals including The Georgia Review, Great River Review, The Laurel Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, Shenandoah, and TriQuarterly.
The North Carolina Poet Laureate is the poet laureate for the US state of North Carolina. At first a life appointment, the term of office is now two years. The program is run by the North Carolina Arts Council. Laureates are appointed by the Governor of North Carolina.
Kathryn Stripling Byer, also called Kay Byer, was an American poet and teacher. She was named by Governor Mike Easley as the fifth North Carolina Poet Laureate from 2005 to 2009. She was the first woman to hold the position.
Joseph Bathanti is an American poet, novelist and professor. He was named by Governor Bev Perdue as the seventh North Carolina Poet Laureate, 2012–2014.
Zelda Lockhart is a contemporary African-American writer, speaker, teacher and researcher. Her latest novel is https://www.harpercollins.com/products/trinity-zelda-lockhart?variant=40902291947554 July 2023 release. She is the director of https://lavensonpressstudios.com/ and https://herstorygardenstudios.com/. Her recent books include Diamond Doris: The True Story of the World’s Most Notorious Jewel Thief by Doris Payne with Zelda Lockhart (2019), and https://www.amazon.com/Soul-Full-Length-Manuscript-Turning-Literary/dp/0978910265 (2017). She is the author of three novels: Fifth Born (2003), https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Running-Creek-Zelda-Lockhart/dp/0978910206/ref=sr_1_1?crid=81W2DY4E4FAU&keywords=cold+running+creek&qid=1683822245&s=books&sprefix=cold+running+creek%2Cstripbooks%2C96&sr=1-1 (2006), and https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Born-II-Hundredth-Turtle/dp/0978910249 (2010). Her first novel was published to critical acclaim and was a finalist for an award—for a debut novel—from the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Foundation. Her novels emphasize the struggles, sexual trauma, and triumphs of African and Native American women historically and contemporarily. Her research focuses on inquiries into intergenerational healing and the ways creating personal experience-based literature while consuming personal experience-based literature has the potential to be emotionally, psychologically, and socially transformative for individuals. Areas of interest are Black women and girls, Native populations, people of color, LGBT individuals and financially disenfranchised people. In her position as director of LaVenson Press and Her Story Garden Studios, Lockhart seeks to create a space where women can "self-define through writing and publishing." She is currently Associate Professor of Creative Writing and African American Literature at North Carolina Central University
Shelby Stephenson is an American poet. On December 22, 2014, he was named by Governor Pat McCrory as the ninth North Carolina Poet Laureate, a position he is set to hold from 2014 to 2016.
Mel Alexander Tomlinson was an American dancer and choreographer. At the time of his debut with the New York City Ballet in 1981, he was the only African-American dancer in the company. Ballet choreographer Agnes de Mille referred to Tomlinson as "the most exciting black dancer in America."
Tanya Grae is an American poet and essayist, whose debut collection Undoll was awarded the Julie Suk Award and a Florida Book Award and was a National Poetry Series finalist. Her poems and essays have been widely published in literary journals, including Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, AGNI, Prairie Schooner, Post Road, and The Massachusetts Review. Grae was born in Sumter, South Carolina, while her father was stationed at Shaw AFB. She grew up traveling the United States as her father relocated for the military every few years and often writes about those early experiences. Her family is from Nashville, Tennessee and is of Irish, Dutch, and Cherokee descent. Her primary themes often revolve around the natural world, the American Southeast, womanhood, girlhood, matrilineal history, domesticity, and feminism.
David Zucchino is an American journalist and author.
Katherine Indermaur is a Swiss-American writer, poet, and magazine editor. In 2008, she was appointed as the first North Carolina Student Poet Laureate by Kathryn Stripling Byer. She authored the 2018 chapbook PULSE, the 2021 chapbook Facing the Mirror: An Essay, and the 2022 poetry book I/I, the latter received positive reviews from Diana Khoi Nguyen and Jenny Boully. She is a recipient of the 2018 Academy of American Poets Prize, the 2019 Black Warrior Review Poetry Prize, and 2022 Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Prize. Indermaur was a runner-up in 92nd Street Y's Discovery Poetry Contest in 2020. Indermaur is an editor at Sugar House Review and previously served as managing editor at Colorado Review and as an assistant editor at Alpinist.
