http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/csas200803279/
Shortly after I published Friday’s post on recent state poet laureate happenings I received an email alert that North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory had just appointed Valerie Macon the new N.C. poet laureate. So much for my timing! Macon succeeds Joseph Bathanti in the two-year position and is the state’s eighth poet laureate. Several media outlets commenting on the appointment have noted that Gov. McCrory departed from standard protocol by not consulting the North Carolina Arts Council before making his selection.
A complete list of current state poets laureate follows.
| State | Laureate |
| Alabama | Andrew Glaze |
| Alaska | Nora Marks Dauenhauer |
| Arizona | Alberto Ríos |
| Arkansas | Peggy Vining |
| California | Juan Felipe Herrera |
| Colorado | David Mason |
| Connecticut | Dick Allen |
| Delaware | JoAnn Balingit |
| District of Columbia | Dolores Kendrick |
| Florida | Vacant |
| Georgia | Judson Mitcham |
| Hawaii | Kealoha (Steven Kealohapau’ole Hong-Ming Wong) |
| Idaho | Diane Raptosh |
| Illinois | Kevin Stein |
| Indiana | Unofficial: Cecil Tresslar Official: George Kalamaras |
| Iowa | Mary Swander |
| Kansas |
Wyatt Townley |
| Kentucky | Frank X Walker |
| Louisiana | Ava Leavell Haymon |
| Maine | Wesley McNair |
| Maryland | Stanley Plumly |
| Massachusetts | No position |
| Michigan | No position |
| Minnesota | Joyce Sutphen |
| Mississippi | Natasha Trethewey |
| Missouri | William Trowbridge |
| Montana | Tami Haaland |
| Nebraska | Twyla Hansen |
| Nevada | Vacant |
| New Hampshire | Alice B. Fogel |
| New Jersey | No position |
| New Mexico | No position |
| New York | Marie Howe |
| North Carolina | Valerie Macon |
| North Dakota |
Larry Woiwode |
| Ohio | No position |
| Oklahoma | Nathan Brown |
| Oregon | Peter Sears |
| Pennsylvania |
No Position |
| Rhode Island | Rick Benjamin |
| South Carolina | Marjory Heath Wentworth |
| South Dakota | David Allan Evans |
| Tennessee | Margaret Britton Vaughn |
| Texas | Dean Young |
| Utah | Lance Larsen |
| Vermont | Sydney Lea |
| Virginia | Ron Smith |
| Washington | Elizabeth Austen |
| West Virginia | Marc Harshman |
| Wisconsin | Max Garland |
| Wyoming | Echo Roy Klaproth |
Help me keep the list of state poets laureate current by contacting me with any changes you discover in the above positions.
Comments (2)
Sad thing about McCrory bypassing procedures and criteria set up for years in NC. And he appointed, without consulting anyone, a Republican woman who worked for the state and has not published a single poem in a literary magazine. Her two chapbooks are self-published.
Was looking at New Mexico has no postings. I am a poet my poems are published on poetry.com under the poet name azzow2 My address is in Vaughn New Mexico.
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