Houston’s first Poet Laureate

March 5, 2013, by

HPLlogo4eblastsLast year we were lucky enough to feature former U. S. Poet Laureate W. S. Merwin as part of the Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series. We’ve had 16 Poet Laureates grace the reading series over the last 32 seasons. Before we featured Merwin, we did some research to understand how these laureates are selected and what the responsibilities include. Click here to see what we found.

But just as important as the national poetry scene, is our local one. Houston is fortunate that it is buzzing with thoughtful, talented, and lively poets and now poetry will be honored on a citywide level. Mayor Annise Parker recently announced the establishment of the Houston Poet Laureate Program. We asked Jennifer Schwartz, Program Manager for the Houston Public Library, to give us more information about this new initiative.

Inprint: Can you tell us how the Houston Poet Laureate will be selected? Is there a selection committee and a nomination process? Continue reading