On Tuesday, the academy announced its 2023 Fellowships, contributions of $50,000 each to 23 state and local poets laureate around the country, from Portsmouth, New Hampshire to Redmond, Washington.
The Poet Laureate Fellowship program, launched in 2019, is funded in part by the Mellon Foundation.
“Collectively the voice and vision of these 23 poets laureate will bring together community members through the craft and creativity of poetry and illuminate place through words,” poet Elizabeth Alexander, president of the Mellon Foundation, said in a statement.
Fellows include Utah laureate and retired Salt Lake Community College professor Lisa Bickmore. Governor Spencer J. Cox. named her Utah’s poet laureate last summer.
Others are Lauren Camp of New Mexico, along with such local laureates as Diannely Antigua of Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Laura Da' of Redmond, Washington; Jennifer Bartell Boykin of Columbia, South Carolina; and Yalie Saweda Kamara of Cincinnati.
“The Academy of American Poets celebrates the unique position poets laureate occupy at state and local levels, elevating the possibilities poetry can bring to community conversations and reminding us that our national spirit can be nourished by the power of the written and spoken word,” Ricardo Maldonado, president and executive director of the poetry academy, said in a statement.