The Chippewa Valley Writers Guild has been chosen to become part of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission, a volunteer group that promotes and administers the state’s poet laureate program. The commission includes at-large members as well as representatives from a variety of arts groups from around the state, including the Wisconsin Humanities Council, the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, the Wisconsin Center for the Book, the Wisconsin Arts Board, the Council for Wisconsin Writers, and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. B.J. Hollars, a UW-Eau Claire professor of English and founder of the Writers Guild, will represent the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild on the commission beginning Jan. 1. Hollars is the author of numerous books of both fiction and nonfiction, including most recently The Road South: Personal Stories of the Freedom Riders. At the beginning of 2019, the commission is expected to name a new poet laureate to replace Karla Huston, who was named to the post in 2017. Past poets laureate include Eau Claire’s Max Garland.