“Sometime in the history of this country, poetry got a bad rap. Those who love poetry, but especially those who read or pen poetry in private need permission and encouragement to be the shining poetry nerds they long to be!” – Incoming Wisconsin State Poet Laureate Kimberly Blaeser

Now that UW-Eau Claire professor Max Garland has set aside his mantle as the state’s emissary of the literary arts, another has lifted it up: Kimberly Blaeser will serve as the Wisconsin Poet Laureate for the next two years.

WELL VERSED. Wisconsin Poet Laureate Kimberly Blaeser has taken over for Eau Claire’s Max Garland.

Blaeser, an English professor at UW-Milwaukee, has written three poetry collections and her work has been published in numerous anthologies. She was selected by the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission, who praised her “ability to reach a broad audience through her diverse and captivating works: poems exploring Native culture and family; poems of place and the environment; poems of witness; poems centered in the female experience, humor, and irony; even ‘picto-poems’ that combine artwork with verse.”

Like Garland before her, expect Blaeser to travel throughout the state for the next two years, reminding anyone in earshot of the importance and vitality of the written word.

According to the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, & Letters, which oversees the poet laureate program, she already has lots of ideas for her new poetic pulpit, including a monthly radio show about our state’s poets and poetry, using her anthology-editing expertise to get more Wisco poetry to readers, and bringing poetry to non-typical venues, like ballgames and bird festivals.

“Sometime in the history of this country, poetry got a bad rap,” she says. “Those who love poetry, but especially those who read or pen poetry in private, need permission and encouragement to be the shining poetry nerds they may long to be! I am excited to suit up and become our state’s ‘muse’ for the next two years.”

To learn more, and to read some of Blaeser’s poetry, visit wisconsinpoet
laureate.org.