ESTEEMED LITERARY PROFESSIONALS TO SERVE ON INAUGURAL HOWARD COUNTY POET LAUREATE REVIEW PANEL
The Howard County Poet Laureate program, a new venture in partnership with the Office of County Executive Calvin Ball, the Howard County Arts Council, and the Howard County Poetry & Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo), is pleased to announce the members of the Poet Laureate review panel: GRACE CAVALIERI, Maryland’s 2018-2023 Poet Laureate; E. ETHELBERT MILLER, writer and literary activist; and SYLVIA JONES, writer, educator, and prison abolitionist. The deadline to apply is January 9, 2024.
GRACE CAVALIERI is Maryland’s 10th Poet Laureate. Her newest book is “The Long Game: Poems Selected & New” (The Word Works). She founded and produces “The Poet and the Poem” series of audio interviews for public radio, now from the Library of Congress, celebrating 47 years on-air. Grace was formerly Assistant Director for Children’s Programming, Corporate PBS, then Senior Program Officer NEH. Among other awards she holds the Allen Ginsberg Award and the CPB Silver Medal. She is an Academy of American Poets Fellow. She has written 26 books of poems and plays produced on American stages.
SYLVIA JONES is associate poetry editor at Black Lawrence Press and works part-time as an adjunct lecturer in creative writing, she teaches at Goucher College and George Washington University. Her writing appears in DIAGRAM, R&R Journal, Smartish Pace, Sprung Formal, Poet Lore, Shenandoah, The Poetry Society of New York, Revolut, and elsewhere. Sylvia earned her MFA from American University in Washington D.C. and lives in Baltimore, MD.
ETHELBERT MILLER is a literary activist and author of two memoirs and several poetry collections. He hosts the WPFW morning radio show On the Margin with E. Ethelbert Miller and hosts and produces The Scholars on UDC-TV which received a 2020 Telly Award. Miller is Associate Editor and a columnist for The American Book Review. He was given a 2020 congressional award from Congressman Jamie Raskin in recognition of his literary activism, awarded the 2022 Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement Award by the Peace and Justice Studies Association, and named a 2023 Grammy Nominee Finalist for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album. Miller’s latest book is How I Found Love Behind the Catcher’s Mask, published by City Point Press.
The panel will review applications and recommend finalists to County Executive Calvin Ball, who will make the final selection. Serving as an artistic leader and advocate for two years, the Poet Laureate will receive an annual $5,000 honorarium to bring communities together through poetry and to celebrate and promote our local literary arts.
Application deadline: January 22, 2024
Learn more and apply HERE.