I was deeply honored to be named Louisiana Poet Laureate for 2023-2025, despite a troubling question for which I had no answer: what should I do in my role as Louisiana’s literary ambassador? I had nothing but the vaguest ideas until a visit to the poetry group at Angola (Louisiana State Prison) changed everything. It was a gray afternoon in the prison library, but for me it became a welcome reminder of the ability of language to strengthen connections between all kinds of people. Angola’s library has high windows covered with wire and the only bit of outside visible was the clay colored sky, but it was enough of a piece of the world to be a lifeline, and this idea of connection through poetry inspired by common prompts shared with incarcerated writers and community groups was born from that.
As the recipient of a fellowship from the Academy of American Poets I am proud to be able to offer an educational and inspirational opportunity for incarcerated poets and writers. With the Lifelines Poetry Project I have the opportunity to facilitate poetry writing workshops inside of Louisiana prisons and outside at community centers. Workshops, which run about two hours, will be taught by myself and another writer and will be supplemented with follow-up poetry packets specific to concerns and questions raised by each group as a way to foster creativity and share resources after our visit. At each visit, participants will be invited to respond to poems and ideas rooted in questions of time, place, heart, mind, and up-close seeing. Participants will have the opportunity to submit their work for publication on a series of printed posters.
Because I believe that poetry is something that everyone has in common, the website for this project will make the same resources I bring into prisons available for classroom or individual use. In this way, all who wish to participate have the opportunity to add their poetry to this state-wide conversation about the poetry and the places it can lead us.
My experience bringing poetry into alternative environments began with the Arkansas Writers in the Schools Program when I was a graduate student. My most recent poetry collections are Our Lady of Bewilderment (2022), which went on to be awarded the Phillip H. McMath Award in Poetry, and Waterlines (2016), both with LSU Press, and, with the University of Akron Press, Hurricane Party (2011) and Big Muddy River of Stars (2007). I am the recipient of fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, the Foundation for Louisiana, and the Louisiana Board of Regents. I am the Writer in Residence at Southeastern Louisiana University where I have taught for more than twenty years.
I know enough about poetry to expect a surprise at every turn, and I expect this year to be a thrill. I look forward to sharing the journey with you.