Max Garland Selected as 2013 – 2014 Wisconsin Poet Laureate

The Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission recently selected award-winning poet Max Garland of Eau Claire as the Wisconsin Poet Laureate for 2013 – 2014. The commission praised Garland’s poetry for its richness of language, human understanding, and accessibility to broad audiences.

A first generation college student, Garland left a ten-year career as a mail carrier to pursue his love of poetry. He earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa in 1989 and has been teaching since 1990; currently he is Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire.

In his first poetry collection, The Postal Confessions, which earned the prestigious Juniper Prize for Poetry, Garland chronicles his years carrying the mail.

As Wisconsin’s Poet Laureate, Garland hopes to “reach out to those who may feel alienated from the world of poetry (or art), and yet have deeply felt experiences to record and honor… Poetry is still a means of expression open to everyone.”

Garland began his term on Jan. 1, supported by the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission under the stewardship of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.

For more information visit wisconsinacademy.org/poetlaureate.