New Poet Laureate Named

The Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission has selected Kimberly Blaeser of Burlington, Wisconsin, as the Wisconsin Poet Laureate for 2015–16. The Commission praised Blaeser’s ability to reach a broad audience through her diverse and captivating works: poems exploring Native culture and family, place and environment and many other issues.

Speaking about her recent selection as Wisconsin Poet Laureate, Blaeser calls it “a wonderful honor and an opportunity [to] celebrate the state’s rich resources in poetry and put poetry to work in Wisconsin.”

Of Anishinaabe ancestry and a native of White Earth Reservation in northwestern Minnesota, Blaeser lives with her family in rural Lyons Township, near Burlington. Blaeser works as Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where she teaches Creative Writing, Native American Literature, and American Nature Writing. Blaeser is the author of three acclaimed poetry collections—Apprenticed to Justice (2007), Absentee Indians and Other Poems (2002), and Trailing You (1994)—that have earned national as well as international recognition.

Blaeser will take over for Wisconsin Poet Laureate Max Garland, who has served the state since January 2013. For more information on Blaeser or to learn more about program sponsors, the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission and Wisconsin Academy, visit wisconsinpoetlaureate.org.