New Utah Poet Laureate

Professor Lance Larsen from the creative writing faculty was recently honored by being named the poet laureate of Utah. Appointed by Governor Gary Herbert in May 2012, Dr. Larsen will serve a five-year term ending in 2017. The selection committee, made up of educators, poets, arts administrators, and members of the Utah Arts Council, considered such criteria for the appointment as the following: 1) an accomplished poet who has been a citizen of Utah for at least seven years, 2) one who has published at least two books of poetry, 3) one who is well known enough among the poets and arts advocates to be nominated. The responsibilities of the state poet laureate include advocating for the literary arts in as many ways as possible. These efforts include visiting schools and universities, doing poetry readings, conducting workshops, giving lectures, and creating ways to celebrate the poetry currently being written by poets in the state. One advocacy program Dr. Larsen is currently supporting is called “Poetry Outloud.” Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, this program holds competitions of poetry recitation in local high schools. Finalists go to state competition, and each state winner competes at a national event in Washington, D.C. for scholarships. Another program, a writer’s conference/ workshop called “Poetry in the Park,” will be held in Zion’s National Park in March 2013 and Dr. Larsen will be the featured lecturer. This caucus is sponsored by the Utah State Poetry Society, Zion Natural History Association, and Zion Canyon Field Institute and will provide both accomplished and aspiring poets with instruction and practice in composing poetry while being inspired by the beauties of the landscape.

Dr. Larsen has three books of original poetry to his name and will have a fourth by February of 2013. His books include Erasable Walls (1998), In All Their Animal Brilliance (2005), Backyard Alchemy (2009), and Genius Loci (2013). He says of his own work, “I’m drawn to quotidian material that has a shimmer to it, a strangeness” and quotes from William Carlos Williams to describe the value he sees in poetry: “It is difficult/ to get the news from poems/ yet men die miserably every day/ for lack/ of what is found there.”