Florida's Poet Laureate
The Florida Poet Laureate is an honorary position created within in the Florida Department of State.
Florida’s Poet Laureate promotes reading, writing and the appreciation of poetry throughout the state and encourages students to express themselves through poetry and reading out loud. State Poet Laureates must serve a term of four (4) years.
About Florida's Poet Laureate, Peter Meinke
Named Florida's Poet Laureate by Governor Rick Scott in June, 2015, Peter Meinke's work has appeared in the Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Nation and dozens of other journals; he’s received many major awards, including a Fulbright, two NEA Fellowships, and three prizes from the Poetry Society of America. He “retired” from Eckerd College in 1993, where he founded and directed its Writing Workshop, and received its Distinguished Teacher Award in 1990. Peter has read his poems in over a dozen countries, and has been appointed Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at many colleges and universities, including Davidson, Emory, UNC-Greensboro, George Washington U., the U. of Hawaii, and others. He received his Ph. D from the U. of Minnesota in 1965. The most recent of his 20+ books is Lucky Bones (2014), his eighth collection in the prestigious Pitt Poetry Series. In 2009, He was named Poet Laureate of St. Petersburg, FL.
Click here to email for more information from the Florida Humanities Council.
Previous Florida Poet Laureates
| Name | Appointment |
|---|---|
| Franklin N. Wood | By Governor John W. Martin, 1927 |
| Vivian Laramore Rader | By Governor Doyle E. Carlton, 1931 |
| Dr. Edmund Skellings | By Governor Robert Graham, 1980 |
Contact
Florida's Poet Laureate Coordinator
850.245.6490
