LAKE COUNTY, Calif. Lake County’s poet laureate is among 23 nationwide who have been chosen by the Academy of American Poets as 2021 Poets Laureate Fellows.
From a pandemic to an insurrection, we live in unprecedented times. But poetry has been there for us giving comfort and inspiration. Consider Amanda Gorman: Her fiery performance at the inauguration of President Joe Biden brought a turbulent country to reflection. And according to NPR, overall visits to the website poets.org went up 30% in recent months.
Now that the pandemic is easing, we’re talking about lessons learned through the art of poetry. GPB s Leah Fleming spoke recently with three Georgia poets.
Since 2019,
Rachel Economy is the founder and owner of Index for the Next World.
Yolanda Latimore, also known as Y-O, is a poet and the leader/founder of Poetic Peace Art.
Due to the attached Mercer School of Medicine and the outstanding reputation of the engineering department, it is unsurprising that a large percentage of the undergraduate student body at Mercer University studies in STEM fields.
What may come as more of a surprise is that there is another powerful major gaining traction on Mercer’s campus creative writing.
Out of the over 4,000 colleges and universities that populate the U.S.’s education landscape, only approximately 125 offer creative writing as a degree option.
Not only is Mercer one of the few institutions to teach creative writing, but it also does quite well for itself: though a small department, it has been home to such acclaimed instructors as Chelsea Rathburn, Poet Laureate of Georgia; James May, recent National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant recipient and Anya Silver, 2018 Guggenheim Fellow.
Georgia s poet laureate kicks off National Poetry Month celebrations at library forsythnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from forsythnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.