Catherine Pierce named new Mississippi poet laureate April 25, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi's new poet laureate is a professor and published author. Gov. Tate Reeves and his wife, Elee, named Catherine Pierce of Starkville to the literary post for the next four years. “We are confident Dr. Pierce will continue to foster a love of poetry and literature throughout Mississippi,” the governor said Thursday in a Mississippi Arts Commission news release. Pierce is a Delaware native who joined the Mississippi State University faculty in 2007. She is co-director of the university's creative writing program and has published four books of poetry.