New Maine poet laureate sought
AUGUSTA The Maine Arts Commission has launched its search for a new state poet laureate to succeed Deer Isle poet Stuart Kestenbaum for a five-year term. Applicants are sought for the position to promote poetry throughout the state while honoring a Maine poet whose work can inspire an understanding and appreciation of the craft of poetry for Maine people.
During his tenure from 2016 to 2021, Kestenbaum used his position to share poetry in many different mediums, including his “Poems from Here” collaboration with Maine Public, which features a new Maine poem each week. He is the author of five collections of poems, most recently “How to Start Over” (Deerbrook Editions, 2019). He also authored the essay collection “The View from Here” (Brynmorgen Press, 2012).
Applications Sought for State Poet Laureate Tuesday, May 4, 2021 9:50 PM Poet Stuart Kestenbaum, pictured with Gov. Janet Mills in January 2020 The Maine Arts Commission seeks applications in its process to select a new Maine poet laureate for a five-year term. To be considered, poets must be full-time Maine residents and have a distinguished body of poetic work. Applicants must submit up to five poems totaling no more than 10 pages, as well as a one-page statement outlining their vision for their public role as poet laureate and a copy of their resume, no later than June 1.
Maine’s poet laureate position is an appointment designed to promote poetry throughout the state while honoring a Maine poet whose work can inspire an understanding and appreciation of the craft of poetry.
Maine looking for new poet laureate
The deadline to apply is June 1.
The Maine Arts Commission is looking for Maine’s next poet laureate.
Gov. Janet Mills shares a moment with Stuart Kestenbaum, who has just completed his term as Maine poet laureate. Mills, a published poet, will serve on the committee that will select the next poet laureate. Applications are due June 1.
Courtesy of Stuart Kestenbaum
The person selected will replace Stuart Kestenbaum, who has completed his five-year term.
“We are so grateful to Stu for his wonderful work as poet laureate,” Maine Arts Commission Executive Director David Greenham said in a news release.
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“things seemed to be breaking: visual poems” by Stuart Kestenbaum; Deerbrook Editions, Cumberland, Maine, 2021; 136 pages, paperback, $18.50.
“Found poetry” is a peculiarly modern phenomenon. It’s made when words, phrases and sometimes entire passages from texts such as newspaper articles, advertising copy, government documents or anything else are selected out and re-arranged as poetry. Or whatever.
It’s been around since about the time Marcel Duchamp submitted a urinal for an art exhibit in New York City in 1917. “The Fountain,” as he called it, was the first celebrated piece of found art. Dadaist and Surrealist writers did similar things with words through the 1920s, ’30, ’40s. By the 1950s the Beat poets, under the influence of William S. Burroughs’ determined efforts to expose the vacancies in common sense, made “cu
Poet Stuart Kestenbaum, pictured with Governor Mills in January 2020. Courtesy of Stuart Kestenbaum.
The Maine Arts Commission requests applications to select a new state poet laureate for a five-year term. Maine’s Poet Laureate position is an appointment designed to promote poetry throughout the state while honoring a Maine poet whose work can inspire an understanding and appreciation of the craft of poetry for the people of our state.
Current Poet Laureate Stuart Kestenbaum completes his five-year term in 2021. Kestenbaum, a resident of Deer Isle, has used his position to share poetry in many different mediums, including his “Poems from Here” collaboration with Maine Public, which features a new Maine poem each week. Kestenbaum is the author of five collections of poems, most recently “How to Start Over” (Deerbrook Editions, 2019). He is also the author of the essay collection “The View from Here” (Brynmorgen Press, 2012).