November 14th, 2008
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Carol Muske-Dukes as California’s new Poet Laureate. She will receive $10,000 over two years and have the responsibility of promoting poetry in California. Muske-Dukes is a professor at USC, a reviewer for the Los Angeles Times and the author of seven books of poetry including Sparrow (Random House, 2004), which was nominated for a National Book Award.
Governor Jim Doyle appointed Marilyn L. Taylor to succeed Denise Sweet as Wisconsin’s Poet Laureate. Taylor will server as Poet Laureate for two years and is required to lead one large-scale project that contributes to the growth of poetry, and plan at least four state wide literary events. Taylor is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the author of six books of poems and served as Milwaukee’s Poet Laureate in 2004 and 2005. Her poems have appeared several times in Smartish Pace and she read in the Smartish Pace Reading Series at The Contemporary Museum of Art, Baltimore, on October 9, 2004.
