List of U.S. states' poets laureate

[9] The Alabama Writers' Cooperative will recommend candidate who is elected by the organization's membership at its annual meeting.

Upon Marinoni’s death in 1970, Governor Winthrop Rockefeller named Ercil Brown interim laureate.

Following Peter’s death, Verna Lee Hinegardner was appointed by Governor Bill Clinton on October 4, 1991, serving until 2003.

Coolbrith was later acknowledged as the "Loved Laurel-Crowned Poet of California" by a 1919 state Senate resolution, retaining the title until her death in 1928.

[67] Successors include Ernest Neal, Conrad Aiken, David Bottoms, Judson Mitcham, and Chelsea Rathburn.

[67][68] Prior to statehood Don Blanding, originally from Oklahoma, was unofficially referred to as the poet laureate of Hawaii.

[69] In 1951 Hawaii Territorial Senator Thelma Akana Harrison in concurrent resolution 28, declared Lloyd Stone, who was originally from California, poet laureate.

[70] When the modern program was established, Native Hawaiian Kealoha was appointed on May 3, 2012 by Governor Neil Abercrombie.,[71] and he is the first poet laureate for the state of Hawaii, serving through 2022.

[80] Those who have served in the position include: The Illinois governor posthumously named songwriter John Prine honorary poet laureate in 2021.

[96] Marvin Bell was Iowa's first Poet Laureate,[96] from 2000 to 2004, followed by Robert Dana from 2004 to 2008, Mary Swander from 2009 to 2019, and Debra Marquart from 2019 to 2023.

[99] Predecessors include Jonathan Holden, Denise Low, Eric McHenry, Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Wyatt Townley and Huascar Media.

Predecessors include Ava Leavell Haymon, Julie Kane, Peter Cooley, John Warner Smith and Mona Lisa Saloy.

In 2025, Governor Maura Healy signed an executive order to create the first-ever poet laureate position for Massachusetts.

[127] State lawmakers made three separate unsuccessful attempts to reinstate a poet laureate position in 2000, 2005, and 2019.

Pawlenty reversed his opposition and signed Section 4, Chapter 148 of the Minnesota Session Laws 2007, establishing the state poet laureate.

Robert Bly was appointed the first Minnesota poet laureate on February 27, 2008, succeeded on August 23, 2011, by Joyce Sutphen.

Dr. Gwen Westerman was appointed as the third Minnesota poet laureate on September 9, 2021, by Governor Tim Walz.

[129] In 1963, Governor Ross Barnett appointed Mississippi's first Poet Laureate, Maude Willard Leet Prenshaw.

[154] Predecessors include W. E. Butts, Richard Eberhart, Patricia Fargnoli, Cynthia Huntington, and Jane Kenyon.

The poem was highly critical of racism in America, includes angry depictions of public figures, claimed Israel was involved in the World Trade Center attacks, and supported the theory that the United States government knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance.

[7] In 2004, Ishle Yi Park became first female and the first Korean American poet laureate of the New York City borough of Queens.

The Ohio Arts Council provides a list of candidates to the governor for selection to serve a two-year term, with the possibility of reappointment.

[192][193] Florence Van Leer Earle Coates was elected poet laureate of Pennsylvania by the state Federation of Women's Clubs in 1915.

[201] The sixth poet laureate of South Carolina, generally a lifetime position, is Marjory Heath Wentworth was appointed in 2003 by Governor Mark Sanford pursuant to SC Code, Sec.

The Governor has the authority to appoint a candidate who has received a recommendation from the South Dakota State Poetry Society.

[226] Although the Washington State Federation of Women's Clubs named Ella Higginson poet laureate in 1931, there was no official position until House Bill 1279 was signed into law in 2007.

Since 2023, the Poet Laureate of Washington has been Arianne True, a Choctaw and Chickasaw writer and artist from Tacoma.

The following have served:[232][233] The position and nominating commission was created by executive order from Governor Tommy Thompson on July 31, 2000.

On February 4, 2011, Governor Scott Walker discontinued state sponsorship and sent a letter to the members of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission to inform them it has been terminated.

[240] Poets Laureate of Puerto Rico include Juan Antonio Corretjer and Diana Ramírez de Arellano (1958).

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey was U.S. Poet Laureate (2012–2014) and Poet Laureate of Mississippi (2012–2016).
Nora Dauenhauer, Poet Laureate of Alaska
Alberto Rios, first poet laureate of Arizona
John Denver was named poet laureate of Colorado in 1974
Dolores Kendrick was the second poet laureate of Washington D.C.
Carl Sandburg was the second poet laureate of Illinois
Crystal Wilkinson, Poet Laureate of Kentucky
John Warner Smith, Poet Laureate of Louisiana
Patrick Donnelly, Poet Laureate of Northampton, MA.
Joyce Sutphen Minnesota Poet Laureate
Robert Bly was the first poet laureate of Minnesota
Henry Real Bird on horseback
Gerald Stern, shown here in 2011, was New Jersey's first poet laureate.
Audre Lorde was the third poet laureate of New York.
Alicia Ostriker, New York State Poet Laureate
Jaki Shelton Green, Poet Laureate of North Carolina
Nathan Brown, Poet Laureate of Oklahoma, 2013
Yolanda Wisher Poet Laureate of Philadelphia
Jack Elliott Myers was poet laureate of Texas in 2003
Louise Glück, Poet Laureate of Vermont
Ella Rhoads Higginson, Washington State Federation of Women's Clubs named her poet laureate in 1931.