Poet Laureate for City of Knoxville

Call for Nominations: Poet Laureate for City of Knoxville
Deadline: 5 PM on Friday, March 31, 2023

The Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville is inviting nominations for the next Poet Laureate for the City of Knoxville.

The position of City Poet Laureate was created in June 2016 and R.B. Morris, Marilyn Kallet, and Rhea Carmon have each served terms as Poet Laureate.

The Poet Laureate serves as a public voice of Knoxville, creating city-specific works and participating in literary outreach and educational programs.

The deadline for nominations to be received is 5 PM on Friday, March 31, 2023. Click here to download the guidelines and nomination form (PDF).

For questions or more information, please contact the Alliance at 865-523-7543.

Knoxville has a long and rich literary heritage:

• George Washington Harris’ Knoxville-based tales of Sut Lovingood were an influence on Mark Twain, William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor;
• Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of “The Secret Garden,” wrote her first novel in Knoxville based on her experiences as an adolescent here;
• Pulitzer Prize winners James Agee and Cormac McCarthy both grew up in Knoxville, and the city figures prominently in their works;
• Poet Nikki Giovanni is a Knoxville native who attended Austin-East High School and has often written about her memories of the city.

The City’s Poet Laureate program aims to extend and build on this heritage by recognizing and supporting citizen poets of exceptional talent and accomplishment.

The Poet Laureate must be a resident of the City of Knoxville, be at least 18 years old and have had published at least one book of poetry or the equivalent thereof. The Poet Laureate will receive an annual honorarium of $3,000. Knoxvillians 18 or older may nominate someone for the position, but poets may not self-nominate.