The overview
The new program is intended to promote poetry, literacy and cultural arts in the city while supporting APL initiatives.
The government poet laureate designation is in use across the United States, including at the national level through the Library of Congress. In Texas, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio all have the position but a poet laureate program has never launched in Austin.
Following a recommendation from the Library Commission, city officials voted this spring to establish one through the APL system. The role will be overseen by a city and community committee, and Austin's first laureate will be named next spring following an open application period that's now underway.
“Austin will benefit from a socio-politically engaged poet willing to use poetry as a way to invigorate Austin’s arts and culture, and as a way to promote literacy across our city," council member Vanessa Fuentes, who sponsored the program's creation, said in May.
The poet laureate program application is now open online through Nov. 30.
The details
Austinites ages 21 and older who are published poets with at least 3 years of residency in the city can apply. The laureate committee will begin reviewing applications late this year and APL's director will select a final candidate in early 2025.
Once appointed next spring during National Poetry Month, the city's new literary ambassador will serve a two-year term through April 2027. Austin's poet laureate will make $25,000 and have $10,000 in APL funds available for public programming and expenses.
Before moving to establish the new position, community members noted the lack of a laureate in Austin's literary scene and the work of local groups that provided other arts and cultural offerings in recent years. Officials also credited local poet KB Brookins for pushing for the program's creation.
Brookins previously told council members that a poet laureate would keep Austin at pace with cultural efforts in comparable Texas cities and elsewhere, and potentially help some of the tens of thousands of Central Texas adults who are estimated to struggle with literacy, according to the city.
“Having a poet laureate would simply keep Austin accountable to its promise of being that arts and culture center, and it would assist with improving Austin’s unsatisfactory literacy rate," Brookins said in May.
