Nominations are now being accepted for the 2025-26 Kentucky Poet Laureate position. Officials said to be nominated, a person must be a full-time resident of the Commonwealth, with a long association with the state, and be a published writer.
Literary forms accepted are poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, playwriting, and screenwriting.
Leeann Potter is the Communications Director for the Kentucky Arts Council. She said the poet laureate is expected to perform some duties. One of them is to give a presentation at the council’s annual Kentucky Writers’ Day held in the capital.
“They'll also promote the literary arts in Kentucky through readings of their works at meetings and in seminars. They go to conferences and spend time in classrooms and libraries across the state to promote literary arts and encourage everyone that they encounter to be writers,” said Potter.
Potter added many writers feel like they can’t nominate themselves, however, the nomination process actually requires a lot of information that only the writer might have.
“Like their resume and their body of work and writing samples, for example, those are all things that are necessary in order to nominate someone for the honor, and we really do encourage people who want to make a nomination of someone else to work with that writer in order to get all the information together,” said Potter.
Nominations are being accepted until September 30. They can be made online here. Past poet laureates are unable to be nominated.
The poet laureate serves without a salary and will hold the position from January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2026. The current Kentucky Poet Laureate is Silas House.