National Poetry Month may have just ended, but for Vermonters, there’s still breaking poetry news. Gov. Phil Scott today appointed poet and artist Bianca Stone as the new poet laureate in Vermont. Stone will serve as the state’s ambassador for the art of poetry for a four-year term.
The Brandon-based poet is the author of five books, including the poetry collections What is Otherwise Infinite — which won a 2022 Vermont Book Award — The Möbius Strip Club of Grief, and Someone Else’s Wedding Vows. She illustrated poet Anne Carson’s translation of Antigonick and her work has been featured in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Poets and Writers, among others. Stone is also the co-founder of the nonprofit Ruth Stone House in Goshen, where she teaches poetry and poetic study.
The Vermont Arts Council received more than 200 nominations for 31 poets. Stone joins a list of Vermont laureates which include Robert Frost, Louise Glück and most recently, Mary Ruefle. Stone’s grandmother, Ruth Stone, was poet laureate from 2007 to 2011.
Stone says she wants to use her role to work with educators, students and librarians across Vermont to bring them into the world of poetry. She also wants to reach communities that don’t typically engage with poetry.
“Poetry brings the inner and outer world together and translates consciousness itself onto the page. It is not only relevant to our lives, but crucial in exploring what it is to be in this world,” Stone said in a statement. “It is perhaps one of the most playful and serious mediums we have. But it is often misunderstood.”
The Vermont Arts Council is a Vermont Public underwriter.
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