Maureen Morehead, Kentucky Poet Laureate 2011-2012
Gov. Steve Beshear has named poet, writer and teacher Maureen Morehead of Louisville as Kentucky Poet Laureate for 2011-2012. Morehead will be formally inducted at the Kentucky Writers’ Day celebration April 25 in Frankfort.
Morehead’s literary background has deep roots in Kentucky and her poems draw heavily on her long residency in the state. She is currently a faculty member of Spalding University’s brief-residency MFA Program in Writing teaching poetry. Morehead is a retired school teacher with 32 years of service with the Jefferson County public schools, teaching Advanced Placement English, creative writing and journalism. She also taught at the University of Louisville and Western Kentucky University and was on the faculty of the Kentucky Institute for the Arts in Education, a program designed to help educators integrate the arts into their curricula.
Related: Teachers learn to teach art by becoming students
Morehead has published three books of poetry: In a Yellow Room (Sulgrave Press, 1990), A Sense of Time Left (Larkspur Press, 2003) and The Melancholy Teacher (Larkspur Press, 2010). Morehead also co-authored Our Brothers’ War (Sulgrave Press, 1993), which includes her poems and Pat Carr’s short stories on a theme of Kentucky women during the Civil War.
Morehead’s poems have appeared in national publications such as Poetry magazine and the American Poetry Review, as well as many regional literary journals.
The Kentucky Poet Laureate is appointed by the governor to promote the literary arts in Kentucky through readings and public presentations at meetings, seminars, conferences and events, including Kentucky Writers’ Day. The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, coordinates the nomination and selection process for recommendation to the governor. Kentucky’s Poet Laureate must be a resident of Kentucky with a long association with the state and have received critical acclaim for his or her work.
MORE INFO …
Kentucky Arts Council
Leave A Comment