City Now Accepting Poet Laureate Nominations

By: Andy Wright

Want to be San Francisco’s next poet laureate? You’d be in good company.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti was the inaugural honoree in 1998, when the city initiated the program. Poets serve four years, and Diane di Prima, appointed in 2009, has completed her term. The requirements to succeed are not insubstantial, in that they require one to be a successful working poet:

Poet Laureate nominees must be San Francisco residents, have a substantial body of published work, including at least one full length book (minimum 48 pages, not self-published or vanity press) or CD (not self-produced) or 20 or more published poems in established publications, print or online, over the past five years.

 Once appointed, poets duties include:

—Deliver an inaugural address to the public at the San Francisco Public Library;

—Participate in community-based poetry events, including a youth-centered event;

—Work on one or more poetry-centered events in cooperation with the San Francisco Public Library;

—Do a reading at Litquake.

Download an application here. For more information, go here.