Alice B. Fogel, Acworth
On November 6, 2013, New Hampshire’s Executive Council confirmed Governor Maggie Hassan’s nomination of Alice B. Fogel of Acworth, N.H., as the next New Hampshire Poet Laureate. The state’s poet laureate serves as an ambassador for all poets in New Hampshire and works to heighten the visibility and value of poetry in the state.
“Alice is a nationally recognized poet and teacher with a gift for making poetry accessible, inclusive and relevant to a wide audience and we know she will draw on these talents to promote poetry in New Hampshire as our next state poet laureate,” said Kyle Potvin, president of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, the organization charged with submitting a recommendation to the Governor.
Fogel is an award-winning poet, author, teacher and well-respected figure in the New Hampshire poetry community. Her third book, “Be That Empty,” was a national poetry bestseller in 2008, and “Strange Terrain” (on how to appreciate poetry) was published in 2009. Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including “The Best American Poetry 1993,” guest edited by Louise Gluck. Fogel's newest book, “Interval: Poems Based upon Bach’s Goldberg Variations,” won the Nicholas Schaffner Award for Music in Literature, and is forthcoming from Schaffner Press.
Fogel was the 2012 Poet in Residence at the Carl Sandburg Historical Site National Park and has received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, among other awards. She has served as a judge for the N.H. Poetry Out Loud high school competition and currently teaches writing at both Keene State College and Landmark College in Putney, Vt.
“I am deeply pleased, honored and grateful for the opportunity to give back to our wonderfully art-nurturing state,” said Fogel. “I believe that poetry – along with other arts – is life-enhancing, opening us to necessary reflection and empathy. As Poet Laureate, I hope to bring more readers to the personal and communal experiences of poetry, through the many works available to us by poets here in New Hampshire and beyond.”
Inaugurate - written by Alice Fogel for New Hampshire’s Governor Maggie Hassan, January 2015, read at the Inauguration ceremony
Read a poem by Alice Fogel to mark the beginning of 2014
For more information visit www.alicebfogel.com or contact her at alicebfogel@hotmail.com
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Established by the state legislature in 1967, New Hampshire’s poet laureate is an honorary five-year position held by an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of poetry. The poet is appointed by the governor, with the advice and consent of the Executive Council, from a list submitted by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire.
Nominations for the position of Poet Laureate are received from across the state and reviewed by a committee comprised of representatives from the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts and the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, as well as other select members from the New Hampshire literary community.
Although there are no specified duties, the Poet Laureate is an ambassador for all poets in NH and works to heighten the visibility and value of poetry in our state. Beginning in 2013, private contributions made to the Walter Butts’ New Hampshire Poet Laureate Fund, created in memory of the former New Hampshire Poet Laureate and coordinated through the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, are providing a modest annual honorarium to help the New Hampshire Poet Laureate achieve his or her stated mission.
