Montgomery County Poets Laureate
The Annual Montgomery Poet Laureate Competition is the foundation upon which the MCPL Program was built. The competition is the ultimate expression of the program’s mission; creating an ever expanding community of poets, supporting their work and providing opportunities for poets to elevate their visibility while also benefiting the community with their service project, many of which continue long beyond their tenure.
How does the competition work?
Each year MCPL recruits a celebrity poet with a national reputation, who along with two additional local Delaware Valley poets, adjudicate the submitted manuscripts.
The newly selected Montgomery County Poet Laureate is honored with an award in the amount of $500 along with a personalized statement about their work, which is shared through MCPL and other local organizations.
The Award is presented during an Award Ceremony and Reading, open to the public and attended by the celebrity judge and previous poets laureate to read with and welcome the newest member of their esteemed ranks.
Who can compete?
Poets of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to submit their poetry for review and adjudication in the annual competition. Poets must also be residents of Montgomery County. The window for submissions generally opens in early December and closes mid-February with the winner to be announced at the end of March.
The role of the Poet Laureate
The Poet Laureate functions as an ambassador for poetry in Montgomery County from April 1 of the year of his/her naming to March 31st of the following year. This role includes working with MCPL’s Executive Director, Joanne Leva, to develop a schedule of readings, workshops
Appearances may include the Forgotten Voices Poetry Group, Farley’s Bookshop First Thursday Poetry Reading Series, and the annual Caesura Poetry Festival. They may also hold the office of “
2010 Poet Laureate – Grant Clauser
Poet Laureate 2011
GRANT CLAUSER
Grant Clauser earned an MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State University where he was a Richard Devine Fellow. In 2010 he was selected as the Montgomery County Pennsylvania Poet Laureate by Robert Bly. He makes his living as a home technology writer, though he spends as much time as possible in the woods away from electronic things. His poems have appeared in a variety of journals including The Literary Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Heartland Review, Cortland Review, Wisconsin Review, The Seattle Review, The Comstock Review and others. In 2010 he started the Montco Wordshop, a monthly workshop for area poets, and he has conducted workshops for the MusehouseWriting Center in Philadelphia. His first book, The Trouble with Rivers, is due from Foothill Publishing in 2012. His favorite dry fly is the Parachute Adams. His favorite nymph is a basic Hare’s Ear with a brass bead. More information can be found on his blog www.uniambic.com.
“I’ve become very fond of his poems. “Settling In” is a good example of his work. This poet has a lovely way of flowing from one line to the next, and one stanza to the next. He says,
My son lays buried by a pear tree / that will never give sweet fruit.
That’s a fine couplet, and the music of “buried” and “pear” gives it a lovely elegance. He says then,
I wait for the serious thoughts of winter, the things that freeze if they stand still long enough, while the stars continue to crumple inward” –that’s surprising– “always circling in on something, / moving toward the center of the universe as it closes in the dark.
Those stars are very beautiful and comforting, but then he suddenly ends that with “like the light of an eye / as it closes in the dark.”
It’s very good writing and is able to carry some tragedy with it. At the same time there is some sort of triumph in moving toward the center of the universe.”
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Poets Laureate
