When I interviewed Colorado’s late, great poet laureate Andrea Gibson in the fall of 2023, the celebrated spoken word artist offered a summation of the role with a flash of their trademark humor: “My partner just keeps calling me the president of poetry.”
As with most good jokes, there’s a kernel of truth here. With its roots in ancient Greece, poets laureate essentially function as government-sanctioned ambassadors who attend readings, talks and other cultural events to help promote the artform to the public.
“A lot of people are terrified of poetry,” says Nederland’s inaugural poet laureate Karen Auvinen. “I'm trying to be the person who says, ‘Hey, look, this is super cool!’ To that end, I'm going to try to put poetry out into Nederland in as many ways as I can.”
In conjunction with this month’s cover story on Auvinen and all the local events in store for National Poetry Month, Caribou Current sat down with Nederland Community Library Director Elektra Greer to talk about the new role and what the public can expect from Ned’s first ever poet laureate.
Editor’s Note: The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you tell readers about the history of this new position and how it came to be?
Well, I've been here at the library for seven years, and I’ve always thought, “How do we not have a poet laureate?” With the history of poetry in Ward and down in Naropa, there are so many poets and poetry groups around here.
We had a little project at the library we finally completed last summer called the Reading Garden — a property next to the library we developed into a garden space. We launched it with a performing arts program last summer, where people applied to play music or speak or read poetry. We had such great attendance, and also attention, to the poets. It was in that moment, when we had a variety of poets reading, that I was like, “Oh my gosh, the timing is right.”
I have to shout out local poet Alexander Shalom Joseph. He approached me then and was like, “Let's do a poet laureate program.” He was really integral. He went outside of his shell to really push it and make sure it happened.
What role did the Library Foundation play?
The Foundation, which is our fundraising arm, is a group of poets. The library felt like we had the resources. So it was kind of a combination: Like everything, it always comes at the right time. [Joseph] and I kind of collaborated, and I pulled in the Library Foundation to help with funding it and to do the sort of the prize money and things like that for the program.
Once we knew we were going to do it, we put out the call for poets, and we got so much more than I thought we would our first year. The quality was off the charts
Who chose the poet laureate?
We were able to bring together a committee of five people, four of whom are published poets, and one who represents the Library Foundation. We got a committee together who have a lot of experience with this. Things just fell together really nicely. It’s not really a surprise people are hungry for poetry right now in the era we live in.
How many people applied, and what was the committee looking for in those applications?
Fourteen. We wanted a balance of poetic excellence, of course, along with a connection to Nederland, and then public engagement. We asked them to not only submit their poetry, but to also show they could cover those three things — because, as you know, this is an ambassadorship type program. The application was thorough, and the cover letters they submitted were just amazing. They were almost as good as the poetry [laughs].
I would say half of the poets were people I did not know in the area, so that was thrilling. That’s something I always look at: Are we broadening our reach? Are we bringing in unique people?
What made Karen stick out as the right fit for this role?
I think everyone was really blown away by the quality [of her work] and the connection to Nederland, but it was the public engagement piece that she had probably significantly more than the others. Being an educator, she had done a lot of programs, and we really felt like — for the first year in particular — we needed somebody very comfortable with being visible.
There were others who had that experience, but she really had it. That was the deciding factor for them. It was the public engagement that did it, and she has lived up to that.
Poetry + Yoga with Karen Auvinen and Angie Samadi
9-10:15 a.m. Sunday, April 5
Hub Ned: Second Floor
80 Big Springs Drive - Unit 202, Nederland
Register: tadasanamountainyoga.com
Learning the Language of Land: Eco-Poetry for Adults
10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturday, April 25
Mud Lake Pavilion
2034 County Road 126, Nederland
Register: bit.ly/EcoPoetryCC
Poetry Celebration
6-7 p.m. Thursday, April 30
Brickhouse Alpine Kitchen
95 E. 1st St., Nederland
