State Seeks Nominations for Arizona Poet Laureate 

The Arizona Commission on the Arts announced today the relaunch of the Arizona Poet Laureate program. The state agency will accept nominations for the position from January 13 through March 31, 2025.

Established in 2012, the position of Arizona Poet Laureate is appointed by the Governor to champion the art of American poetry, inspire an emerging generation of literary artists, and educate Arizonans about poets and authors who have influenced our state through creative literary expression.

To be eligible for nomination, candidates must be at least 18 years old, a resident of Arizona for at least two years from the date of nomination, and must live in Arizona for at least half of the year. They must also be of recognized stature in the literary, cultural, education, and/or academic communities and possess a significant record of high-quality published or documented work and/or service through literary arts.

The nomination committee will also consider candidates’ engagement with different communities and the literary field-at-large.

Nominees will be reviewed by a committee, which will then provide a ranked list of three candidates to the Governor.

Nominations will be accepted through March 31, 2025, via a form on the Arts Commission’s website, https://azarts.gov. The Governor’s selection will be announced in September 2025 and the new Poet Laureate’s two-year term will begin in January 2026.

The position of Arizona Poet Laureate was previously held by Alberto Álvaro Ríos, who served two consecutive two-year terms in the post from 2014 to 2018.

Ríos is the author of twelve collections of poetry, most recently, Not Go Away Is My Name, preceded by A Small Story about the Sky, winner of the Southwest Book Award, The Dangerous Shirt, and The Theater of Night, which received the PEN/Beyond Margins Award. His work has been published in the New Yorker, Paris Review, Ploughshares, and other journals. He has also written three short story collections and a memoir, Capirotada, about growing up in Nogales, Arizona. His most recent book is a novel, A Good Map of All Things. Ríos is also the host of the PBS programs Art in the 48 and Books & Co. Ríos has taught at Arizona State University since 1982. He is a University Professor of Letters, Regents’ Professor, the Virginia G. Piper Chair in Creative Writing, and the Katharine C. Turner Chair in English. In 2017, he was named director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.