Wanted: Poet Laureate

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall kicked off the search for the borough’s fourth Poet Laureate at the Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.
Joining Marshall in announcing the search on Thursday, February 1, was Queens College President James Muyskens.
“We are looking for a talented and energetic individual whose writing will inspire young and old and who will help promote a greater love of poetry and admiration for its power to motivate the mind and lift the spirit,” said Marshall. “He or she must be proud to live here in Queens - the home of America’s most diverse population.”
Queens Poet Laureate is a three-year, unsalaried, honorary post. Qualified candidates must have lived in Queens for at least the past two years, demonstrated a significant record of published works in English (bilingual poets and spoken word artists are welcome), and written poetry inspired by Queens.
Invoking the legacy of Walt Whitman, who taught in a one-room schoolhouse on the site of what would become Queens College, President Muyskens said, “The borough of Queens is a large, contradictory, multitudinous community of great spirit and open-mindedness that Whitman would have much enjoyed, a community that needs a poet laureate. After all, a social scientist may be able to describe what it is like to live here, but a poet can tell us how it feels to be alive in Queens. And that, I am sure, is what our next poet laureate will do.”
Two of the three former Queens Poet Laureates spoke and read their poems. First up was Dr. Stephen Stepanchev (1997-2001), the first Queens Poet Laureate. He was followed by Hal Sirowitz (2001-2004) who entertained the audience with two of his funnier poems. The current Poet Laureate, Ishle Yi Park (2004-2007) was overseas.
Applications are available via the Queens Borough President’s web site: https://www.queensbp.org . Submissions, which must be postmarked or emailed by March 15, will be evaluated by a panel of judges chosen by the Queens Poet Laureate Coordinating Committee which includes Bill Green, a professor at Queens College and David Cohen, Head of Friends of Queens Library, a volunteer organization that came up with the idea for the post in 1996.
The Borough President will review the judges’ recommendations and make the appointment. The fourth Queens Poet Laureate will assume the position at a ceremony this spring.