By Khalida Sarwari
To be a poet laureate or not to be? That is the question posed to those in Santa Clara County who may be interested in applying for the position.
The county is offering the job in partnership with the Arts Council Silicon Valley to an individual who can engage the community and create a poetic identity for the area.
Some of the poet laureate’s duties include performing poetry-related outreach, undertaking a project to make poetry more available and accessible to people in their everyday lives, and participating in National Poetry Month events and activities.
The poet laureate will serve from April 2013 to March 2015. The term for the county’s second poet laureate, Sally Ashton, expires in March.
Ashton, a professor of creative writing and composition at her alma mater, San Jose State University, has undertaken several projects during the past two years. She is the editor of the “DMQ Review,” an online poetry and art journal, as well as the author of “Some Odd Afternoon,” “These Metallic Days” and a prose poem collection called “Her Name Is Juanita.”
She was awarded an Arts Council Silicon Valley Artist Fellowship for poetry in 2005 and was a Pushcart Prize nominee in 2006 and 2011, as well as a finalist for Best of the Net in 2007.
This year, in partnership with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, the arts council and San Jose’s office of cultural affairs, Ashton launched “Poetry on the Move,” an initiative that placed poetry in VTA buses and light rail vehicles. The poems were submitted by winners of a contest that attracted more than 100 entrants.
Applicants for the poet laureate position must have lived in Santa Clara County for at least five years and have published work. The application deadline is Nov. 19 at 5 p.m.
Applications can be submitted by email to poet@artscouncil.org. Paper submissions can be sent to: Santa Clara County Poet Laureate, Arts Council Silicon Valley, 4 N. Second St., Suite 500, San Jose, CA 95113-1305.
The board of supervisors will announce its choice at a meeting in March.
For more information, visit www.artscouncil.org.
