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OCH Press Releases

Lawson Inada begins second year as state's poet laureate (March 15, 2007)

Oregon Council for the Humanities will continue to oversee Oregon's recently revived poet laureate program.

Oregon's Poet Laureate Lawson Inada spent the first year of his two-year term making more than 70 public appearances. His travels have taken him to special events, libraries and schools across the state; to Salem where he addressed the Joint Session of the House in January; and even to Idaho where he spoke at an internment camp reunion.

Inada's appearances have been organized and administered by the Oregon Council for the Humanities (OCH) through a grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust, an innovative, statewide private-public program raising significant new funds to support and protect Oregon's arts, humanities and heritage. The Trust recently awarded an additional $20,000--$10,000 for Inada's annual honorarium and $10,000 to cover travel expenses--for the second year of the program.

The position of Oregon poet laureate was revived in 2006 when, after a search chaired by First Lady Mary Oberst, the Trust's cultural partners designated new funding to support a first-time stipend for the laureate, as well as additional funds to support the laureate's work and travel across the state. Governor Ted Kulongoski appointed Inada as Oregon's fifth poet laureate in February 2006. The position had been vacant since 1989 when William Stafford stepped down.

Inada, a third-generation Japanese American, is a significant figure in Asian American poetry and literature. He was one of the co-editors of the landmark anthology, Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers. In his autobiographical volume, Legends from Camp, he wrote memorably about his boyhood experience of internment during World War II along with other Japanese Americans. Inada studied writing at the University of Iowa, and then moved to Oregon. He is an emeritus professor of writing at Southern Oregon University where he has taught since 1966.

Historically, a poet laureate title is conferred on a poet officially appointed by a government and often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events. Oregon's poet laureate program aims to offer all Oregonians exposure to poetry as a compelling experience that gives rise to deep thought and consideration, civic engagement, and, of course, a sense of aesthetic and creative pleasure.

Oregon's poet laureate program is a collaborative project of the State's five cultural partners, Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Council for the Humanities, Oregon Heritage Commission, Oregon Historical Society, and State Historic Preservation Office, with funding from the Oregon Cultural Trust.

Contact: Sarah Van Winkle, Director of Administration, (503) 241-0543