High School Student Poets: Apply to be RI youth poetry ambassador

UPDATE: Results announced motifri.com/youth-poet-2022-results

Seeking a youth poetry ambassador for 2022, the RI Center for the Book invites applications from high school students who reside in RI. State Poet Laureate Tina Cane will select an ambassador and deputy ambassador with results announced in January 2022.

“This initiative is designed to bring more poetry directly to our state’s youth and to inspire young people through example. Just as the state poet laureate position symbolically affirms Rhode Island’s support of poetry, the youth poetry ambassador is meant to validate and support the creative potential of our young people,” said center director Kate Lentz in a statement.

Depending upon the selected ambassador’s ability and availability, they will receive a $250 cash prize, a guest-writer spot in the Providence Journal “Second Sunday” poet laureate column, an opportunity to have poetry featured on RIPTA buses through the “Poetry in Motion” program, and an opportunity to record for Cane’s distance reading series, “Poetry is Bread.”

Applicants must submit by December 15, 2021: a one- or two-paragraph statement on why the applicant would like to be considered for the position, a letter of support from a teacher or librarian, a letter of support from a peer, and two original poems. All parts of the application must be submitted together.

Applications should be sent by e-mail to kate@ribook.org or by postal mail to Kate Lentz, RI Center for the Book, Pell Center, Salve Regina University, 100 Ochre Point Ave, Newport, RI 02840.

The 2022 appointments will be the fourth annual (except for a two-year term during the pandemic), following previous ambassador Moira Flath and deputy ambassador Kiani Sincere-Pope (2018), ambassador Catherine Sawoski and deputy ambassador Tyler Cordeiro (2019), and ambassador Halima Ibrahim and deputy ambassador Eugenie Rose Belony (2020/2021).