Part 2 Nevada County Poet Laureate Update: What does a Poet Laureate do?

 

If you are wondering what a poet laureate does, here's Part 2 of the update on my activities as Poet Laureate for Nevada County over the past 16 months:

# of Library Workshops since March 2025: 15

Largest age range at a workshop: 84 years between youngest and oldest

# of people who have attended one of my poet laureate events in the last 16 months: over 6000

In the Truckee Library writing workshops, Moments for Memoirs, I encourage participants from 8 yrs old to 90+ yrs young to reflect on everyday life and also the bigger events that stand out in their memories. We experiment with different approaches to accessing memory to write life stories. 

For me, the creative focus has been responding to current events and imagining the people we may never meet, who are suffering, who may not have a platform or a voice. I’ve offered a series of writing workshops to engage people with the power of agency in writing and imagination and resistance through art and poetry.

 (photo caption: with panel of writers,  Dean Rader, Mary Volmer, and Leta M. Seletzky, at Business of Art Symposium, 2026)

In my personal creative work, I’m grateful to River Heron Review, Sierra Journal, and Pink Panther Magazine for publishing new poems of mine. My poem “Advanced Directive” was awarded Finalist for the River Heron Review Editor’s Prize. I have new poems included in three anthologies coming out soon. I’ve also worked on my own craft, taking workshops and attending conferences, including Community of Writers Poetry Conference, Virtual Valley workshops, presenting at Mountain Words Festival in Colorado, attending the upcoming Poets & Science Gathering at Kent State, and mentoring with other poets.

 (photo caption: teen workshop at Tahoe Literary Festival, 2026)

Value of working with teen writers: unmeasurable

Intersecting literary arts with performance and visual art and music and street fairs and nature preserves/farms (Bear Yuba Land Trust) are probably my richest experiences in this role so far, after working with Teens in Poetry Out Loud, at the Truckee High School, in workshops, and with Trails & Vista collaboration.

For example, the opportunity to respond to a painting by friend artist Robin Wallace at the Ekphrastic Fantastic, performing poetry and music with Sands Hall at Love Farm, hosting and performing at open mics that feature singer/songwriters, poets and writers of prose, all ages and all levels of experience. Writing a Cento that included lines from every single performer at the Truckee Lit Crawl. Even gathering written public input at street fair events for writing a Truckee poem is an interactive activity that makes public the experience of poetry.

 (photo caption: with Alexis Cota at Business of Art Symposium, 2026)

# of open mics hosted or performed at (Truckee, Kings Beach, Camino, Sacramento, Grass Valley, Nevada City, Carson City, Susanville): 40+

Poetry is the language for asking political and social, public and personal, questions like: 

1. Who are “we”?

2. What do we care about?

3. What can we imagine?

4. What do we share?

5. How can we listen?

6. What are the stories in our neighborhood, school, town, county?

Best question I’ve been asked: Who will listen to me?

I will listen to you. A poet listens. A community listens to each other. We listen to others to learn about ourselves. The power of being listened to, being heard, having a platform from which to speak and tell your story is why I started the open mic series for poetry and prose at Alibi in Truckee on Second Thursdays. Join me August 13th for the next Tangled Roots Open Mic & Reading Series! 6-7:30 pm downtown Truckee at Alibi Alehouse.

Nevada County Poet Laureate Update – first 16 months by the numbers (part 1)

 (After Harper’s Index)

(At Truckee Thursday, 2026, Truckee Cultural District Booth) 

A Poet Laureate advocates for poetry as part of everyday and civic life in our county by reaching out to all communities with an empowering and welcoming approach. 

(Tangled Roots Open Mic & Reading series, March, 2026, Alibi Ale Truckee)

 

According to Adrienne Rich, “We go to poetry because we believe it has something to do with us. We also go to poetry to receive the experience of the not me, enter a field of vision we could not otherwise apprehend.”

This field of vision highlights what people hold in common using language that helps people see themselves in the experiences of others. To see their connections with people they may never meet, strangers, neighbors, and people that seem different. Poetry can also celebrate public and private memory and history. It celebrates caring for each other. 

 (With Eliza Tudor, Executive Director Nevada County Arts Council, and Carrie Haines, Truckee Cultural District)

“At a public event, a poem changes the air. Sometimes the shift is barely visible: a pause before applause, a room growing quieter, a few people hearing their own experience returned in language. That is not policy. It is not road repair. But it is one way a public becomes aware of itself.” – Clara AB Joseph, Calgary Poet Laureate 

(Dramatic skies over Truckee Thursday, June 18, 2026) 

Number of months since “Passing of the Laurels”:16

 (Passing of the Laurels, March, 2025, with Kirsten Casey, Nevada County Poet Laureate Emerita)

# public events in the last 16 months: 92

# writing workshops taught: over 30

On September 17^th the Truckee community Block Party will bring together community services, local culture, and neighbors in the heart of downtown. I’ll be reading a new poem for this event and inviting Alexis Cota to read in Spanish our translation in support of the bilingual nature of Truckee. Food trucks, art, music, bike valet, games, community organization booths, and poetry come together. The poem can make concrete the unsayable feelings of what creates the heart of a community, or allow the public to become aware of itself in a new perspective, and this might capture the manifestation of poetry as civic infrastructure.

 (Nevada County Championships, Poetry Out Loud, 2025)

“Infrastructure alone does not create civic life. A functioning city also depends on forms of attention that are harder to quantify: the ability to listen, remember and imagine oneself connected to people we may never meet.” – Clara AB Joseph, Calgary Poet Laureate 

 (At Reno Lit Crawl with Jesse James Ziegler, Reno Poet Laureate Emeritus, Priya Hutner, founder of Tahoe Lit Fest)

My work as Poet Laureate has brought me into libraries, schools, town and county meeting halls, downtown streets, churches, festivals, art galleries, parks, breweries, farms, nature preserves, and backyard porch fests. At these events, I’ve engaged in conversations about science and art, healthy food accessibility, song-writing, tourism, Indigenous culture, history, LGBTQ+ Pride, reading, publishing, environmental health, outdoor recreation, forest bathing, art careers, social justice, girl power, civil rights, youth voices, community engagement, meaning-making and making change.

# of miles driven to events in 16 months: 3800

# of people who have attended one of my poet laureate events in the last 16 months: over 6000  

 

 (November 2025 Tangled Roots Open Mic & Reading Series, Alibi Ale Truckee)

Resources:

https://theconversation.com/as-calgarys-poet-laureate-im-interested-in-poetry-as-a-form-of-civic-listening-282530

https://heyzine.com/flip-book/OurCaliforniaCulturalDistricts#page/1

https://harpers.org/harpers-index/?issue_month=07&issue_year=2026