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.