Are you Vancouver’s next Poet Laureate?

Vancouver’s poet laureate, otherwise known as the “people’s poet”, serves as a champion for poetry, language, and arts in our city.
With current poet laureate Fiona Tinwei Lam’s tenure concluding in December, the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Public Library, and the Vancouver Writers Fest are inviting applications for a new poet laureate whose term will commence in January 2025 and continue for two to three years, depending on the scope and timeline of their proposed project.

Fiona Tinwei Lam’s poet laureate project was the four-stage City Poems Project External website, opens in new tab that resulted in a generation of new poems and poetry videos by young people to foster greater understanding about historical, cultural and ecological sites within Vancouver.

“I’ve been amazed at the range of opportunities for creative collaboration and poetic partnership during my tenure,” said Tinwei Lam. “It has been an honour to encourage talented local poets and emerging poetry filmmakers to depict some of the multilayered histories, cultures and ecologies of sites within these unceded traditional lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, now known as Vancouver. I have learned so much. And there’s even more untapped ‘poet-ential’ out there to explore!”

The online call for submissions invites applications from Vancouver-based poets who have a notable body of work and who have earned recognition for contributions to poetry and our literary community.

Literary artists from equity-deserving communities are strongly encouraged to apply, including poets from xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-waututh) Nations; and poets who are IBPOC (Indigenous, Black, and people of colour).

Roles and responsibilities include:

• Creating a unique literary project and meaningful opportunities to connect with Vancouver’s diverse communities.
• Representing the City as laureate during readings, public poetry events and Civic events like the Vancouver Book Awards, City Council meetings and cultural events.
• Composing literary work that is reflective of Vancouver’s diversity, landscape, cityscape, and civic identity.
• Updating the poet laureate blog with events and resources.

“We are thrilled to be launching our search for Vancouver’s next poet laurate this April during National Poetry Month,” said Mayor Ken Sim. “In the City of Vancouver’s Culture Shift strategy, we recognize arts and culture as being central to building an exciting, inclusive and economically vibrant city. The poet laureate acts as a literary and cultural ambassador for our city, engaging with our community to create new works that are reflective of Vancouver’s diversity, landscape, cityscape and civic identity.”

Funded through a generous endowment by Dr. Yosef Wosk, OBC, the poet laureate position was established in 2006 by the City of Vancouver in partnership with the Vancouver Public Library and the Vancouver Writers Festival. Vancouver has had six poet laureates since the start of the program. Biographies of past poets laureate can be found here.

The poet laureate’s stipend is $7,500 per year. Additional project funds of $2,500 per year are available to support laureate activities. The selection committee, consisting of community members, will review submissions and make the selection based on the assessment criteria.

For full details, including application criteria and information on the current and past poets laureate, visit: Vancouver.ca/PoetLaureate.

NT4