City of Windsor Seeks Next YOUTH Poet Laureate
The City of Windsor is calling for applications or nominations for the City’s next Youth Poet Laureate. Windsor’s Poet Laureate & Storytellers Program is a vital piece of the local creative community. Since 2011, the program has helped develop and cultivate an engaged, all-ages local audience that appreciates and responds to the literary arts. The program aims to promote poetry and storytelling to a wide and appreciative audience while strengthening the public’s relationship to literature by celebrating poetry, writing and the contribution of poets and storytellers to the cultural life of our diverse community. Windsor has set an example for other Canadian communities for what is possible through a responsive and interactive poet laureate program that truly engages a community while allowing the City to help capture, preserve and share Windsor’s unique stories.
The post was previously held by Samantha Badaoa (2019 to 2020), and Alexei Ungurenaşu (2021 to 2022), and is part of a program team that includes a Poet Laureate Emeritus, Poet Laureate, Indigenous Storyteller, and Multicultural Community Storyteller. Interested youth poets are encouraged to apply and may also be nominated for consideration for the role. The Youth Poet Laureate position will serve to honour a Windsor poet aged 14 to 24 years who writes excellent poetry and focuses on themes that are relevant to youth who live in the city of Windsor. This poet will provide a strong youth voice and will reach out to other youth to inspire interest in poetry and the literary arts. As an ambassador for youth, poetry, language and the arts, the Youth Poet Laureate will create artistic work reflecting Windsor’s young people and the places, sites, identity and/or life of the city’s youth.
Applicants must reside in the city of Windsor and have a strong connection to the local arts, culture and heritage community; and a demonstrated track record of being a positive ambassador for the creative community, particularly youth, in Windsor through their previous endeavours. Through this process, the City is seeking out diverse voices and perspectives, including Black, Indigenous, People of Colour and equity-seeking writers and poets.
Deadline to apply: Friday, February 24, 2023
Full details on eligibility requirements, application process and required submission form, selection criteria, role responsibilities, honorariums, term lengths and more can be found in the Program Guidelines.
For further information or questions, please contact the Cultural Affairs Office at culturalaffairs@
Program Info: https://www.citywindsor.
