Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd has been selected to be the third poet laureate in the state's history.
To learn more about the announcement, please read the press release available on the Library of Michigan website:
Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd, Award-Winning Detroit Author, Named Michigan Poet Laureate
Dr. Boyd is a recently retired distinguished professor in African American Studies at Wayne State University and is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Michigan in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies. Her poetry, essays, and creative nonfiction have appeared in anthologies, academic journals, cultural periodicals and newspapers in the United States and Europe. The Kresge Foundation honored her as the 2023 Kresge Eminent Artist.
She has a doctor of arts in English from the University of Michigan and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in English from Western Michigan University.
The role of the Michigan Poet Laureate to serve as an “Ambassador for Poetry” throughout the state, working to promote poetry as an art form, expand access to the literary arts, and promote poetry as a literary voice that contributes to a sense of place. The current Michigan Poet Laureate is Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd.
Connect with the Michigan Poet Laureate by emailing: PoetLaureate@Michigan.gov.
Explore fast paced poetry slam to soothing nature scenes in Michigan in Verse as Michigan poets showcase the state's diverse voices through their stanzas and stories with past Michigan Poet Laureate Nandi Comer.
Michigan in Verse is a co-production of Library of Michigan and WKAR Public Media at Michigan State University.
Raised in Detroit and a graduate of Communications and Media Arts High School in Detroit, Comer received bachelor’s degrees in English and in Spanish with an emphasis on Latin American Culture from the University of Michigan. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Callaloo, and a translation fellowship by U.S. Poets in Mexico.
Comer’s writing received the Vera Myer Strube Award in poetry. Comer is the winner of Crab Orchard Review’s 2014 Richard Peterson Poetry Prize. In 2016, she completed a master’s degree in African American Literature from the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies and a Master’s of Fine Arts degree in Poetry from the English Department at Indiana University. She is a 2019 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow.
Over the years, Comer has been dedicated to youth development by serving as a writer-in-residence in Detroit Public Schools Community District and community centers. She has also worked in collaboration with organizations, including YArts and InsideOut Literary Arts Projects. Ms. Comer served as a curriculum developer and youth curriculum consultant for various arts organizations and in 2018 received the William Wiggins Award for Outstanding Teaching at Indiana University.
Comer’s poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, The Journal of Pan African Studies, Sycamore Review, and Third Coast. She is the author of American Family: Syndrome (Finishing Line Press) and Tapping Out (Northwestern University Press), which was awarded the 2020 Society of Midland Authors Award and the 2020 Julie Suk Award.
Will Carleton (1847-1912) is sometimes referred to as the first Poet Laureate of Michigan. Carleton, a farmer's son from Hudson, was an 1869 graduate of Hillsdale College and internationally recognized poet, editor, and lecturer. Public Act 51 of 1919 designated October 21 of each year as "Carleton Day" in memory of "Michigan's pioneer poet."
However, "Carleton Day" was a commemorative school holiday in honor of Carleton as opposed to an appointed poet laureate title. "Carleton Day" was removed as a school holiday in 1995 as directed by Public Act 289 during a revision of the state of Michigan's school code.
