Induction of Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green

Jaki Shelton Green will be installed as North Carolina’s ninth Poet Laureate on Feb 18th in a ceremony at the State Capitol.

The ceremony starts at 4pm in the old House Chamber at the State Capitol, located at One East Edenton St. in downtown Raleigh. This is a free event but reserved tickets are needed to attend.


Governor Roy Cooper announced Green’s appointment last month. She will succeed Shelby Stephenson, who was named poet laureate in early 2015.

A native of Orange County, Green has been active in North Carolina’s literary and teaching community for more than 40 years. She has penned eight books of poetry, co-edited two poetry anthologies and written one play. She is a 2014 North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductee and was the recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature in 2003.

The ceremony will include readings by both Stephenson and Green.

Green currently teaches Documentary Poetry at Duke University Center for Documentary Studies. Over the last 40 years, she has taught poetry and facilitated creative writing classes at public libraries, universities and community colleges, public and private schools and with literary organizations across the U.S.

She plans to focus her efforts on the creation of documentary poetry, working with North Carolina communities to explore the ways they document their unique regional histories and significant historical events.

[MerqSeker]

How wonderful! Great speeches, great poetry by Jaki. Very well thought out. Congratulations Jaki Shelton Green.

[judyhogan]

I'm very proud of Jaki, whom I met when I lived in an old farm house in Cedar Grove in 1973. She was 20, brought me a big sack of poems, and as I read them, I found them different from any poems i'd read before, but striking, important, memorable. As editor and publisher of Carolina Wren Press I published her first book, Dead on Arrival. She's very accomplished now, but still open, friendly, sincere. Read her! Judy Hogan