This morning, at a meeting of the Economic and Community Development Committee at City Hall, I was honoured to be chosen as the next Poet Laureate of the City of Toronto. This appointment must still be made official in a meeting of City Council on March 28, 2019.
Per the City’s Press Release: “The position of Toronto’s Poet Laureate began in 2001. The position honours a Toronto poet whose work displays excellence and who has written on themes relevant to Torontonians. The Laureate is an ambassador for poetry and the arts and infuses poetry into a range of official and informal city activities to attract people to the literary world. The Poet Laureate’s mandate also includes the creation of a legacy project that will be unique to the individual. Moritz’s legacy project will be announced at a later date.”
I look forward to engaging with Torontonians around poetry’s particular gifts: its unique, necessary knowledge, and its powerful search for community, for what makes us both different and alike.
You can read the official News Release here.
For more information about the role, please see the city’s website: toronto.ca/poetlaureate
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