Paisley Rekdal Named Utah Poet Laureate

Congratulations to University of Utah English professor Paisley Rekdal, who is now the state of Utah's newest poet laureate. Rekdal's is a governor-appointed position; she'll advocate for literature and arts throughout the state. "As poet laureate, Rekdal will create a website that maps the writers and poets of Utah, along with all the various literary presses and journals in the state," Deseret News explains. From there:

She plans to conduct audio interviews with as many Utah poets, writers and publishers as possible and post them on the website. The project is a spinoff of Mapping Salt Lake City, a community-created archive of art and literature, which she created and manages.

In the past, the laureate work has tended to be Wasatch Front-heavy, but Rekdal plans to expand the reach and vision to represent as much of the state as possible.

Rekdal is the author of a book of essays, "The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee"; the hybrid genre, photo-text memoir, "Intimate"; and five books of poetry, "A Crash of Rhinos," "Six Girls Without Pants," "The Invention of the Kaleidoscope," "Animal Eye" and "Imaginary Vessels."

More at Deseret News.