WYOMING — Roses are red, violets are blue, Wyoming has a new Poet Laureate, yes, it’s true!
Governor Mark Gordon announced on Friday that he had appointed Barbara Smith as Wyoming’s ninth Poet Laureate.
Smith, a resident of Rock Springs, released her first full-length poetry collection in 2022, titled “Putting a Name on It.” Her work has also been published in collections “Wyoming Fence Lines,” “Deep West: A Literary Tour of Wyoming,” “Leaning Into the Wind,” “Woven on the Wind,” “Crazy Woman Creek” and more. In 2006, she received the Wyoming Governor’s Arts Award.
“Barbara’s poetry captures the essence of Wyoming and is instantly relatable,” Governor Gordon said in a statement. “Her work speaks to the incredible changes that have taken place in the state and across the West since the arrival of the first pioneers.”
Smith worked as an instructor at Western Wyoming Community College for 38 years before retiring in 2007. She directed the Wesswick Lecture Series in the Arts and Education and brought visiting writers to campus.
Since being established in 1981, the state’s Poet Laureate position has been held by eight others: Peggy Simson Curry, Charles L. Levendosky, Robert Roripaugh, David Romtvedt, Patricia Frolander, Echo Roy Klaproth, Rose Hill and Gene Gagliano.
