Salem To Name City's First Official Poet Laureate

SALEM, MA — Salem is looking to celebrate and honor its creative side with the naming of its first official poet laureate.

Mayor Dominick Pangallo this week announced the formation of a committee that will work to select one member of the community for the designation.

"As a city with a deep commitment to the arts, it's so fitting that we celebrate the art of the spoken word," Pangallo said. "When I announced the new Salem Poet Laureate in my first State of the City, I shared that we wanted to elevate writers whose words celebrate who we are, what we've endured and accomplished, and where we aspire to go. I'm incredibly grateful to the volunteer members of the committee who will advance this exciting new initiative."

The committee, chaired by Salem Public Library Director Tara Mansfield, will use provided guidelines and rubrics in order to equitably make their selection. Once selected, the Poet Laureate will serve a two-year term beginning in January 2025.

Members of the committee are:

• Colin Perry: Colin Perry teaches 8th grade English Language Arts at Collins Middle School in Salem. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education and English Literature from Lesley University, and is currently a graduate student at Salem State University. He is a resident of Salem, and enjoys reading fiction and poetry, in addition to writing and performing music in his free time.
• Tara Mansfield: Tara Mansfield is the Director of the Salem Public Library, and was formerly the Assistant Director and the Head of Circulation. She attended storytime as a child, which inspired her lifelong love of reading. She has a Master's degree in Library and Information Science and enjoys helping others discover the joy of reading and the many other wonderful resources that the library offers.
• Jean Marie Procious: Jean Marie Procious is Executive Director of the Salem Athenaeum and co-chair of the Salem Literary Festival. She is a librarian and archivist with degrees from Simmons University and Hiram College. An avid reader and pie baker, her activities also include serving as a trustee of Harmony Grove Cemetery, volunteering with local nonprofits, and game night with friends, her husband, two kids, and two cats.
• M.P Carver: M.P. Carver is a poet and visual artist from Salem, MA. She has served as Director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival since it returned to Salem in 2021. She is the miCrO-Founder of Molecule: a tiny lit mag, and she teaches creative writing at Salem State University. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in the literary magazines Rattle, Mantis, and Jubilat, among others. She has received funding from the Essex County Community Foundation and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. In 2022 her poem “You & God & I” was awarded the New England Poetry Club’s E.E. Cummings Prize, and in 2023 her visual poem "In Vitro" was a finalist for the Connecticut River Review's Experimental Poetry Contest. Her first chapbook, Selachipmorpha, was published by Incessant Pipe in 2015, and her second collection, Hard Up, is forthcoming from Lily Review Books in 2024.
• John Andrews: John Andrews is the founder of Creative Collective, a Salem, MA-based organization dedicated to fostering economic development and supporting creative entrepreneurs across the North Shore. Passionate about building inclusive communities, he leads with a commitment to empowering artists, small businesses, and creators to achieve their greatest potential.
• January O'Niell: January Gill O’Neil is an associate professor at Salem State University, and the author of Glitter Road (2024), Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009), all published by CavanKerry Press. From 2012-2018, she served as the executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, and from 2019-2020, she served as the John and Renée Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi, Oxford.
• Kerry Rourke: Kerry Rourke is an Associate Teaching Professor of English at Babson College; a Salem Public Library Trustee; a reader, a parent, and a lifelong resident of the North Shore. She learned to read and appreciate literature from her grandmother, Agnes Harney, a Salemite and former City employee who worked as both a teacher and a Parks Department employee. Kerry and her family live in her family's Salem home.
• Regina Zaragoza: Regina hails from Querétaro, México, and currently serves as the inaugural Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) for the City of Salem. Her role was established to elevate issues of race and equity within the City's operations, influencing all departments through a variety of initiatives. These initiatives include conducting an equity audit, facilitating ongoing DEI training and dialogues on equity with all City staff, and implementing language justice. Regina amplifies anti-hate, anti-bias, and anti-discrimination efforts and implements the recommendations of the Race Equity Commission, Race Equity Task Force, and Human Rights Coalition. Her role extends beyond internal operations as she seeks to bridge the City and community, particularly focusing on the needs of historically underrepresented and systematically excluded individuals.

Salem will begin accepting applications for the position beginning April 1 through May 31 with eligibility and submission guidelines here.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)