Search Launches For 2017 Bucks County Poet Laureate

Do you want to be the next Bucks County Poet Laureate?

Applications are now being accepted for the 41st annual Bucks County Poet Laureate. It's the longest-running poet laureate program in Pennsylvania and it is organized by Bucks County Community College professors Christopher Bursk and Ethel Rackin.

To apply, you must be a Bucks County resident at least 18 years old who has never previously served as poet laureate. Applications must include 10 original poems along with an entry form to the college’s Language and Literature Department. Entries must be postmarked by Wednesday, September 6 or hand-delivered to the office by Friday, September 8 at 4 p.m.

Poetry of any style, form, or length is welcome. All work must be original, published or unpublished, typewritten or word-processed on one side in black ink. All entries must be accompanied by an entry form, which can be found by clicking here. There is no charge to apply.

The winner of the competition will receive a $500 honorarium and a proclamation from the Bucks County Commissioners. The next poet laureate will also be honored with a reading and reception at Bucks County Community College with 2016 Poet Laureate Laren McClung and contest runners-up.

Two judges will blindly select the winner. The preliminary judge will narrow the entries down to a few dozen to be sent to the final judge, who will choose the winner and three runners up from the pool of finalists. The judges for the contest will be Barbara Daniels, preliminary judge, and Margaret Holley, final judge.

Daniels is the author of Quinn and Marie and Rose Fever. Her poetry has appeared in Mid-Atlantic Review, Solstice and The Literary Review among others. She earned an MFA from Vermont College and received two Individual Artist Fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

Holley’s books include Walking Through the Horizon, The Smoke Tree – winner of the Bluestem Award, Morning Star, Beyond Me, and Kore in Bloom. She is also the author of The Poetry of Marianne Moore: A Study in Voice and Value. Holley is the former director of the creative writing program at Bryn Mawr College.

For more information, contact Dr. Christopher Bursk at 215-968-8156.

PHOTO, contributed: Bucks County Community College Professors Christopher Bursk (left) and Ethel Rackin (right), directors of the Bucks County Poet Laureate Program, have launched the search for the 2017 bard of the county.