Do you smoke cigarettes and wear a beret and hang out in coffee shops? Then you should consider applying to be Dallas’ first poet laureate. The city started taking applications today. It’s a joint venture of the Dallas Public Library, the Office of Arts and Culture, and Deep Vellum Books, whose director, Will Evans, had this say in the press release announcing the search: “There is no doubt that Dallas, is, and has always been, a literary city, and the Dallas Poet Laureate will nurture new generations of readers and writers from right here in Dallas, cementing the literary arts among the city’s proudest culture offerings.”
It’s a two-year gig that comes with a $20,000 honorarium. The deadline to apply is December 31, and we’ll have our wordsmith by April 2022. And I’m sorry for being glib with the beret joke. This is a cool deal, and I look forward to seeing how this turns out. There are more details here.
