North Carolina

State Poet Laureate

In 1935, North Carolina established a state poet laureate position, which is currently held by Jaki Shelton Green, appointed in 2019. Green is the author of several books of poetry, including I Want to Undie You (Jacar Press, 2017).

City and County Poets Laureate

Chapel Hill

In 2025, Donovan Livingston was appointed the third poet laureate of Chapel Hill for a one-year term.

Charlotte

In 2022, Jay Ward was named the inaugural poet laureate of Charlotte.

Durham

In 2022, D.J. Rogers was appointed the inaugural poet laureate of Durham. Rogers will serve a one-year term.

Type	Title	State
Literary Organization	The North Carolina Writers' Network	North Carolina
Small Press	University of North Carolina Press	North Carolina
Literary Organization	Poetry Alive!	North Carolina
Small Press	Wake Forest University Press	North Carolina
Reading Series	Slam Charlotte	North Carolina
Literary Organization	Winston-Salem Writers	North Carolina
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	Bull’s Head Bookshop	North Carolina
Writing Program	Davidson College	North Carolina
Literary Magazine	The Carolina Quarterly	North Carolina
Poetry-Friendly Bookstore	City Lights Bookstore	North Carolina

In the moon-fade and the sun’s puppy breath,
  in the crow’s plummeting cry,
in my broken foot and arthritic joints,
                                       memory calls me
to the earth’s opening, the graves dug, again, and again 
I, always I am left
                   to turn away
into a bat’s wing-brush of air.

That never changes . .

Judy Jordan

1999

Summer at Blue Creek, North Carolina

There was no water at my grandfather's
when I was a kid and would go for it
with two zinc buckets. Down the path,
past the cow by the foundation where
the fine people's house was before
they arranged to have it burned down.
To the neighbor's cool well. Would
come back with pails too heavy,
so my mouth pulled out of shape.
I see myself, but from the outside.
I keep trying to feel who I was,
and cannot. Hear clearly the sound
the bucket made hitting the sides
of the stone well going down,
but never the sound of me.

Jack Gilbert

2009

Fuss, fight, and cutting the huckley-buck—Dear Malindy,
Underground, must I always return to the country of the dead,

To the coons catting about in the trees, the North Carolina pines
Chattering about sweetening bodies in their green whirring?

Do these letters predict my death—some sound of a twig
Breaking then a constant drowning—a butter bean drying

Roger Reeves

2013

Poetry Near You

North Carolina

Recent & Featured Listings

Maya Angelou

Michael McFee

Gretchen Steele Pratt

Summer at Blue Creek, North Carolina

Poetry Near You

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North Carolina

Recent & Featured Listings

Maya Angelou

Michael McFee

Gretchen Steele Pratt

Related Poems

Summer at Blue Creek, North Carolina

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