In 2026, Mark Turcotte was named an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Mark Turcotte’s “Illinois Writes Together” is a three-phase project for which he will create and teach a statewide poetry writing assignment based on the “form” known as the “Where I’m From” poem. The form, as exemplified by American poet George Ella Lyon’s popular poem, “Where I’m From,” is intended to suggest not only where but the who, what, why and how of the poet’s origins, and will provide any and all Illinois residents with the opportunity to express, share and celebrate their own identities in a series of exhibitions and readings featuring the poems as broadsides and videos.