About Poet Laureate Paulann Petersen

Paulann Petersen, Oregon Poet Laureate from 2010-2014, is a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University whose poems have appeared in many publications including Poetry, The New Republic, Prairie Schooner, and Wilderness Magazine.

Her first full-length collection of poems, The Wild Awake, was published by Confluence Press in 2002. A second, Blood-Silk, poems about Turkey, was published by Quiet Lion Press of Portland in 2004. A Bride of Narrow Escapewas published by Cloudbank Books as part of its Northwest Poetry Series in 2006. Kindle was published by Mountains and Rivers Press in 2008. The Voluptuary was published by Lost Horse Press in 2010. Her latest book, Understory, is also from Lost Horse Press, 2013. Petersen has also had published five chapbooks.

The recipient of Oregon Literary Arts’ 2006 Holbrook Award and Willamette Writers’ 2013 Distinguished Northwest Writer Award, Petersen has taught a number of poetry workshops for colleges, libraries, and writers’ conferences, including Mountain Writers Series, The Attic Institute, Fishtrap, Oregon Poetry Association, and Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College. She serves on the National Advisory Board for Friends of William Stafford. For more information, go to Paulann Peterson: Home.