PORTLAND, Ore. — Peter Sears of Corvallis will be Oregon’s seventh poet-laureate.
Gov. John Kitzhaber’s appointment was announced on Friday. Sears will serve a two-year term, succeeding Paulann Petersen who was poet laureate since 2010.
The Oregon Arts Commission says Sears came to Oregon in 1974 as writer in residence at Reed College. He founded the Oregon Literary Coalition in 1993 and served as its director, and also was the community services coordinator for the Arts Commission.
Sears wrote three full-length collections of poetry: Tour, published in 1987, The Brink from 1999 and Green Driver in 2009. A fourth is set to be published this year.
Sears says in a statement that he wants to “broaden the range of the poet laureate’s role to include the voices of diverse communities.”
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