A poet for Vermont

MIDDLEBURY | Mary Ruefle may not be a household name in her home state, but during the coming months, we're sure more Vermonters will recognize her poetry and her insight. Last week, Gov. Phil Scott signed a proclamation appointing Bennington poet Mary Ruefle as Vermont Poet Laureate. "Vermont has a long history of story-telling, spoken word, and poetry, starting with our first citizens, the Abenaki people," said Scott. "Vermont's spectacular landscape, frigid winters, and vibrant fall foliage provide creative inspiration—as we all know from the famous Robert Frost poem, 'Stopping by Woods' on a Snowy Evening." Scott congratulated Ruefle and she was resented with the honors and an honorarium. Ruefle, as poet laureate, serves as Vermont's ambassador for the art of poetry and participates in official ceremonies and readings locally and out-of-state. This is a four-year honorary position which is appointed by the governor. The honorarium received by Ruefle for being named Poet Laureate amounted to $2,000. The money she received was entirely from voluntary contributions made by members of the Poetry Society of Vermont and Sundog Poetry Center, Inc. According to Scott's accolades, Ruefle received a B.A. degree from Bennington College. She went on to teach at Vermont College of Fine Arts as well as the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Among the poetry community, she is known for several publications including "Dunce", "My Private Property", "Trances of the Blast", "Madness", "Rack", and "Honey: Collected Lectures". Ruefle has also published a comic book, "Go Home and Go to Bed!". She is, said Scott, an erasure artist, whose treatments of 19th-century texts have been exhibited in museums and galleries and published in "A Little White Shadow". Ruefle was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism and Selected Poems. She is a winner of the William Carlos Williams Award and the Robert Creeley Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and a Whiting Award. ■

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A poet for Vermont

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