The Oregon Poet Laureate Program

By statute, a portion of the Oregon Cultural Trust’s grant funds is set aside for a project of statewide significance to be collaboratively undertaken by the Trust’s partners. In 2006, these funds supported the reinstatement of Oregon’s poet laureate (the position had been vacant since William Stafford’s tenure ended in 1989) and each laureate’s outreach as an ambassador of poetry across the state.

Previous Oregon Poets Laureate

Kim Stafford 2018–2020
Elizabeth Woody 2016–2018
Peter Sears 2014–2016
Paulann Petersen 2010–2014
Lawson Fusao Inada 2006–2010
William Stafford 1975–1989
Ethel Romig Fuller 1957–1965
Ben Hur Lampman 1951–1954
Edwin Markham 1923–1931

Source: Oregon Encyclopedia