Mississippi’s Poet Laureate serves as the official state poet, creating and reading appropriate poetry at state occasions and state agency activities and represents the rich cultural heritage of Mississippi. In 1963, Maude Willard Leet Prenshaw was named the first Poet Laureate of Mississippi, then a lifetime position. Starting in 2011, the Governor’s Office, in partnership with the Mississippi Arts Commission and Mississippi’s other cultural agencies, instituted a four-year term for the state’s poet laureate, starting with Natasha Trethewey, who served from 2012 to 2016.

Catherine Pierce is the current laureate, whose term will expire in April 2025.

Nomination and Selection Process

Poets and members of the public can submit a nomination (including self-nominations) for the next Mississippi Poet Laureate. Follow the instructions below to complete the nomination process:

• Navigate to the online nomination portal: www.arts.ms.gov/apply
  • If you do not have an existing account, register for an account.**
• Click “apply” to be directed to a list of available forms.
• Select “2024 Poet Laureate Nominations” from the list.
• Complete the multiple choice, short answer, and documentation upload fields requested of the form. You can save the form at the bottom of the page and access it later to complete it.
• Submit the nomination form by June 30, 2024. You will get a confirmation email upon successful submission.

**MAC Staff are available to assist in the creation of your user account as well as answer questions/resolve technical issues during the submission process.

Submitted nominations are reviewed by the Mississippi Poet Laureate Selection Panel, an advisory council consisting of representatives from the state’s cultural agencies and professionals in the literary community. After reviewing nominations, the Selection Panel convenes to interview the finalists and submit a list of persons qualified and eligible for the position to the Governor’s office. The Governor considers these recommendations in making the final selection. In addition to a widely-published poet from Mississippi and a professor of literature from a Mississippi university or college, members of the panel include representatives from the following organizations:

• Mississippi Arts Commission (chair)
• University Press of Mississippi
• Mississippi Humanities Council
• Mississippi Department of Archives and History
• Mississippi Library Commission

Ann Fisher-Wirth

On May 15, 2025, Governor Tate Reeves announced Ann Fisher-Wirth as Mississippi’s Poet Laureate. Ann will serve a four-year term.

Fisher-Wirth retired in 2022 from the University of Mississippi, where she taught for 33 years in the MFA program and directed the Environmental Studies program. For many years, she also taught yoga at Southern Star in Oxford. She is preceded in the role of Poet Laureate by Catherine Pierce.

A senior fellow of the Black Earth Institute, Fisher-Wirth received Fulbright scholarships to Switzerland and Sweden. She has had residencies at Djerassi, Hedgebrook, Storyknife, The Mesa Refuge, and Camac; in October 2025, she will be in residence at Studio Faire in the South of France. She received the 2023 Governor’s Award for Excellence in Literature and Poetry from the Mississippi Arts Commission. She has also received three Mississippi Arts Commission Poetry Fellowships, the MS Institute of Arts Poetry Award, and fifteen Pushcart nominations.

Fisher-Wirth’s work is exhibited in her various books of poems. Her eighth book of poems is a poetry/photography collaboration with Wilfried Raussert, with translations of Fisher-Wirth’s poems into Spanish by the Women in Translation collective, Into the Chalice of Your Thoughts, and was exhibited at the Guadalajara Book Festival in 2023 and published by the University of Guadalajara Press. Fisher-Wirth, Raussert, and the translators have expanded the book and hope to publish it in the United States. Other books include Paradise Is Jagged (Terrapin Books, 2023), and a book of poetry/photography in collaboration with Maude Schuyler Clay, Mississippi. In addition, Fisher-Wirth coedited with Laura-Gray Street, The Ecopoetry Anthology (Trinity University Press, 2013), and Attached to the Living World: A New Ecopoetry Anthology (Trinity University Press, 2025).

Position Criteria and Expectations

The Mississippi Poet Laureate is an honorary position, and the selected individual must meet the following criteria to be eligible for consideration:

• Be either born or domiciled in Mississippi at the time of nomination;
• Possess a body of quality works;
• Have works widely published in books, anthologies, literary journals or magazines by recognized, reputable publishers; (please cite sources in bibliography);
• Reflect the essence and unique cultural heritage of Mississippi;
• Be available to travel and actively serve in the state;
• Be available for a personal interview with the Poet Laureate Selection Committee (if selected as a potential finalist).

Position Expectations: 

1. To serve as the official state poet, creating and reading appropriate poetry upon state occasions and state agency activities;

2. To represent the rich cultural heritage of Mississippi;

3. To help identify Mississippi poets, write poetry, promote literacy and the literary arts by attending events and speaking with schools and organizations

4. To serve as the Honorary Host of the NEA’s Poetry Out Loud initiative in Mississippi;

5. To serve as a Mississippi Arts Commission Teaching Artist

Mississippi’s Past Poet Laureates

Beth Ann Fennelley – 2016 – 2021

Natasha Trethewey – 2012 – 2016

Winifred Hamrick Farrar – 1978 – 2010

Louise Moss Montgomery- 1973 – 1978

Maude Willard Leet Prenshaw – 1963 – 1973

Photo credit of typewriter image: Tom Joynt.