The NC governor won in that he succeeded in framing the controversy in terms of "cultural elitism" vs. populism, when in fact, the state poet laureate position is a populist position and the selection committees were put in place about a decade ago to make merit and not a political favor the basis for selection. If there is any bias at all on the part of the selection committees, it is toward accessibility of the laureate's work in relation to a general public audience. I have named some of the recent state laureates (chosen by those evil selection committees): me, Marilyn Nelson, Marilyn Taylor, David Mason, Kelly Cherry, Dick Allen, Natasha Trethewey. Can anyone please name one of those elitist MFA state laureates he or she is railing against? I am inserting a link to a recent national conference of state PLs that I attended while I was a PL. Please look at the titles of the panel discussions we sponsored: Poetry and Community, Poetry and Education, Poetry and Social Justice, Poetry and Politics. Is this the stuff of cultural elitism??? (And, incidentally, Dana Gioia was the keynote speaker at the first national conference of state poets laureate, in 2003.)
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