[R. S. Gwynn]

OFFICE OF GOV. BILL RITTER, JR.

WWW.COLORADO.GOV/GOVERNOR <http://WWW.COLORADO.GOV/GOVERNOR>



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 2010



CONTACTS

Matt Cheroutes, 303.324.5420, matt.cheroutes@state.co.us

Evan Dreyer, 720.350.8370, evan.dreyer@state.co.us



GOV. RITTER TO NAME NEW COLORADO POET LAUREATE ON JULY 1



Gov. Bill Ritter will name and introduce Colorado's seventh poet laureate
- David Mason of Colorado Springs - at a ceremony at the State Capitol on
July 1. In addition to welcoming Mason as the state's new poet laureate,
Gov. Ritter and First Lady Jeannie Ritter will thank departing Poet
Laureate Mary Crow for her many years of service and contributions to
Colorado culture and arts.



WHAT: News conference introducing Colorado's new poet laureate.



WHO: Gov. Ritter, First Lady Jeannie Ritter, incoming Poet Laureate David
Mason, and departing Poet Laureate Mary Crow.



WHEN: 9:30 a.m., Thursday, July 1, 2010



WHERE: West Steps, State Capitol



Mason is currently a professor at Colorado College and he co-directs the
Creative Writing program. His books of poems include The Buried Houses
(winner of the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize), The Country I Remember
(winner of the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award), and Arrivals. The
Contemporary Poetry Review and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage
Museum named his verse novel, Ludlow the best poetry book of 2007. It
also won the Colorado Book Award and was featured on the PBS News Hour.



Author of a collection of essays, The Poetry of Life and the Life of
Poetry, Mason has also co-edited several textbooks and anthologies,
including Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry, Rebel Angels: 25 Poets
of the New Formalism, Twentieth Century American Poetry, and Twentieth
Century American Poetics: Poets on the Art of Poetry. His next collection
of essays, Two Minds of a Western Poet, will be published in 2011 by The
University of Michigan Press in its Poets on Poetry series.



Mason will serve as an advocate for poetry, literacy and literature at
10-12 events each year, which include presenting the opening poem for the
legislative session, visiting local schools, participating in Arts &
Humanities Month, and reading at literary festivals.



Colorado was the second state in the nation to appoint a poet laureate.
Alice Polk Hill was appointed in 1919 and served until she died in 1921.
Nellie Burget Miller served 1923-1952; Margaret Clyde Robertson served
1952-1954; Milford E. Shields served 1954-1975; and Thomas Hornsby Ferril
served 1979-1988. Mary Crow has served 14 years, from 1996-2010.