The Mayor would like to announce that the City’s Poet Laureate, Joseph Bruchac, has been selected as a recipient of the Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate Fellowship Award. The Academy choses twenty-three poet laureates from states, counties and cities across the United States for this award. The Mayor extends his congratulations to Joseph Bruchac and both are delighted at this honor.
Joseph Bruchac comments, “I feel doubly blessed by this fellowship: first by being recognized by the Academy of American Poets, one of our nation's most important voices for poetry; second, and more importantly, by the way its support will enable me to better carry out my role as the first Poet Laureate of Saratoga Springs.”
The Academy of American Poets awarded each of its twenty-three recipients $50,000 for their commitment to poetry for a combined total of $1.1 million. The Academy is a leading financial supporter of poets in the United States and its Poet Laureate Fellowship program has awarded a total of $5.45 million in fellowships to one hundred and four poet laureates since 2019.
Mayor Kim states “I want to congratulate the very first poet laureate in Saratoga Springs and in the Capital District. This is a well-deserved honor and I look forward to seeing what projects Joe will develop with this support.”