Governor Tina Kotek has appointed Ellen Waterston of Bend to a second term as Poet Laureate of Oregon.
Waterston is a poet, educator and speaker who founded the Writing Ranch and the Waterston Desert Writing Prize.
Waterston is Oregon’s 11th Poet Laureate, first appointed to the role in 2024. She'll serve a second two-year term ending in August 2028.
According to a press release from the Oregon Cultural Trust, in her second term Waterson plans to pursue a project called Poetry in Public Places.
It encourages Oregon communities to display poems in unexpected locations, “from poetry walks to permanent art installations,” she explained.
She also plans to encourage young poets to share the podium when she visits communities in Oregon.
She plans to compile an anthology of young Oregon poets.
Waterston said, “The poems in this anthology will form a daisy chain north to south, and up and over the Cascades.”