New Poet Laureate Expected To Be Named October 15th
Trinidad and Tobago will have a new Poet Laureate in 2026, replacing the long-standing current Laureate, Paul Keens-Douglas, who has held the position since 2016.
The announcement of the new selection committee was made last week when National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS) and the Circle of Poets of Trinidad and Tobago came together for a relaunch of the Poet Laureate Programme under the patronage of President Christine Karla Kangaloo.
The Poet Laureate is a national literary ambassador and a voice for poetry culture and public engagement.
The outgoing Poet Laureate, Mr Keens-Douglas, said he is happy to pass on the baton and had some advice for the incoming person.
« His role is finding ways of raising public awareness of poetry, of making poetry accessible to a wider audience, of finding ways of highlighting the variety of writing that exists in our society because there are poets we see and poets we hear, poets we read, but there are many who just write for the joy of writing, the joy of just expressing themselves. These we seldom meet, these we seldom know, and I hope that this kind of programme will encourage them to come out and share with the rest of the world their intimate poems and poetry. »
Invitations will soon be issued to selected literary organisations, schools and academic institutions with knowledge of the local poetry landscape to submit nominees.
Each nomination must meet the established criteria to be valid.
Once the decision is confirmed, the next Poet Laureate of Trinidad and Tobago will be formally announced.
Circle of Poets Board Member Rachael Collymore says with the advent of the internet, it is important to value writing.
« We embark on this journey to establish the need for rights awareness, the need for copyright, the need for our voices to be heard and established and also remunerated as we have some authors in the room here for there to be value for that work. »
It is expected that a new Poet Laureate will be announced on October 15th, along with a junior laureate.
The event also saw NALIS and the Circle of Poets of Trinidad and Tobago sign a new Memorandum of Understanding, strengthening their commitment to promoting poetry and the literary arts in T&T.
