Current POET LAUREATE

 

The Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission proudly presents Bob Stanley as Sacramento's Poet Laureate for the 2009 -11 term. A passionate member of the poetry community, Bob Stanley was selected from a number of talented poets who vied for the opportunity to represent Sacramento’s literary community. 

Mr. Stanley serves as the president of the Sacramento Poetry Center as well as teaches Creative Writing and English at CSU Sacramento.  His poems have won a number of awards, including the California Focus on Writers prize in 2006 and have been published in numerous journals and anthologies.   He recently published his first chapbook, Walt Whitman Orders a Cheeseburger, released by Rattlesnake Press in 2009. 

A recommendation by Ray Tatar, Immediate past Literature Coordinator, California Arts Council states, “His light-hearted and energetic approach makes his poetry accessible to a wide audience. He will…reach out to people, so that they can share in the discovery of both the written and spoken words that poetry offers.”

Stanley’s poetry is sampled below:

Sweet Fire, excerpt
All the music rolled into one that night, Lionel Hampton
rang them bronze bells, and Chairman Mao (his musical career
having been cut short by the cultural revolution)
aired it out on a flugelhorn solo. If you’ve never heard the Dalai Lama
scat over rhythm changes, you’ve really missed something.

Stanley was nominated by Emmanuel Sigauke, board member of the Sacramento Poetry Center.  Bob Stanley was officially selected as Poet Laureate on June 8, 2009.

Click here to link to Bob Stanley's County Lines: Poetry of Sacramento.