Poetry is famously one of the least lucrative artistic pursuits, but two Arkansas verse-slingers will soon see a significant windfall.
Forrest City native and New York state poet laureate Patricia Spears Jones as well as Hot Springs poet laureate Kai Coggin are each the recipient of $50,000 fellowships from the Academy of American Poets. Jones and Coggin were among 22 state, county and city poet laureates across the country who received the funding, which will “support them in creating new work, as well as … enable them to undertake meaningful, impactful, and innovative projects that enrich the lives of their neighbors, including youth, through responsive and interactive poetry activities.”
Here’s a bit from an Academy of American Poets news release about the work Jones and Coggin are expected to do with the money:
Patricia Spears Jones will develop and implement a series of intergenerational workshops that will foster conversations about social justice, environmental degradation, systemic oppression, and cultural resistance, and what beauty means. The workshops are based on a statement in Walt Whitman’s “Democratic Vistas” essay: “a new Literature [. . .] a new Poetry, are to be, in my opinion, the only sure and worthy supports and expressions of the American Democracy.”
Kai Coggin’s project, Sharing Tree Space, creates a seasonal generative writing environment for four cohorts of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ teens, with a focus on accessing the natural world. Coggin will partner with rangers and scientists of Hot Springs National Park, enlisting their expertise on “wonder hikes” that Coggin will take with the teens. The cohorts will read and write poems within natural elements and spaces, enriching connection to the outdoors. Upon completion, the teens will read together at a public event, and an anthology of their poems will be published.
Earlier this year, Jones received the Porter Fund’s Lifetime Achievement Award, a distinction handed out every five years to an Arkansas writer with a “substantial and recognized body of work.” Her most recent collection is 2023’s “The Beloved Community,” published by Copper Canyon Press.
In October 2023, Coggin received the Don Munro Leadership in the Arts Award, which “recognizes outstanding contributions to the arts and celebrates those who have made a significant impact on the local arts community in Arkansas.” Voted “Best Poet” twice by Arkansas Times in our annual readers poll, we profiled Coggin in December 2023. Her latest collection, “Mother of Other Kingdoms,” came out in May via Harbor Editions.