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Literary Arts

The Division of Arts & Museums has been supporting Utah's literary community for 53 years. The Utah Original Writing Competition began in 1958 and has since expanded to other offerings, including readings, conferences and workshops all over the state, as well as providing a series of professional development seminars for writers.

Poet Laureate

Utah initiated its Poet Laureate program in 1997. The Poet Laureate is a Governor-appointed advocate for literature and the arts throughout the state. The Poet Laureate is available for readings at public events and in venues including libraries, universities and schools. In just the past two years, the Poet Laureate Program has made 27 presentations in 10 Utah communities. Our current Laureate, Katharine Coles of Salt Lake City, is a professor of creative writing at the University of Utah and is also the founding director of the Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago.

April is National Poetry Month - Poet Laureate Events

Each April, the Poet Laureate leads several discussions throughout Utah. Watch for announcements of events in early Spring.

AntarticaAntarctic Adventure

Utah Poet Laureate Katharine Coles traveled to Antarctica in December 2011 as part of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program.  We tracked her journey and posted updates.

Bite-Size 2.0

Because there are so many readers who asked us to keep these poetry emails coming their way, and becasue so many fine poets were not included in the original project, we lauched Bite Size 2.0. This project includes videos produced by the poet -- giving them greater opportunity for creativity. Each month a different poem is featured and sent out in an e-mail blast, as well as being streamed as a video file from NowPlayingUtah.com.

Bite-Size Poems

See the original Bite-Size Poetry Project begun in 2009, by Utah Poet Laureate Katharine Coles, featuring eighteen of Utah's finest poets. The goal of the project is to put a bite-sized poem (one that can be read aloud in one minute or less) in front of every Utahn every month. Videos can be viewed on the poets' "Artist Profile" pages on NowPlayingUtah.com.

Literary Magazines

Support of literary publishing in Utah is exhibited through these fine publications:

Collections

Utah Authors Book Collection

The Utah Authors Book Collection began as a program of the League of Utah Writers called Save Utah’s Book Sensibly (SUBS). In the SUBS program, Utah writers sign and donate a copy of their newly published books to the collection. This practice continues, and the Utah Authors Book Collection has hundreds of first-edition books by Utah authors. This collection will soon be available to the public in digital form.

Utah Original Writing Competition Manuscript Collection

Winning manuscripts from the Original Writing Competition have been collected for many years and are preserved in the State Archives.

Competitions and Calls

Poetry Out Loud

Recitation and performance are major new trends in poetry. The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation have partnered with the Utah Arts Council’s Literature Program to support the expansion of Poetry Out Loud, which encourages Utah’s youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and performance.

Original Writing Competition

The annual Original Writing Competition has won national respect because of the reputation of its judges and the honors received by its winners. For more than 50 years, this competition has honored some of Utah’s finest writers with public recognition, career assistance and cash prizes.

Seminars

The following professional development seminars are available on DVD. Contact Jean Irwin for more information.