Missouri Poet Laureate

Professor David Clewell Chosen as the New Poet Laureate of Missouri 

Gov. Jay Nixon has appointed David Clewell as Missouri’s new Poet Laureate.

A  Professor of English at Webster University in St. Louis, David Clewell teaches poetry workshops, 19th and 20th Century literature and topics-in-poetry seminars.  He directs the Creative Writing program and coordinates the Visiting Writer Series, which he founded in 1986. Clewell has a B.A. in English from the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and his M.F.A. in writing from Washington University in St. Louis.

He has served as an artist in residence in Missouri K-12 schools and on the Literature Advisory Panel for the Missouri Arts Council.  He has conducted numerous poetry workshops and discussions for K-12 students and teachers in the St. Louis metropolitan area, and gives frequent readings at schools, nursing homes and civic organizations throughout the state.

Clewell has published seven collections of poems, including Blessings in Disguise (a National Poetry Series winner), Now We're Getting Somewhere (winner of the Felix Pollak Poetry Prize) and, most recently, The Low End of Higher Things. He also is the author of two book-length poems and several chapbooks.

His poetry has appeared in more than 50 journals and magazines, including Harper's, The Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, Poetry, New Letters and River Styx. His poems have been included in numerous anthologies including Best American Poetry 2010 (Scribner, 2010) and Sixty Years of American Poetry (Abrams, 1996). He has been nominated seven times for the national Pushcart Prize for poetry.

Clewell lives in Webster Groves with his wife, Patricia, and 13-year-old son, Ben.

To read New Year's Eve Letter to Friends by David Clewell on Wordpress, click here. 

To read about Clewell's appointment by Governor Nixon, click here.

 In honor of Missouri's first Poet Laureate, the Missouri Center for the Book has commissioned a limited edition printing of Moon Walk Missouri, by Poet Laureate Walter Bargen.

 To purchase your own copy of Moon Walk Missouri, visit:

Columbia Books

309 S Providence Rd

Columbia, MO 65203

(573) 449-7417

colbooks@tranquility.net

www.columbiabooksonline.com