Illinois Poet Laureate Mark Turcotte
We are proud to have the Illinois Poet Laureate in residence with Illinois Humanities. Mark Turcotte, the sixth Illinois Poet Laureate, is an award-winning poet and writer who has published many works.
About Mark Turcotte
Writer Mark Turcotte (Turtle Mountain Band Anishinaabe) spent his earliest years on North Dakota's Turtle Mountain Chippewa Reservation and in the migrant camps of the western United States. Later, he grew up in and around Lansing, Michigan. After high school and one unproductive year in college, he traveled the country, working and living on the road for nearly fifteen years.
Arriving in Chicago in the spring of 1993, Turcotte rediscovered his love of words and writing and quickly established himself as a unique voice in the city’s thriving poetry scene. That summer, he was the winner of the First Gwendolyn Brooks Open-mic Poetry Award. By year’s-end, he had two books of poetry being prepared for publication, and soon thereafter, he was selected by Ms. Brooks as a Significant Illinois Poet and was named to the Illinois Authors Poster. During his time in Chicago, Turcotte was also the recipient of a Writer’s Community Residency from National Writer's Voice and was awarded the 1997 Josephine Gates Kelly Memorial Fellowship from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. He left Chicago with his new wife and son for Door County, Wisconsin in 1998.
Turcotte is author of The Feathered Heart (Michigan State University Press, 1998, revised edition); Songs of Our Ancestors (Children's Press, 1995); a chapbook, Road Noise (Mesilla Press, 1998); Le Chant de la Route (bilingual, La Vague Verte, Paris, 2001); and Exploding Chippewas (Northwestern University Press, 2002). His work has appeared in many literary journals, including TriQuarterly, POETRY, Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, Sentence, North American Review and Door County Living Magazine, and has been anthologized in several collections, including The POETRY Anthology, 1912-2002, Poetry Daily:366, Stray Dogs, PowerLines and What Saves Us. His poem, The Flower On, was part of the Poetry Society of America’s inaugural Poetry In Motion project, which placed poetry placards on public transportation in cities across the United States. His fiction and prose work have appeared in several journals, including Rosebud and Hunger Mountain. He is included in the new and first ever Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, entitled When the Light of the World Was Subdued Our Light Came Through. His poem, “Dear New Blood,” was recently featured at Poem-A-Day and on the poetry podcast, Poetry Unbound, hosted by Pådraig Ó Tuama
Turcotte was the recipient of a 2001-2002 Lannan Foundation Literary Award and was awarded 1999 and 2003 Literary Fellowships by the Wisconsin Arts Board. He was selected for a National Book Foundation American Voices assignment at Wind River, Wyoming, and a Lannan Writer’s Residency in Marfa, Texas. His work is included in the NEA/Poetry Foundation project Poetry Out Loud.
In 2005, he returned to college where he completed an MFA in Creative Writing at Western Michigan University. After graduation, he served as the 2008-2009 Visiting Native Writer at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico; was on the faculty of Pine Manor College’s low-res MFA Program near Boston; and was Visiting Writer-In-Residence for Spring 2014 at the Center For The Writing Arts at Northwestern University. He again lives in Chicago and, since 2009, has been Senior Lecturer and Distinguished-Writer-In-Residence in the English Department at DePaul University.
Photo by Zoey Duchene for The DePaulia
Request an Appearance
The Illinois Poet Laureate promotes access to poetry for all Illinoisans. In his role as Illinois Poet Laureate, Mark Turcotte will present readings, conversations, and other programming about poetry across the state. You can request an appearance, poetry reading, or presentation by Turcotte by contacting his office:
Contact
Mark Turcotte
Illinois Poet Laureate
Article Spotlight
Press Releases
Gov. Pritzker Announces New Illinois Poet LaureateAbout the Office of the Poet Laureate
Who has served as the Illinois Poet Laureate?
Mark Turcotte is the sixth Illinoisan to hold the title of Poet Laureate, an honorary position selected by a committee of experts and subsequently appointed by the Governor. Former Illinois Poet Laureates included: Angela Jackson, Howard Austin, Carl Sandburg, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Kevin Stein.
What is a Poet Laureate?
You may be wondering what is a poet laureate and what does he or she do? To answer both questions, some background information is necessary. In the beginning, medieval universities were fond of crowning with laurel any student admitted to an academic degree. Those students showing particular skill in Latin and in forms of versification were awarded the special degree "poet laureate." Gradually, that title attained a more precise application. By the late Middle Ages, the custom developed to bestow a crown of laurels to poets showing distinctive achievement, Petrarch receiving such an honor in 1341. In fact, the root word "laurel" is still visible in the phrase "poet laureate." At the same time, many ancient kings established the practice of maintaining a poet within their realms to poeticize familial and military accomplishments.
The modern office of the laureate was established in seventeenth-century England. Then, the laureate's primary duty was to sing the praises of royalty and to celebrate their state occasions, to be, as it were, a court poet. Thankfully, that role was abolished in the early 1800s. In America, our state and national laureates have been asked to devise their own programs for promoting the art of poetry among the populace.
Learn more about the State of Illinois Office of the Poet Laureate
Visit PoetLaureate.Illinois.gov to learn more about the Office of the Poet Laureate.
Donate to the State Poet Laureate
The Illinois Poet Laureate is in residence with Illinois Humanities. If you would like to make a restricted donation to support the Poet Laureate you can do so through Illinois Humanities. Make your donation here and please indicate in the optional comment field at the top of the form that this gift is “for the Illinois Poet Laureate.”