Staffordshire poet laureate

Staffordshire Poet Laureate

Dawn Jutton, Stafford based Visual Artist, Writer and Poet is the current Staffordshire Poet Laureate 2022-24.

Dawn will develop her role and bring new ideas for raising the profile of poetry within Staffordshire through poetry performance and commissions.

It’s a real honour to be the new Staffordshire Poet Laureate and I look forward to bringing my commitment to diversity and experience of engaging people through creative activities to create new opportunities for poetry and poets to become a regular feature in our everyday lives.

I hope to achieve this by taking poetry and poets into the community through a series of micro-residencies to demonstrate and celebrate poetry’s ability to express ideas, frustrations and joy; to reach more diverse and previously unheard Staffordshire voices by supporting LGBTQ+, older or young people or people new to writing to help give voice to issues that affect their daily lives.

Dawn will be sharing 'Laureate Letters' to keep people up to date with her work, you can request to receive these through MailChimp - follow the link below to add your details:

Laureate Letters Request Form

For more info about the Laureateship visit: Staffordshire Poet Laureate website.

Young Poet Laureate 2022-23

The new Young Poet Laureate for Staffordshire is Mina Tideswell, currently studying at Endon High School in North Staffordshire.

Some of Mina's main tasks will be to write poems to commemorate specific events within Staffordshire, such as World Book Day, Staffordshire Day, Teen Fiction Awards & Summer Reading Challenge.

The poet will be mentored and supported by the current Staffordshire Poet Laureate.

This role of Young Poet Laureate is open to young people aged 14-18 years who live, or go to school, or college in Staffordshire.

The selected poet will hold the position for twelve months with the role being commenced on or around National Poetry Day.

You can keep up to date with Mina's work during her laureteship by following her poetry blog below:

Words by Mina