Nevadan to Nevadan

Dear Nevadans,

I’m profoundly honored to serve as your Poet Laureate, and I’m looking forward to meeting and working with you over the next couple of years. As I write this, I’m finishing up my last semester at the University of Nevada, Reno, where I’ve taught mostly creative writing for the past 36 years. This is a bittersweet milestone, but knowing that I’ll be working with you, talking about poetry and storytelling in our most beautiful state, is something that sweetens this passage.

I will be booking workshops, readings, and literary events as soon as they are requested and scheduled. Again, please understand that until I officially retire from UNR, my availability will be somewhat limited. But I do hope to fill the plate, so don’t hesitate to reach out with inquiries and opportunities. I value and sincerely desire your input, as we are all designing what this position might mean and might do. And this design needs your voices.

What I hope is that we Nevadans will reach out to one another and tell our individual and community stories. If we tell one another our stories honestly, authentically, and with grace and integrity, we will not only be communicating Nevadan to Nevadan, but we’ll be shining light on what it means to be a Nevadan, and this light will shine beyond our mere borders.

I look forward to coming into your communities to work with you!

Gailmarie Pahmeier
Nevada Poet Laureate
gailmariep@unr.edu

A poem entitled When you Love Someone for a Long Time. From The House on Breakaheart Road, University of Nevada Press

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: TWO LAUREATES, TWO POEMS