Gov. Mark R. Warner announced Tuesday that former University professor George Garrett will serve as Virginia's next poet laureate.
Garrett, a Henry Hoynes professor emeritus of creative writing, previously has received such prestigious national honors as the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry.
"I think it's a great honor," he said. "I'm not sure I deserve it, but maybe nobody does. Maybe that's why it's transitional."
The governor appoints a poet laureate every two years, and can reappoint the same individual as many times as he wishes. Grace Simpson, a retired English teacher in the Prince Edward County schools, previously held the post.
Garrett added that, in his view, the existence of the poet laureate post was more important than the honor received by those who hold it.
"It's more a question of honoring and recognizing poetry itself than any individual," he said. "We have a lot of good poets throughout Virginia. We have a tremendous number of student poets at U.Va."
Garrett taught creative writing at the University during the 1960s and again from 1984 to 2000, for a total of 21 years.
Members of the University's English Department who taught alongside Garrett lauded Warner's decision.
"This is a long overdue acknowledgement and celebration of George's enthusiastic contribution to literature in the state of Virginia," Creative Writing Prof. Gregory Orr said.
Garrett stressed that "this is an acknowledgment of the poetry community of Virginia."
Sidney Blair, University creative writing and fiction lecturer, said Garrett is uniquely suited to encouraging an inclusive poetry community.
"If ever there was anyone capable of spreading the word of the joys and pleasures of reading and writing it would be George Garrett," she said.
Garrett's plans for his tenure as poet laureate keep with the idea of honoring and acknowledging the larger poetry community. He said he plans to look at the actions of previous poet laureates as well as seek the counsel of other poets to decide what to do.
"Everybody does something different," he said. "I'm going to look at what some of them did and look within my means to decide what I will do. I'm hoping to organize gatherings of poets throughout Virginia this fall to see what we might do to fulfill the expectations of the government."
He added that he wants to include young people in this process.
"I'm interested in trying to get younger poets involved in helping to spread the word and helping create poetry scenes," he said.
Blair added that Garrett's influence is widespread.
"He is a wonderful writer whose own interests and influence in literature is generous, infectious and far reaching," she said.
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