On April 1, 2021, Rena Priest was appointed Washington State Poet Laureate by Governor Jay Inslee.
Winner of the 2018 American Book Award for her debut collection, Patriarchy Blues, Priest is an enrolled member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation and the the first Indigenous poet to be named Washington State’s Poet Laureate.
Priest is a Vadon Foundation Fellow, and a recipient of an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award. She previously served as a National Geographic Explorer (2018-2020) and as a Jack Straw Writer (2019). She holds a BA in English from WWU and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Her most recent work is Sublime Subliminal.
“I am incredibly excited and honored to take on this role,” said Priest in a NW Book Lovers interview. “I’m fascinated by the way people come together around poetry. I am always delighted by how they gather in quiet rooms and let themselves be drawn in, lit up, and transformed by the words of other people. It’s a powerful way of connecting.”
“Poetry is a gift,” said Priest. “This is my approach to it and my belief about it: I’m very lucky to have it. We all are.”
“We are in an important historical moment when science has given us a deadline to make significant changes to heal our planet,” she said. “I want to use poetry as a tool to offer new perspectives and generate enthusiasm for the idea that we can slow and reverse the effects of ecological destruction simply by loving the Earth.”
Priest’s work can be found in Poetry Northwest, Pontoon Poetry, Verse Daily, Poem-a-Day at Poets.org, and elsewhere. She has taught Comparative Cultural Studies and Contemporary American Issues at Western and Native American Literature at Northwest Indian College. She lives in Bellingham.
You can learn more about Rena at her website, https://www.renapriest.com/
