Monday Muse: Wyoming's Poet Laureate

My poetry is my personal message to my children,

my grandchildren and my great grandchildren —

and the world in general —on my feelings, what

I've experienced and why I love this place. . . .

~ Patricia Frolander*

Patricia Frolander has succeeded David Romtvedt to become Wyoming's fifth Poet Laureate. Appointed in November 2011, Frolander will serve until May 31, 2013, according to the Wyoming Arts Council, and may "submit writings for selected historic occasions" of her  choice.

Commenting on her appointment, Frolander said, "It's a privilege and I am excited to serve the State of Wyoming. I not only want to further poetry, but literature in general."* In addition to attending public events, doing poetry readings, and judging poetry contests, Frolander conducts workshops and engages in other activities that encourage and promote writing, especially among youths and children at risk.

Information about the honorary state position and related resources are in my post about Romtvedt, who held the position from 2004 until 2011.

* * * * *

Black Hills, Wyoming, resident Patricia Frolander has published, most recently, Married Into It (High Plains Press, 2011), which was awarded the 2012 Western Heritage Wrangler Award and named "Poetry Book of 2011" by the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. She also is the author of the chapbook Grassland Genealogy (Finishing Line Press, 2009). Both collections draw on Frolander's personal experience of the physical demands, hardships, losses, and joys of life on a family ranch. Frolander grew up with "too much city" (she's from Boston and also lived in Denver), as she relates in her poem "Married Into It" but after more than four decades helping her husband run the ranch, she no longer says, as her poem initially intimates, "she'll never make it."

Poems by Frolander have been published in Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry (Column 275), as well as in literary magazines and newspapers, and in a number of anthologies, including Poets of the American West (Many Voices Press, 2010), Wyoming Fence Lines: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry edited by David Romtedt (Wyoming Humanities Council, 2007), and In the Shadow of the Bear Lodge (Many Kites Press, 2006; available through resellers), for which Frolander was editor.

The prize-winning poet is the recipient of the Wyoming Arts Council's 2011 Neltje Blanchan Memorial Writing Award and the 2009 National Senior Poets Laureate Competition, among other honors. 

Resources

All Poetry Quotations © Patricia Frolander

* Quoted from "Pat Frolander Appointed Poet Laureate of Wyoming", The Sundance Times

"Gov. Mead Appoints Patricia Frolander as Poet Laureate of WY", Office of Governor Mat Mead, November 7, 2011

Kristy Gray, "Wyoming Gov. Mead Appoints Sundance Woman as Wyoming's Poet Laureate", The Billings Gazette, November 7, 2011, and Star-Tribune, November 8, 2011

Christy Martinez, "Poetry Brings Ranch Woman State Recognition", Wyoming Livestock Roundup, November 19, 2011

Patricia Frolander Profiles at Western and CowboyPoetry at the BAR-D Ranch and Wyoming Authors Wiki

Patricia Frolander Poetry Online: "Who Would I Be If I Didn't Have a Name" and "Water Song" at Poet's Page at Bearlodge Writers; "Denial" at American Life in Poetry (also at Poetry Foundation and in "Poetry Pairing" at The Learning Network, The New York Times); "Ropin' the Stars", "Married Into It", "Requiem in Lace", and "480 Seconds", All at Western and Cowboy Poetry; "Father when You call" at National Senior Poet Laureate Website; "Sisterhood" from Woven on the Wind on GoogleBooks; "Hollow Heart" and "Cat Dance", Both at Bearlodge Writers Blog; "Volcanic Collapse" (Putting Our Heads Together Migraine Poetry Contest 20110; "Why I Stay" and "Houston Creek", Both at The Sundance Times

Patricia Frolander on FaceBook

Married Into It Review at Story Circle Book Reviews

Art Perspectives - Wyoming Poet Laureate Patricia Frolander on Vimeo  (In the view, Frolander reads for Poetry Out Loud contestants her poem "Barbed Wire Coming and Going" from Married Into It.)

Bear Lodge Writers

Finishing Line Press

High Plains Press

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

Wyoming Arts Council on Twitter

Wyoming Arts Council Blog

Patricia Frolander reads "Johnny Van" from Married Into It in this video from June 2011: