2022-2023 Cincinnati and mercantile library Poet Laureate (2-year term)

PRESS RELEASE

Feb 23, 2022

CINCINNATI, Ohio -- The Mercantile Library is thrilled to announce Yalie Saweda Kamara as the 2022-2023 Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate.

On learning the Cincinnati and Mercantile Poet Laureate selection committee’s decision, Kamara was “initially speechless, which is ironic for a writer,” she says. “What followed was a smile, a deep breath and profound appreciation for this honor, which, at its core, involves serving Cincinnati’s diverse communities through the literary arts.”

The two-year position includes a stipend underwritten by The George & Margaret McLane Foundation, an anonymous individual, the Mercantile Library, and the City of Cincinnati. Previously held by poets Pauletta Hansel and Manuel Iris, the post promotes poetry throughout the city, reads poems at events, and leads programming. Kamara’s tenure will begin with an induction ceremony on the evening of Thursday, April 7. Details tba.

The Sierra Leonean-American writer, teacher, and University of Cincinnati PhD candidate is the author of two collections of poetry: A Brief Biography of My Name and When the Living Sing. Her accolades include Pushcart Prize and Best of Net anthology nominations, finalist for the National Poetry Series competition, finalist for the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, and semifinalist for the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. She has held fellowships at the Vermont Studio Center, the National Book Critics Circle Emerging Critics and Callaloo, and was a featured poet at the 2020 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. Kamara's poetry, fiction, interviews, and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, Callaloo, A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, Black Camera: An International Journal, Puerto del Sol and more.

Kamara’s programming will celebrate both Cincinnati’s long artistic and cultural history, and “its promise of tomorrow,” she says, “holding space for the voices of this city, which constitute its many realities and circumstances yet to be discerned.” Her initiatives will promote equity, social justice, and explore the wonder of Cincinnati, “with work that foregrounds the necessity for creativity, collaboration, and representation, all of which nourish, enable and sustain a just world.”