Dasha Kelly Hamilton named Wisconsin poet laureate

Milwaukee’s Dasha Kelly Hamilton is Wisconsin’s new poet laureate, the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission announced Monday.

Kelly Hamilton will serve as state ambassador and encourager of poetry through 2022. She succeeds Margaret Rozga, who recently completed her two-year term.

For the time being, Kelly Hamilton will be poet laureate of both Wisconsin and Milwaukee; she was selected for the latter post in 2019. She joins Marilyn L. Taylor as the only poets to have held both positions.

In addition to giving readings and meeting with people around the state, Kelly Hamilton plans to establish a poetry exchange between Wisconsin residents and poets in Wisconsin prisons, and to encourage program partnerships between writing groups and penal institutions.

Kelly Hamilton is a poet, performer, novelist and alum of HBO’s “Def Poetry Jam.” She also has been an arts envoy for the U.S. Embassy, working in cultural exchange programs in Botswana, Toronto, Mauritius and Beirut. She was named artist of the year in 2016 by the Milwaukee Arts Board.

The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters took over stewardship of the poet laureate position in 2011 after the state cut its support for the program, citing budget reasons.

The laureate receives a $2,500 annual stipend and accepts the responsibility of arranging or attending literary events each year. Kelly Hamilton also will receive a weeklong residency at Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point.

Nicholas Gulig of Fort Atkinson and C. Kubasta of Oshkosh were the other finalists for the position.

Past Wisconsin poets laureate include Karla Huston, Kimberly Blaeser, Max Garland, Bruce Dethlefsen, Marilyn L. Taylor, Denise Sweet and Ellen Kort.

TJ LAMBERT/STAGES PHOTOGRAPHY Dasha Kelly Hamilton, who is already Milwaukee’s poet laureate, will get the same role for the state through 2022.