Meet the Poets

2025 In The Company of Laureates


  • Founders of The Poet Laureate CIrcle

  • Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman is the second Poet Laureate of Prince George's County, MD, serving from 2023-2025. Dr. Ali-Coleman is founder of the multidisciplinary performing arts company, Liberated Muse Arts Group, and author of the published and forthcoming poetry collections Halos for Heroes, Friends and a Few People I Don't Like (2026),  A Park Stands on All of Our Graves (2025), For the Girls Who Do Too Much (2024), The Summoning of Black Joy (2023), and the children's book in verse, Mariah's Maracas (2018). In 2020, she co-founded the education research group, BFHES, LLC and co-edited the book Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice and Popular Culture, released in 2022 by Information Age Publishing. A singer/songwriter and playwright, Dr. Ali-Coleman is also known as award-winning performance artist Khadijah Moon. Her plays, songs and poetry have been staged, workshopped and read on dozens of stages, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. A Watering Hole Poetry Fellow, she has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships for her writing, performance and teaching, including ones from the Maryland State Arts Council, Prince George's Arts and Humanities Council, and Poets & Writers. She was named a 2024 Outstanding UMBC Alumni and is currently an Associate Professor in the Humanities department at Coppin State University in Baltimore, MD where she is currently based.


  • Sasa Aakil is an interdisciplinary Artist, Writer living and working in the DC area. She is a ceramic artist, painter, poet, print maker, and bassist and served as the 2021 Montgomery County Youth Poet Laureate. Sasa has been featured in the Bethesda Magazine for her work as Youth Poet Laureate. She has also been featured in the Washington Post, as well as on WTOP for her work on the A Man Was Lynched Yesterday Project in 2020. She has shown sculptural and two-dimensional work at the American Poetry Museum and Black Rock Art Center. Sasa is the founder of If All the Trees Were Pens Open Mic and recently published her first chapbook, the culmination of all my despair and the music that saves me. She received a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Howard University in 2024. More information about Sasa’s work can be found on her website www.sasaaakil.com.


  • Anne Becker, Poet Laureate Emerita of Takoma Park, MD, has been a member of the Washington, DC area poetry community for over half a century.  Author of three books of poetry, Human Animal (Pond Road Press, 2018), The Transmutation Notebooks: Poems in the Voices of Charles and Emma Darwin and The Good Body, she has produced over 70 recordings of poets reading their work as well as programs for public radio.  For many years she's taught from her home in Takoma Park, workshops and tutorials for those putting chapbooks and full length collections of poetry together.  In 2001 she developed a special workshop, Writing the Body, for those who have experience with life-threatening and chronic illness. Currently, she is a poetry editor for the Mid-Atlantic Review, an online arts journal and is working on a series of collaborations of poetry and music with Carl Banner, pianist and Director of Washington DC Musica Viva. Her latest project was The Jamie Raskin Oratorio with Nathan Faingold, composer; Carl Banner on piano and Chris Royal on trumpet. 

  • Cristi Donoso, the 2025 - 2028 Poet Laureate of the City of Alexandria, is an Ecuadorian American poet, writer, editor, and translator. Her poems, essays, and stories have been published in journals such as Pleiades, Waxwing, The Journal, The Cincinnati Review, The Threepenny Review, and others. She is a former PEN/Faulkner Writer in Residence and previous editor of Folio Literary Journal at American University, where she received an MFA in Creative Writing. In 2024, Cristi was a finalist for the Akron Poetry Prize. Much of her writing can be found at www.cristidonoso.com.

    Born in Quito, she now lives in Alexandria, Virginia. Cristi's work often explores migration, girlhood, grief, and motherhood. She loves to write about the role of art in personal and public life, and advocates for accessibility in educational, literary, and creative spaces. Cristi is also a pediatric speech-language pathologist and holds an MS in Speech Language Pathology from Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C.

  • Thomas Burson is 73 and has been writing since he was sixteen. As a military brat and a college student who hitch-hiked across America every year to go to college, Tom is a story and raconteur waiting to be told. He quickly realized that poetry is a performance art. He’s read at open mics, performed with Jazz Musicians. He’s been on cable TV on several occasions. He is Poet Laureate, emeritus, of International Poetics Foundation, 2021. Most recently he published his book Let the Rollercoaster Begin.

  • John L. Dutton II serves as  the Poet Laureate of Prince William County, Manassas, and Manassas Park (2024-2026). He has taught language arts to middle school students in Prince William County for more years than he can remember. John hosts Spilled Ink VA, an open microphone night celebrating the written word. John has actively been involved with two writing groups, Write-by-the-Rails and the Prince William Poet Laureate Circle. He is a lifetime member of the Virginia Writers Club and The Poetry Society of Virginia. John has published three books: Armadillo Lost Her Pillow, Argument at the Airport, and Billy Pug’s Bad Day. His fourth book, The Great Escape, A New Twist On An Old Tale, is well on its way.

  • Chad Frame is the author of Little Black Book, nominated for the Lambda Literary Award, Cryptid, and Smoking Shelter, winner of the Moonstone Chapbook Contest. He is Director of the Montgomery County Poet Laureate Program as well as Poet Laureate Emeritus of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a founding member of the No River Twice poetry/improv performance troupe, and founder of the Caesura Poetry Festival. His work appears in Rattle, Strange Horizons, Pedestal, Barrelhouse, Rust+Moth, on iTunes from the Library of Congress, and is archived on the moon with The Lunar Codex.

  • Cathy Hailey is a poet and educator, who recently taught in Johns Hopkins University’s online MA in Teaching Writing Program and previously taught English and Creative Writing and sponsored the Eddas Literary/Art Magazine in Prince William County. She served as Northern Region Vice President of The Poetry Society of Virginia (PSV) from 2020 to 2025, co-hosts Virginia Voices, and organizes In the Company of Laureates, a biennial gathering of poets laureates. She administers the Student Contest and Young Poets in the Community Program for PSV and the Jacklyn Potter Young Writers Competition for The Words Works. She will serve on the Alexandria, VA, Literary Task Force for the next two years. Cathy holds degrees from Duke University (A.B.) and George Mason University (M.A. English/Writing & Editing). She has been featured on Great Goodness, The Poet and the Poem, Sojourn with Words, and On the Margin. She has collaborated with visual artists on ekphrastic poetry projects. Her chapbook, I’d Rather Be a Hyacinth, was published by Finishing Line Press. Recent publications include FotoSpecchio, Little Free/Painted Pebble Lit Mag, First Frost, and Making the Unseen Seen anthology. Visit cathyhailey.com.

  • Dr. Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda served as Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2006-2008. She has co-edited three anthologies, co-authored a poem-play, and published nine books of poetry, including The Embrace: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, winner of the international Art in Literature: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award. She is the recipient of five grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and has won the Ellen Anderson Award, a Virginia Cultural Laureate Award, multiple first place awards from the Chesapeake Bay Branch of the National League of American Pen Women, a resolution of appreciation from the Virginia Board of Education for her service as poet laureate, an Edgar Allan Poe Poetry Award, six Pushcart Prize nominations, as well as other awards.  Her poems, along with those of other Virginia poets laureate, are featured in two permanent art installations in Northern Virginia as part of the Washington Metropolitan Area Authority, Art in Transit. Her poem, “In the Comfort of Light,” is included in The Polaris Anthology, which landed on the Moon on March 2, 2025 on the Firefly Blue Ghost Lunar Lander.

  • Mary McElveen is Poet Laureate emerita for the City of Alexandria, VA. As such, she has written poetry for cemetery dedications, high school renovations, rec centers, awards ceremonies, retirement events, adoption events–and just about anything else you care to mention. She has also enjoyed a number of disparate careers: stay-at-home mom, school volunteer, PTA president, newsletter editor, biochemist, researcher, high school teacher and science department chair, tech support for a major financial institution, tech education resource, member of an executive support staff, and has acted as director for office support and lawyer referral at a local bar association. In her spare time, she writes.

  • Mara Bella Occhuizzo is an 11-year-old sixth grader at Powhatan School in Berryville, Virginia. She served as a Young Poet in the Community for The Poetry Society of Virginia during the 2024-2025 school year. Mara is an avid musician. She enjoys singing and playing the guitar, often transforming her own poems into original songs. Mara can also be found pursuing her other passions which include creative writing, reading, horse riding, lacrosse, and spending time with her family.

  • Natalie J. Potell is a writer who likes the intersection of science, history, and humanity.  She takes one day at a time and believes the glass is always half full.

  • James P. Wagner (Ishwa) is an editor, publisher, award-winning fiction writer, essayist, historian, performance poet, and alum twice over (BA & MALS) of Dowling College. He is the publisher for  Local Gems Poetry Press and the Senior Founder and President of the Bards Initiative. He is also the founder and Grand Laureate of Bards Against Hunger, a series of poetry readings and anthologies dedicated to gathering food for local pantries that operates in over a dozen states. His most recent individual collection of poetry is Everyday  Alchemy. He was the Long Island, NY National Beat Poet Laureate from 2017-2019. He was the Walt Whitman Bicentennial Convention Chairman and teaches poetry workshops at the Walt Whitman     Birthplace State Historic Site. James has edited over 130 poetry anthologies and hosted book launch events up and down the East Coast. He was named the National Beat Poet Laureate of the United States from 2020-2021. He is the owner/operator of The Dog-Eared Bard’s Book Shop in East Northport, NY.

  • Christian Ellis is a student from northern Virginia by way of Detroit, Michigan. He is currently seeking a Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition & Dietetics at Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia.

  • Doran Glass III is a student at Hampden-Sydney College, Maury High School Class of 2024 and lifelong community leader. From a young age, he immersed himself in civic engagement—organizing against harmful legislation, advocating for community resources, and mentoring youth through poetry and public service. As a peer leader with Teens With a Purpose, Doran facilitated workshops in public schools, encouraging self-expression through spoken word. Now serving in his college’s Office of Culture and Inclusion, Doran leads equity training, mentors local students, and continues building platforms that amplify marginalized voices. He mentors high school and  elementary school students in the Prince Edward County Public School system. As the Social Chair for Hampden-Sydney College Minority Student Union, he organizes events that promote inclusion and visibility. He served as a senior Peer Leader at Teen With Purpose planning and facilitating Creative Youth Development programs. As the Virginia Youth Poet Laureate, he planned and hosted Teens With a Purpose's State of the Youth Voice, a youth-led event where Youth come together from across Hampton Roads to share their lived experiences through spoken word, music, testimony, and presentations that go deep on the issues they face every day: mental health, gun violence, education, justice & equity, plus the future of our environment. Youth work alongside elected officials and influencers to work on an action plan towards the future they crave. His poetry serves as both a call to action and a bridge to healing.

  • Wendell Hawken (she/her) earned her MFA from Warren Wilson College’s Program for Writers. Publications include two chapbooks and five full collections with a sixth scheduled for late 2025. Hawken was named the inaugural Poet Laureate of Millwood VA, an unincorporated quirky village in the northern Shenandoah Valley where she lives.

  • A founder of the Richmond, Virginia community River City Poets, Joanna Lee earned her MD from the Medical College of Virginia and a Master’s in neuroscience from William & Mary. Her work has been published in JAMA, Rattle, Contemporary American Voices and elsewhere and has been nominated for both Pushcart and Best of the Net prizes. A four-time alum of Tupelo Press’s 30/30 Project, she is the author of the chapbook Dissections, a co-editor of the anthology Lingering in the Margins; and the current Poet Laureate for the city of Richmond.

  • Alice K. Mergler has enjoyed a rewarding teaching career, 24 years of it spent teaching English, History, and Drama in the Prince William County Public School System. She has also enjoyed a lifetime of wonderful accomplishments in her 84 years including rearing six sons with her beloved husband.

    She now enjoys being retired, advising the Poet Laureate Circle, Chairing the Prince William County Arts Council, teaching for the Lifelong Learning Institute (LLI), (she says for retirees who do not want to quit learning and serving), keeping up with her many grandchildren, getting her 10,000 steps each day, and being a Spilled Inker for the past super 11 years and counting! Enough for now she has her next poem to write!

  • Kathleen O’Toole’s 4th poetry collection, This Far, was released in 2019 by Paraclete Press. An audio book version was just released. Her poems have recently appeared in Oberon, and America’s Future; awards include the 2020 Connecticut River Review Poetry Prize, the Northern Virginia Review Poetry Prize. After serving four years as Poet Laureate of Takoma Park MD, she writes from her 9th floor perch at Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg, MD.  Find her at https://kathleenotoolepoetry.com.

  • Kathy Cable Smaltz’s poems have been published in numerous journals and in her poetry collection, Pieces. A graduate of GMU’s MFA program and a VCCA creative fellow, she served as Prince William County’s Poet Laureate from 2016-2018. She has been an educator for 30 years, many of them as a creative writing teacher. Kathy and her husband have a daughter who recently graduated from high school, a son and a daughter in college, and a son who has launched from the nest. For leisure and inspiration, she enjoys spending time outdoors – writing poems on mountaintops and on sandy beaches.

  • Katherine E. Young is the author of two poetry collections, Day of the Border Guards and Woman Drinking Absinthe, and editor of Written in Arlington. Her translations of Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Russian, and Ukrainian writers have received international recognition. Awards include an Arlington County Individual Artist Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowship, and a Hawthornden fellowship. From 2016-2018, she served as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Arlington, VA. 


  • Sistah Joy Alford is the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Prince George’s County, Maryland. She has served as President of the Ebenezer AME Church Poetry Ministry since 2003, and Poet Laureate of that church since 2016. She is the Founder of Collective Voices, an activist poetry ensemble known for its social consciousness, inspiration, and empowerment poetry.

    Sistah Joy has authored 4 collections of poetry, Lord I’m Dancin’ As Fast As I Can; From Pain to Empowerment, The Fabric of My Being; This Garden Called Life; and

    Ordained Work. Since 2005, she has produced and hosted the award-winning poetry-based cable TV show, “Sojourn with Words,” which airs on CTV in Prince George’s County and Montgomery County, and which can be viewed globally online. She is a Board Member of the Washington, DC-based nonprofit, The InkWell; a Founding Charter Board Member of The Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts; and a Lifetime Member of the Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center.

    In 2024, Sistah Joy was inducted into the Maryland Senior Citizens Hall of Fame for her volunteerism in support of seniors throughout the state of Maryland. Sistah Joy’s poetry was included among several poetry podcasts selected by former Maryland State Poet Laureate, Grace Cavalieri, from her Library of Congress-based series, The Poet and The Poem, for NASA to send to the moon.


  • Richmond, Virginia native, Douglas Powell/Roscoe Burnems is the city’s inaugural poet laureate. He is a published author, spoken-word artist, comedian, educator, and father who has dedicated his craft to entertaining and educating. Douglas prides himself on using his creativity to inspire, challenge, and destigmatize. No topic is taboo. From social justice to mental health, Roscoe Burnems uses every performance to highlight culture and resiliency in a way that is disarming and engaging. In his time as an artist, he has been a three-time southern regional finalist, National Poetry Slam Champion, and two-time Underground Poetry Slam Champion. His work has spanned across platforms, from TEDx to hosting VPM's Emmy nominated "Art Scene" and two-time Telly Award winning series "Verses" . For over a decade he has been the Executive Director of The Writer’s Den RVA Art Collective, a poetry based arts, education, and entertainment organization that curates events and facilitates writing, performance, and team building workshops for schools, detention centers, and other organizations. He is the author of four published works: "Fighting Demons", "Chrysalis Under Fire", "God, Love, Death and Other Synonyms", and "defyne". Selected poems from Roscoe have also been published in over a dozen literary magazines and journals, including: Freeze Ray Magazine, Flypaper Magazine, Scene & Heard Journal, Into Quarterly, Beltway Quarterly, and Rise Up Review. He was recently named Best Poet in Richmond by Style Weekly. His poetry and stand-up comedy special, "Traumedy" can be found on Amazon Prime. He is on the Virginia Commission for the Arts Teaching Artist Roster.

  • Angela Dribben is a neurodiverse artist and writer creating in the Appalachian region of Virginia. She has served her literary community as the Contributing Reviews Editor for Cider Press Review, and a Contributing Poetry Editor for Cave Wall. She is co-founder & co-host of Poetry Society of Virginia’s monthly Virginia Voices.

    The project that has her heart right now is the YouTube show @Great_Goodness. It is a concerted effort to highlight and elevate creators who bring goodness into our worlds.

    She served as a board member for the Poetry Society of Virginia for two years and held the position of Vice President of the West region. Angela has had the honor of adjudicating Poetry Out Loud for several years now. She enjoys being in service as an advisory panelist, adjudicator, editor, workshop leader, and peer reviewer for various fellowships and contests such as PSV North American Poetry Book Award, South Dakota Poetry Society Book Award, and others. She is on the Virginia Commission for the Arts Teaching Artist Roster.

    Dribben’s debut collection, Everygirl, finalist for the 2020 Broadkill Review Dogfish Head Prize, was released with Main Street Rag. She placed in Blue Mountain Review’s Women of Resilience chapbook contest, Crack the Spine’s poetry contest, and Bellingham Review’s 49th Parallel Poetry Contest. Her most recent work can be found or is forthcoming in Los Angeles Review, Orion, Coffin Bell, Split Rock Review, and others.

  • Rich Follett is a retired middle school Theatre Arts teacher who has written poems and songs for more than fifty years. His poems have been featured in numerous online and print journals, including BlazeVox, Willows Wept Review, The Montucky Review, Poetic Diversity, , and the late Felino Soriano’s CounterExample Poetics for which he was a featured artist. Four volumes of poetry, Responsorials,Geminations (both with Constance Stadler), Silence, Inhabited, and Human &c. are available through NeoPoiesis Press (www.neopoiesispress.com). His ekphrastic collection Photo-ku is available through NightWing Publications. Five albums of independent contemporary folk music are available at www.richfollett.com. He lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where he also pursues his interests as a professional actor, playwright, and director.

  • Bill Glose is a combat veteran and former paratrooper. Now a civilian, he undertakes intriguing pursuits—such as walking 1,500 miles of Virginia and participating in a world-record-setting skinny dip—to write about for magazines. The author of five poetry collections, one book of fiction, and hundreds of magazine articles, Glose was named the Daily Press Poet Laureate in 2011, was featured by NPR on The Writer’s Almanac in 2017, and won the Library of Virginia Award for Fiction in 2023. For three years, Glose published and edited the literary journal Virginia Adversaria. A much-published writer in multiple genres, his honors include the F. Scott Fitzgerald Short Story Award and the Dateline Award for Excellence in Journalism. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including The Missouri Review, Rattle, Poet Lore, Narrative Magazine, and The Sun. His website (www.BillGlose.com) includes a page of helpful information for writers.

  • Holly Karapetkova is Poet Laureate Emerita of Arlington, Virginia, and recipient of a 2022 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship for her work with young poets. She is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Dear Empire (Gunpowder Press), winner of the 2025 William Meredith Prize and the Barry Spacks Poetry Prize. She serves on the board of Washington Writers’ Publishing House, the oldest continually operating nonprofit cooperative press in the United States, and is an editor at Mid-Atlantic Review.

  • Amasa Maleski is the author of Deliver Me, Neon Dance (Words, Beats, and Life, 2024). He was the inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of Arlington County in 2021 and a member of Split This Rock’s 2020 DC Youth Slam Team. His poetry has been recognized in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, Luisa Igloria’s Young Poets in the Community program, and the Poetry Society of Virginia’s 2024 Contests. He was a poetry editor for Words for the World: An Anthology of Arlington Young Poets and the Virginia Literary Review. He currently studies Mechanical Engineering at the University of Virginia.

  • Lacroy “Atlas” Nixon was born in Charlotte, NC, and raised in Williamsburg, VA. He earned his bachelor's degree in graphic design from Liberty University and has been writing/performing spoken word poetry for 10 years. He spent 2 years as a regional Director of teen programming for the YMCA and is on the executive board for the Writers Guild of Virginia, is a current member of the poetry, society of Virginia, has a book available entitled “God and his humor”, and was an artist with the Hope Booth Movement (A world-changing initiative that toured across 19 cities in the United States in March 2022, debuted in London, UK in October 2021). The Hope booth re-purposes old telephone booths into three minute interactive, immersive experiences that combine art and technology to produce messages of hope in a conversational format.

    Atlas is also a 2-time back to back (2023 and 2024) Verb Benders grand slam champion, and the 2025 King of the South champion. He also has helped the Verb Benders slam team reach a number 10 and number 3 spots in the United States. In addition, Atlas was a national finalist for the 2024 “poetry me please“ people's choice competition where winners got the chance to perform at the Apollo theater in New York City. In 2025, Atlas was one of 10 poets selected from across the nation as a competitor in the poetry me, please annual "Bet On Yourself" slam competition. He has featured in Bully Magazine, Next Door Neighbors Magazine, Canvas Rebel Magazine, Bold Journey Magazine, The Virginia Gazette, WHRO, 93.5 FM "The Burg" radio, VPM's "In The Pen: with Roscoe Burnems", and is the lead curator for the Williamsburg Tiny Desk.

    Atlas also founded Slam Connection, a nonprofit organization in Williamsburg created to use slam and spoken word poetry as a means for community action. In just over two years of operation, slam connection has created its own curriculum, holds free open mics every month, has taught poetry to incarcerated youth, partnered with the local library and the city of Williamsburg to host free workshops, hosted the biggest single-day poetry events in the history of Williamsburg, and is currently ranked 6th in the United States. In addition to poetry, Atlas was also an educator through the Child Defense Fund Freedom School program for two years as a servant leader intern and a site coordinator

    In April 2025, Atlas made history by becoming the first ever poet laureate of Williamsburg, Virginia, marking the beginning of a new era for art and creativity in the city. Through this initiative, Atlas has created "The Artist Garden": an afterschool program that teaches students poetry performance and event management. In 2026, Atlas will host the first ever poetry showcase in partnership with the Ampersand International Arts Festival.  Lacroy "Atlas" Nixon loves Jesus and hopes to inspire people to be the best version of themselves through arts and self expression.

  • Angelique Palmer is a performance poet, Kindergarten Teacher, and Spoken Word instructor at Wilkes University. She is a member of the 2026 Pride Fellowship cohort at the Arts Club of Washington and will serve as Fairfax County Poet Laureate until 2027. 

    She is a 2025 Best of the Net nominee, a 2015 Women of the World Poetry Slam finalist, and she’s currently ranked 19th among the top 96 competitive poets in the world. 

    Her first full-length book, THE CHAMBERMAID’S STYLE GUIDE, debuted on Sargent Press in 2016. Her second book from Etruscan Press is 2021's ALSO DARK. 

    The New Orleans native and Florida State University Creative Writing graduate has called Fairfax County home since 2017.

  • Mattie Quesenberry Smith Virginia’s Poet Laureate 2024-2026

    Born June 4, 1963, in Radford, Virginia, Mattie Quesenberry Smith grew up in Montgomery County, Virginia, where she and her family explored the wilds of rural Appalachia. After graduating from Blacksburg High School in 1981, Smith attended Hollins University as a first-generation college attendee. Influenced by foraging in the woods and living off the land as a child, Smith enjoyed the natural world and discovered the overlap between the sciences and humanistic studies, so she earned a BA in biology and a BA in English literature. After graduating in 1985, she stayed at Hollins to earn an MA in English literature and creative writing in 1986 where she concentrated on writing poetry.

    After leaving Hollins, Smith moved to Washington, DC, where she served as a legislative assistant handling Merchant Marines and Fisheries Committee legislation for a Texas representative. Afterward, she went home to care for her ten children. Throughout this time, she continued to write across genres, sharing screenwriting and film projects with her husband.

    Between Two Fires, their award-winning film, documents the forced repatriation of Soviet citizens from America back to the Soviet Union after WWII in contravention to the Geneva Convention agreements. Smith has also served as a volunteer in local public schools, a facilitator for creative writing workshops, and a local organizer for public readings.

    She has published essays, poems, and creative non-fiction in anthologies, journals, and magazines. In 2008, Finishing Line Press published Mother Chaos: Under Electric Light. Of this chapbook, Jeanne Larsen wrote, “The language of these poems is strong, and strange in all the ways that poems should be strange. The vision informing them is unblinking, informed by the poetry of science and clarity of faith.” Eric Trethewey said her poems “engage with disparate subjects and themes in original ways, but above all they represent nature in a clear-eyed, hard-edged, unsentimental light. Nature’s profligate inexactitude is named and lamented, as is the ‘sly and painful truth’ of our being ‘misplaced in her landscape.’” Her recent poems appear in the Laureate Project, New Verse Review, Intersections--Poetry with Mathematics, Hunger Poems: Poetry X Hunger, and Phi Kappa Phi Forum.

    Smith teaches writing and rhetoric at Virginia Military Institute where her colleagues selected her for the NCAA’s All-Southern Conference Faculty and Staff Team 2024-2025, recognizing her service to VMI and her contributions to campus life and the local community.

    In December 2024, Smith earned a PhD in curriculum and instruction at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her research describes critical reflective writing during technology and engineering design thinking, and she is interested in how science and writing combined catalyze new language during real-world innovation.

    In November 2024, Smith was appointed as Virginia’s Poet Laureate to finish the 2024-2026 term. On July 31, 2025, she received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship to support her statewide initiative, “Perseverance and Resilience: Supporting Veterans through Poetry.” She lives with her family at the foot of Little House Mountain near Lexington, VA.