Cincinnati Word of Mouth is honored to feature three of Cincinnati's Poet Laureates this month: Newly appointed Richard Hague; 2016-18 Laureate Pauletta Hansel; and 2019-21 Laureate Manuel Iris. Join us for this special event. And as always, bring your poems and ears for our open reading. Here are details on our esteemed features:
RICHARD HAGUE was recently named 2025-27 Poet Laureate of Cincinnati, succeeding Yalie Saweda Kamara. A northern Appalachian from Steubenville, Ohio, Hague is a three-time recipient in two genres of Ohio Arts Council Individual Artists Fellowships. His work has been awarded the 1982 Cincinnati Post-Corbett Award in Literary Arts, the Poetry Book of the Year from the Appalachian Writers Association in 2003, and the 2012 Weatherford Prize in Poetry. He was named 1985 Co-Poet of the Year in Ohio after publishing Ripening (The Ohio State University Press, 1984) He is a member of the Literary Club of Cincinnati, serving as President in 2021-22, and founded their Poets Laureate Series.
PAULETTA HANSEL was Cincinnati’s first Poet Laureate from 2016 to 2018. Her books include "Will There Also Be Singing?" (Shadelandhouse Modern Press), poems of witness and protest; "Heartbreak Tree" (Madville Publications) which won the Poetry Society of Virginia’s North American Book Award; and "Palindrome" (Dos Madres Press) winner of the 2017 Weatherford Award for Appalachian Poetry. "Understory: A Women’s History of Appalachia" is forthcoming from University Press of Kentucky. Residence.
MANUEL IRIS was the 2019-21 Poet Laureate of Cincinnati. He is a Mexico-born American poet and the author of six collections. Iris has served as Writer-in-Residence at both the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library and Thomas More University. In 2021, he was named a member of Mexico’s National System of Art Creators. He was awarded the Mérida National Poetry Prize (2009) for "Cuaderno de los sueños" and the Rodulfo Figueroa Regional Poetry Prize (2014) for "Los disfraces del fuego." In 2025, Iris received the Ambroggio Prize from the Academy of American Poets for his book "The Whole Earth is a Garden of Monsters/Toda la tierra es un jardín de monstruos."
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