Debora Kuan Appointed Poet Laureate of Wallingford, Connecticut

Wallingford CT

23 October, 2020

9:38 AM

Description

The Wallingford Public Library is pleased to announce Debora Kuan as the Poet Laureate for the Town of Wallingford, Connecticut, effective immediately. An installation ceremony will take place at the Wallingford Public Library Association's 140th Annual Meeting on October 26, 2020. Debora Kuan is the author of two collections of poetry, XING (Saturnalia Books, 2011), which was featured as a notable first book by Ploughshares magazine, and Lunch Portraits (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2016). She has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, Macdowell, and the Santa Fe Art Institute, and her fiction and poetry have appeared in The New Republic, Boston Review, Fence, The Iowa Review, ZYZZYVA, and many other publications. Her poem "Magic Lesson" will be anthologized in Bedford Macmillan's Advanced Language and Literature: For Advanced Honors and Pre-AP, 2nd edition, this coming January. She has also written about visual art, books, and film for Artforum, Art in America, Modern Painters, Paper Monument, and other publications. A former fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center Writers' Institute in fiction and nonfiction, she received an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a BA in English from Princeton University. She currently lives in Wallingford with her husband and two children. The mission of Wallingford's Poet Laureate program is to communicate the value and use of poetry as a means to inspire, inform, and entertain the community at large. As the Poet Laureate of the Town of Wallingford, Ms. Kuan will serve as the ambassador of the town's vibrant literary life and promote poetry as a form of literature that has deep roots among people of all ages and cultures. She will encourage the reading and writing of literature and poetry and strive to inspire an emerging generation of critical thinkers and writers. She will also represent Wallingford in the Connecticut Coalition of Poets Laureate. Jane Fisher, Director of the Library, notes that while the Poet Laureate Search and Review Committee was impressed by Ms. Kuan's many accolades and publishing credits, it was her poetry that really stood out. "The imagery in her poems gives the reader strong sense of emotion and space," says Ms. Fisher. "We are delighted to have such a talented and passionate member of our community." "I am thrilled to serve as Wallingford's poet laureate for the 2020-2022 term," Ms. Kuan says. "My family moved to Connecticut from Brooklyn for my husband's job at Choate Rosemary Hall in 2018, and I view the laureateship as a wonderful opportunity to not only deepen my connection to this community, but also to communicate the value of poetry and literature to the larger public—both young and old alike!" She hopes that, on the other side of this pandemic, in addition to Zoom gatherings, the community will be able to enjoy in-person workshops, readings, and lectures, which will be open to everyone. Ms. Kuan's appointment will be celebrated at the Wallingford Public Library's 140th Annual Meeting on Monday, October 26, at 7:00 PM. This year, the event will take place virtually. Call the library at (203)265-6754 for more information.