The Mount Vernon City Council approved the selection of Lisbon resident Amelia Kibbie as the city’s Poet Laureate for another year (2023) at the Oct. 3 meeting. Normally a two-year term, Kibbie was asked to serve an additional year so she could implement programs that were cancelled due to COVID.
Kibbie, a 2002 graduate of Mount Vernon High School, is an English teacher, instructional coach and MTSS interventionist at Lisbon High School. Kibbie’s short stories and poems as well as a novel, Legendary (2019) have been published. She also blogs at akibbie.wordpress.com and her website is hosted at ameliakibbie.com.
Kibbie is Mount Vernon’s second poet laureate; she followed Marianne Taylor, the city’s inaugural poet laureate in 2019-2020. An initiative of the Mount Vernon Area Arts Council (MVAAC), the position was established in 2018 in partnership with the city of Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon is considered the smallest city in America with a poet laureate.
The responsibilities of the poet laureate include the presentation of an original work at Mount Vernon’s Memorial Day ceremony at the cemetery and conducting at least one public outreach activity that celebrates poetry, writing and writers.
The two-year term carries an annual $500 stipend provided by MCAAC.
MVAAC, founded in 2004, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting art and culture in the Mount Vernon-Lisbon community. For more information, go to www.mvaac.org.