SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) — Governor Tina Kotek has named Ellen Waterston of Bend, an acclaimed poet/writer, teacher and speaker who founded the Writing Ranch and the Waterston Desert Writing Prize, as Oregon Poet Laureate for a two-year term.
Waterston will be Oregon’s 11th Poet Laureate, succeeding Anis Mojgani, who has held the post since 2020.
“Ellen Waterston stands out for her commitment to community, her focus on bringing together different ways of life and different parts of the state, and her remarkable ability to describe the moments, places and people that make Oregon what it is,” said Governor Kotek. “I am excited to see how she uses her talents in the literary arts to serve the state as Oregon’s eleventh Poet Laureate.”
Many of Waterston’s award-winning poems and prose works are inspired by the remote outback of southeastern Oregon. She has published four books of poetry: I Am Madagascar, Between Desert Seasons, Vía Lactéa, and Hotel Domilocos, of which poet and author John Calderazzo said, “In a world of stunning beauty and loss, from the tropics to the high desert, Ellen Waterston offers us intimate conversations between heart, mind, and place, stories that speak of hope, recovery, and joy.”
Lawson Fusao Inada, Oregon’s fifth poet laureate, wrote, “The truth is: Ellen Waterston’s poems resonate. They situate themselves naturally to move forward in compelling, meaningful ways. Each poem leaves something behind.”
Waterston’s poems have appeared in anthologies and magazines, been featured in the Writer’s Almanac, and have earned her numerous fellowships, grants, and residencies. Her poetry awards include the WILLA Award for two of her collections and the Obsidian Prize for Poetry. Waterston is currently working on a fifth collection, a series of commissioned poems celebrating remote places in the West.
“Inspired by the example of the Poets Laureate who have died before me, I want to share my love of poetry, place and the power of the written word with Oregon’s diverse audiences,” Waterston said, “while fostering creativity and community.”
Poetry has always been at the heart of Waterston’s writing, but she is also the published author of three award-winning literary nonfiction books: “Walking the High Desert,” “Where the Crooked River Rises,” and “Then There Was No Mountain.” “We Could Die Doing This,” a collection of essays, will be published in fall 2024.
In addition to her work as a writer, Waterston founded the for-profit Writing Ranch, which offers retreats and workshops for established and emerging writers, and the Bend-based nonprofit literary arts organization The Nature of Words, which she ran for over a decade.
She then founded the Waterston Desert Writing Prize, which each year recognizes a nonfiction proposal that explores the role of deserts in the human narrative and is now a program of the High Desert Museum.
She has taught creative writing at the high school and undergraduate levels and was the author of the original feasibility study for the low residency MFA in creative writing at OSU Cascades, where she now teaches.
Her work as a writer and advocate for the literary arts has previously been recognized with an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from OSU-Cascades and, in 2024, both the Stewart H. Holbrook Award from the Literary Arts of Oregon and the Bread and Roses Award from Soapstone.
“We celebrate Ellen Waterston for her work in creating a vibrant literary life east of the Cascades,” Soapstone said. “She created unique and important events, brought attention to the literature of the High Desert, and mentored numerous authors while producing poetry and nonfiction that have become an essential part of Oregon and Western literature.”
Waterston received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University and a Master of Arts in archaeology from the University of Madagascar. She has three children and three grandchildren and lives in central Oregon.
A committee of twenty writers, poets and cultural figures examined the nominations for the title of Poet Laureate earlier this year; the committee’s best candidates were submitted to the Governor for consideration.
The Oregon Poet Laureate promotes the art of poetry, encourages literacy, addresses key issues in the humanities and heritage, and reflects on public life in Oregon. Waterston will hold at least 10 public readings per year at venues across the state to educate community, business, and civic leaders about the value and importance of poetry and creative expression. The program is funded by the Oregon Cultural Trust and administered by Oregon Humanities.
Past Oregon Poets Laureate include: Edwin Charles Markham (1921–1940); Ben Hur Lampman (1951–1954); Ethel Romig Fuller (1957–1965); William Stafford (1974–1989); Lawson Inada (2006–2010); Paulann Petersen (2010-2014); Peter Sears (2014-2016); Elizabeth Woody (2016-2018); Kim Stafford (2018-2020); and Anis Mojgani (2020-2024).
Waterston assumes the role of Poet Laureate effective immediately. For more information about the Oregon Poet Laureate program, visit the Poet Laureate website.
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About the Oregon Cultural Trust
The Oregon Cultural Trust was created in 2001 by the Oregon Legislature as a unique way to reward Oregonians who invest in culture. Oregonians who donate to a cultural nonprofit and then make a matching gift to the Cultural Trust receive a 100% state tax credit for their gift to the Trust. These funds then support and protect Oregon’s arts, humanities and heritage nonprofits. In addition to establishing a permanent endowment, funds are distributed annually through three diverse, wide-reaching grant programs. No other state in the U.S. has a program like the Oregon Cultural Trust, which, along with the Bottle Bill and the Vote-by-Mail Bill, is one of Oregon’s most progressive policies. For more information, visit culturaltrust.org.
About Oregon Humanities
Oregon Humanities is an independent, nonprofit member of the National Endowment for the Humanities and a partner of the Oregon Cultural Trust. Through its programs and publications—including the Conversation Project, Consider This, Humanity in Perspective, Public Program Grants, and Oregon Humanities Magazine – Oregon Humanities connects Oregonians with ideas that change lives and transform communities. Learn more at oregonhumanities.org.
