Poet Laureate

John Calvin Rezmerski


The League chooses a Poet Laureate every five years. His or her duties are unspecified, but it is understood that the Laureate's role is to act as a cheerleader for poetry and for the organization. The Laureate does not represent the League in any administrative capacity, but is expected to help publicize the League and its activities. Laureates have represented the League through their presence at annual meetings of NFSPS, at local or statewide events, and often in visits to schools or activities sponsored by other arts organizations. Past Laureates have included Sue Chambers and Maxine Kaiser Russell.

The current Laureate of the League is John Calvin Rezmerski, a member of the Southern Minnesota Poets' Society who first came to the organization as keynote speaker at the League's fall meeting in 1998. He joined the League at that meeting, and since then has served as a speaker and critique leader at various League meetings, and as a speaker or panelist at national meetings. He is the author or editor of many books and chapbooks. His most recent full-length collection of poems is What Do I Know? New and Selected Poems, published by Holy Cow! Press of Duluth. Three of his chapbooks, Growing Down, Counting Sheep, and 22 from TOTU, are still in print.

"Rez," as many people call him, is also a member of the board of trustees at the Blue Earth County Historical Society, and an active member of the Society's programs committee. In 2005, he met with the proprietors of Morgan Creek Winery, who have a long history of supporting arts events, and they initiated a program called Prairie Stories and River Rhymes, which combines history, music, and literature presented four times a year, on various themes. In the first year of the program, one of the themes dealt with the heritage of Welsh immigrants to Blue Earth County. The interest generated by that program led them to join forces with LOMP as a co-sponsor in 2006 to resurrect the tradition of the Welsh Eisteddfod, a ceremonial celebration of poetry and music, the high point of which is "the chairing of the bard." In the contest that is the heart of the event, poets compete in recitation of their own work, and the winner claims a hand-carved oak chair. The 2006 winner was Doris Stengel of Heartland Poets, and the winner in 2007 was Sharon Chmielarz, who has been a keynote speaker at our fall conference. "Rez" serves not only as the Eisteddfod organizer, but also as its master of ceremonies.



John Rezmerski proclaims Doris Stengel the winner of the Bardic Chair at the 2006 Cambria Eisteddfod.



Sue Chambers performs at the Cambria Eisteddfod.



The prize at the Eisteddfod is a chair hand-carved by Adam Marti of Morgan Creek Winery.