City of Greenville Poet Laureate and youth Poet Laureate
The City of Greenville Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate are honorary positions aimed at promoting literacy and literature among city residents of all ages. They may be available to read poetry or speak at public meetings, public venues, neighborhoods, community centers, schools and other public settings throughout the city of Greenville.
For speaking engagement inquiries, please click here.
MEET THE POET LAUREATE: GLENIS REDMOND
City of Greenville Poet Laureate Glenis Redmond is a renowned performance poet, founder of the Greenville Poetry Slam and former poet-in-residence for the Peace Center for the Performing Arts. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from Warren Wilson College, is a Cave Canem alumni and has spent almost three decades touring the country as a poet and teaching artist. In 2020, Glenis received the Governor’s Award for the Arts, the highest honor the state of South Carolina gives in the arts, and in April, she was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors, which recognizes the state's most distinguished writers and their influence on our cultural heritage.
Glenis has been a Kennedy Center teaching artist for 17 years and has created and facilitated poetry workshops for school districts across the country. Since 2014, she has served as the mentor poet for the National Student Poets Program, the nation’s highest honor for students creating original work, and during that time, has prepared young poets to read at the Library of Congress, the U.S. Department of Education and the White House.
Before moving to Greenville, Glenis lived in Asheville for 17 years and was a vital leader in the poetry scene. She is a North Carolina Literary Fellowship recipient and helped create the first writer-in-residence program at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site in Flat Rock.
Glenis is the author of three books of poetry, with three additional books scheduled for publication in late 2022, and is currently working on a seventh collection. Her poetry has been showcased on NPR and PBS and was most recently published in Orion, storySouth and The New York Times, as well as numerous national and international literary journals.
Photo credit: Amber McDowell