The official announcement: Jeannine Hall Gailey is the new Poet Laureate of Redmond

The official announcement is finally here! I’m the new Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington. This is the “new job” I’ve been talking about here for the last couple of months. Redmond is a city located a few minutes from Seattle, across Lake Washington, and is home to Microsoft, in case you were wondering where it is.
I’m very excited about the position and hope to help create excitement about poetry in the community. My new slogan is “Geeks for Poetry, Poetry for Geeks” – what do you think? I’m also going to try to launch a book-reading series called “Redmond Reads Poetry” with our library, where we read a book of poetry a quarter as a community – usually a book with some “geeky” aspects – science, comic books, etc. So I have some ambitions for trying out some new programs. My first big reading won’t be til this fall, but there’s plenty of work to do setting things up til then! I’m dying to know what people in Redmond are interested in, poetry-wise, what they think the community really needs, etc. So if you happen to be a Redmond person, please fill me in in the comments!

Thanks to our Washington State Poet Laureate, Kathleen Flenniken, for doing this feature on me today at her blog: http://kathleenflenniken.com/blog/?p=655 

And here’s the official Redmond site: http://www.redmond.gov/ParksRecreation/artsandculture/PoetLaureate/

 In the last few months, I’ve gotten to meet the mayor (who is lovely,) the City Council, and almost the entire Arts department of the City of Redmond, and spent more time in the City Hall than I ever thought I might. When I made my first visit to City Hall to interview, I saw a fox statue, on its hind legs, near the entrance. I decided it was a good omen, what with the whole “fox–wife” and Kitsune thing. Here’s a picture of me that day with the little guy. Doesn’t the fox look like it’s smiling?