Priest's second and most recent collection is Sublime Subliminal.ĭespite her own experience, Priest says she did not get a lot of support for her literary aspirations in her home community, the Lummi Nation. (Flenniken was Washington’s state poet laureate from 2012-14.) She was selected by poet Kathleen Flenniken to be part of the 2019 cohort of Jack Straw Writers in Seattle. Her literary debut, Patriarchy Blues, was honored with the 2018 American Book Award. She earned an MFA in writing from Sarah Lawrence College. I think that there's just a lot of talent and a lot of love and a lot of true devotion to the craft of poetry in this community,” she says. “We're super lucky to have so many amazing poets in our community here.

She went on to study English and earn a bachelor’s degree at Western Washington University in Bellingham, where she credits a vibrant poetry scene with shaping her as a writer. And you know, that, along with a lot of other experiences, gave me a love for hearing language out loud and the music of language and poetry,” Priest says. And I just thought that was the greatest. “H e would read to us in the library, the voices of the characters. She credits her grandmother, who published a small book of poems and who she was named after, as well as her school librarian, who inspired her with his renditions of books he read aloud. Priest says she discovered poetry at a very young age. She succeeds Claudia Castro Luna and will serve for two years. Jay Inslee and is the state’s first Indigenous poet to serve in this role. Rena Priest officially took the mantle in a ceremony Wednesday evening, hosted at the Lummi Nation, where she is from.

Washington has a new state poet laureate.

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