Katherine E. Young Photo by Jeanne Julian
Katherine E. Young has been selected the first Poet Laureate of Arlington County. She will be installed at a brief ceremony during the County Board recessed meeting at 3 p.m., Tuesday, July 19, at 2100 Clarendon Blvd.
During her two-year appointment, the 30-year county resident will serve as an advocate for poetry and the literary arts and will work to raise Arlingtonians’ consciousness and appreciation of poetry in its written and spoken forms.
Young has won numerous awards as a poet and also as a literary translator. She has read her poetry at the Library of Congress and in venues throughout the United States and abroad. These include the Oxford (U.K.) Literary Festival, and at English and Scottish venues from Cheltenham to Edinburgh.
Her reviews and criticism have appeared in Poet Lore and the Innisfree Poetry Journal. She also has taught K – 12 students through the Pick-a-Poet program, a partnership between Arlington Cultural Affairs and the Arlington Public Schools (APS) Humanities Project, which places professional poets in APS classrooms. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing.
The Poet Laureate will receive an honorarium of $1,500 per year, provided through regular Cultural Affairs programming funds and the Friends of the Arlington Public Library.