POET LAUREATE

Roland Flint, Ph.D., Poet Laureate of Maryland, 1995-

In the 18th century, Ebenezer Cook, author of The Sot-weed Factor: Or, A Voyage to Maryland (1708), styled himself Poet Laureate. Maryland did not have an official poet, however, until 1959. In that year, the General Assembly authorized the Governor to appoint a citizen of the State as Poet Laureate of Maryland (Chapter 178, Acts of 1959; Code State Government Article, sec. 13-306).

Roland Flint was named Poet Laureate of Maryland by the Governor in September 1995 . A nationally recognized poet, Dr. Flint has been a professor of English at Georgetown University since 1981. His works include And Morning (1975); The Honey and Other Poems for Rosalind (1976); Say It (1979); Resuming Green: Selected Poems, 1965-1982 (1983); Sicily (1987); Stubborn (1990); Hearing Voices (1991); Pigeon (1991); and Pigeon in the Night (1994). Dr. Flint lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

FORMER POET LAUREATES

• 1959-1962 Maria B. Coker
  
• 1962-1979 Vincent Godfrey Burns
  
• 1979-1985 Lucille Clifton
  
• 1985-1988 Reed Whittemore
  
• 1991-1995 Linda Pastan

Maryland at a Glance

Maryland Manual On-Line