WT’s Texas Poets’ Corner to host 2024 Texas Poet Laureate
CANYON —The current Texas poet laureate will read her works at an upcoming event hosted by West Texas A&M University’s Texas Poets’ Corner.
Amanda Johnston will read at 7 p.m. Oct. 17 in the Texas Poets’ Corner on the second floor of Cornette Library on WT’s Canyon campus. Admission is free. In addition to reading her own poetry, Johnston will also read a poem by Jenny Lind Porter, the founder of Texas Poets’ Corner and a former Texas poet laureate herself. Johnston will greet guests at 6:30 p.m., then will stay for a reception following the reading.
Although Johnston was born in East St. Louis, she was raised in Austin. Her published work includes the full-length collection “Another Way to Say Enter” (2017) and two chapbooks, “GUAP” and “Lock & Key.” Blavity named Johnston as one of “13 Black Poets You Should Know,” and her work has been shared on a variety of media outlets. Johnston, who is a member of The Affrilachian Poets, co-founder of Black Poets Speak Out, and Founder of Torch Literary Arts, earned her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at the University of Southern Maine.