Rene Parks was named as the first official Poet Laureate of Ottawa.

“I’m so humbly grateful for this honor. I will be a good steward of the vision of the Ottawa Arts Committee. I truly believe poetry is for everyone,” Parks said. “My hope is that I can show others how they might take refuge in poetry because it’s a wondrous place.”

Parks said to explore the limits of our language and push its boundaries in the spirit of capturing the essence of our human experience is a joy and a gift. I will do my best to make the work of the poet laureate dignified and rich.

As the selected poet laureate, Parks will promote literacy for residents of all ages and produce a series of new poems centered around Ottawa.

She will receive $1,000 per year for a two-year term, and a platform to promote her work. Parks will host workshops for residents, appear at select city events for readings and work with committee members to assemble their poems for publication in a chapbook.

“When I was forming the Arts Committee, I put together a list of things that I thought that they could work on. And on that list was a poet laureate,” Mayor Robert Hasty said. “Susie Burton dropped off a bunch of information about a poet laureate program for the city of Ottawa, and all of her information was almost identical to the stuff that I had seen from Rockford and other communities.”

Parks prepared a poem for the occasion of being selected by the Arts Committee as the first Poet Laureate.