Poet laureate Ashley M. Jones has announced the five writers who will make up the Alabama Poetry Delegation, a group of writers selected to create literary programs throughout different regions around the state.

The Alabama Poetry Delegation is a partnership between Jones and the Alabama Writers Forum. Created by Jones and supported by the Academy of American Poets and the Mellon Foundation, the delegation is a leadership and service initiative of Jones’ nonprofit organization, the Magic City Poetry Festival.

Jones, who is the first person of color and the youngest person to serve as poet laureate in Alabama’s history, announced the creation of the Alabama Poetry Delegation in 2022. The project is partially funded by a grant from the Academy of American Poets. Last year, Jones received a $50,000 award from the organization with $15,000 of the funds designated for a service project in Alabama. Jones is one of the 22 poets in the 2022 cohort of Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellows. The mission of the fellowship, which launched in 2019 in partnership with the Mellon Foundation, is to support the work of the fellows and enable them to create civic poetry programs.

Members of the Alabama Poetry Delegation represent five designated regions: north Alabama, central-east Alabama, central-west Alabama, southwest Alabama, and southeast Alabama. The writers will produce events or provide poetry-related services in each region they serve. The delegates— who were selected by Jones and the Alabama Writers Forum after applying for the project— are required to partner with a local organization in their region for their poetry initiatives. Delegates receive a $1,000 stipend for personal use and partner organizations receive $2,000 for events and programming. The delegates and partner organizations can also raise additional funds and apply for supplemental grants. The five delegates will represent their regions for the remainder of Jones’ tenure as poet laureate.

“It’s vital to me that I don’t prescribe what Alabamians need, but rather that I simply assist in finding resources so each region can be empowered to decide what will work best for them,” Jones said in an announcement about the project. “The role of the Poet Laureate, in my eyes, is a role of service, and this project is representative of that goal: five delegates from different walks of life from different parts of the state serving those regions with poetry programming!”

Here are the writers of the Alabama Poetry Delegation:

Dr. Allen Berry

Region 1: North Alabama (Colbert, Dekalb, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Madison, Marshall, and Morgan counties)

Dr. Allen Berry is a poet and college instructor at Calhoun Community College in Huntsville. His work has appeared in a number of publications, including Steel Toe Review, Birmingham Arts Journal, and Adirondack Review. His project, in partnership with Calhoun Community College, aims to restart the Limestone Dust Poetry Festival, a local poetry festival showcasing poets from all across North Alabama.

Tina Mozelle Braziel

Region 2: Central-East Alabama (Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Chilton, Clay, Cleburne, Coosa, Cullman, Etowah, Jefferson, Randolph, Shelby, St. Clair, Talladega, Tallapoosa, Walker, and Winston counties)

Tina Mozelle Braziel is the author of “Rooted by Thirst” and “Known by Salt,” winner of the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. Braziel’s project, in partnership with the Alabama Rivers Alliance, will offer poetry workshops along rivers and creeks and feature eco-poetry by local poets in films made by filmmakers in the Southern Exposure Film Festival.

Dr. Eleanor Boudreau

Region 3: Central-West Alabama (Bibb, Choctaw, Fayette, Greene, Hale, Lamar, Marengo, Marion, Perry, Pickens, Sumter, and Tuscaloosa counties)

Dr. Eleanor Boudreau is the author of ” Earnest, Earnest?” which won the 2019 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. Dr. Boudreau’s project will be in partnership with the University of West Alabama’s Division of Economic & Workforce Development and its Center for the Study of the Black Belt and Black Belt Museum.

Angelica Howard

Region 4: Southwest Alabama (Baldwin, Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, Mobile, Monroe, and Washington counties)

Angelica Howard teaches at Vigor High School in her hometown of Mobile where she is currently the 2023 Teacher of the Year. For her project, Howard will work in partnership with the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast to create a series of creative writing workshops, internship opportunities, scholarship awards, and a culminating conference and oratorical contest to celebrate the voices of our youth in lower Alabama.

Jonathon “JP da Poet” Peterson

Region 5 – Southeast Alabama (Autauga, Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Chambers, Coffee, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Dallas, Elmore, Geneva, Henry, Houston, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Montgomery, Pike, Russell, and Wilcox counties)

Jonathon “JP da Poet” Peterson is an eight time Bards and Brews Spoken Word champion and a two-time Alabama Music Awards Spoken Word Artist of the year. For his project, Peterson will partner with Alabama State University’s ASPIRE Program to produce Poet University, a free program to teach the community how to write and recite poetry.