Glenis Redmond becomes Greenville’s first poet laureate
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Glenis Redmond is a nationally renowned award-winning poet, a teaching artist, a literary community leader, and the City of Greenville’s first poet laureate.
“You know what’s great about being the first poet laureate?” Redmond asked. “That there will be a second poet laureate, a third poet laureate, a fourth poet laureate and so on and so on. I’m so glad, yes, to take the inaugural position, but also that it will raise the platform for poetry in Greenville.”
“It’s a two-year term, so every poet laureate will shift it and shape it and mold it the way that they would like,” Redmond explained.
Redmond said she hopes to use her position to give poetry to the masses because she believes “poetry belongs to everyone.” She said her goal is not to make everyone a poet, but to help everyone find the poetry within their life.
“I believe that everyone has poetry in them, and what poetry allows you to do is to reflect. It’s a mirror,” Redmond explained. “It’s about joy. It’s about sorrow. It’s about regret. Anything that is in your heart you can pour it out on the page.”
Redmond said part of her role as poet laureate is to appoint a youth poet laureate.
“We are on the lookout. Teachers and community members, get ready. We’re going to have a young, youth poet laureate soon,” she said.
If you would like to have Glenis speak at your event or hold a workshop, you can request her services by clicking here.
About Glenis Redmond
Redmond said her poetry journey began as a teenager in a Greenville classroom.
“It was Woodmont Junior Senior High School. I was 13. It was Ms. Sergeant, her name is Mrs. Allen now, and she gave us an assignment. She said, ‘You will be writing in your journal for 15 minutes every day.’ Along with everybody else, I moaned and groaned,” Redmond explained. “But, after that week and the assignment was over, I was still writing poetry. Lo and behold, from that moment, it turned me into a poet.”
Click to see samples of her work
In 2020, Glenis received the Governor’s Award for the Arts, which is the highest honor the state of South Carolina gives in the arts. She was also inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors.
Redmond said she has been working on three books in 2022: The Listening Skin, Three Harriets & Others, and Praise Songs for Dave the Potter. She previously wrote and released: Backbone, Under the Sun, and What My Hand Say. You can shop all of her books by clicking here.
Glenis is a Cave Canem Fellow, a North Carolina Literary Fellowship Recipient, and a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist. After spending nearly three decades touring the country as a poet and a teaching artist, Redmond is back in Greenville. She will be conducting Youth Poetry Workshops at the Peace Center in April for National Poetry Month.
To learn more about Glenis Redmond, visit her website glenisredmond.com. You can also follow Glenis on Facebook and Instagram.
