Utah's poet laureate has received a $100,000 award and been named an Academy of American Poets laureate fellow.
Paisley Rekdal, who was appointed to the unpaid position by Gov. Gary Herbert in May 2017, is one of 13 state or local poets laureate to be honored by the academy. And she was taken aback by the announcement.
“It’s a shocking amount of money,” Rekdal said with a laugh. “An amazing amount of money.”
The award recognizes literary merit and is designed to support civic programs — Paisley is the creator and managing editor of Mapping Salt Lake City (mappingslc.