By JON WILSON, Consulting Editor, TB Reporter

Gov. Rick Scott names Peter Meinke as Florida’s fourth Poet Laureate.  

ST. PETERSBURG — Peter Meinke, a longtime Eckerd College literature professor, has been named the fourth Poet Laureate of Florida. The St. Petersburg resident succeeds Edmund Skelling, who died in 2012.

Meinke, who now holds the position of professor emeritus at Eckerd, has been the St. Petersburg Poet Laureate and will be replaced by Helen Pruitt Wallace in January 2016.  Wallace is an assistant professor of creative writing at Eckerd.

Meinke will serve a four-year term in the unpaid state position. Gov. Rick Scott chose him from a list of 15 nominees from around the state.

Meinke also writes a column for the Tampa Bay weekly, Creative Loafing.

The Florida Division of Cultural Affairs says the Poet Laureate’s job is to promote poetry through reading and writing it while encouraging students to express themselves through writing poetry and reading aloud. The position is for four years.

For more about Meinke and Eckerd, see eckerd.edu/academics/literature/faculty/meinke.php .

St. Petersburg | Arts and Leisure | Poet Laureate

#St. Petersburg #Arts and Leisure #Poet Laureate #PeterMeinke #HelenPruittWallace #TBReporter