PORT TOWNSEND — Rufina C. Garay has been selected as Port Townsend’s second Poet Laureate.
“My poetry invites inclusion,” Garay said in a city news release. “I will offer hospitality through poetry by welcoming people to public dedications and meetings, ground them in our collective humanity and hope in uncertain times, provide opportunities for civic engagement and empathic and civil dialogue on current issues, and collaborate with partner community organizations to make literary arts accessible to all.”
Garay is an interdisciplinary poet and artist and the founder of Shattering Glass, which curates poetry from established and emerging poets of the Olympic Peninsula, with a focus on social and environmental justice.
She is a practitioner of the taoist meditative arts, which hold poetry as a healing practice, the city said.
The position, a Port Townsend Art Commission (PTAC) program, will span 2026 and 2027. It involves planning community events, educational events and infusing the literary arts into civic dialogue in inspiring ways. The poet also is expected to write poems to be published in the city’s publications.
“The Poet Laureate program celebrates the ways poetry connects us to place, to one another, and to ourselves,” PTAC Chair Alexis Arrabito said. “Rufina brings a deep sense of imagination and heart to this role, and I am as thrilled for her as I am excited for our community.”
Garay was appointed by Mayor David Faber at Monday’s city council meeting.
Her appointment was based on a recommendation from a five-person selection panel, including a PTAC member, city council member Ben Thomas and three literary artists: current Poet Laureate Conner Bouchard-Roberts, poet Amber Huntsman and Clallam County Poet Laureate Nellie Bridge.
Garay will be paid a $1,500 honorarium each year and receive additional support from The Port Townsend Library Friends and Foundation, according to the city.
Bouchard-Roberts, Winter Texts owner and publisher and the city’s first poet laureate, will leave the position at the end of the year.
“It is exciting to see this program start its next chapter,” said Katy Goodman, Port Townsend’s arts and culture coordinator and staff liaison to the PTAC. “Conner’s work as the inaugural laureate has done so much to bring poetry to the city in beautiful, thoughtful ways. I can’t wait to see how Rufina builds on this foundation and moves the program forward with her deeply community-minded perspective.”
To learn more about the Poet Laureate program, visit https://cityofpt.us/bc-ac/page/city-port-townsend-poet-laureate.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@peninsuladailynews.com.
