Illinois Poet Laureate

Writer Mark Turcotte (Turtle Mountain Band Anishinaabe) spent his earliest years on North Dakota's Turtle Mountain Chippewa Reservation and in the migrant camps of the western United States. Later, he grew up in and around Lansing, Michigan. After high school and one unproductive year in college, he traveled the country, working and living on the road for nearly fifteen years.

Arriving in Chicago in the spring of 1993, Turcotte rediscovered his love of words and writing and quickly established himself as a unique voice in the city’s thriving poetry scene. That summer he was the winner of the First Gwendolyn Brooks Open-Mic Poetry Award. By year’s-end he had two books of poetry being prepared for publication, and soon thereafter he was selected by Ms. Brooks as a Significant Illinois Poet and was named to the Illinois Authors Poster. During his time in Chicago, Turcotte was also the recipient of a Writer’s Community Residency from National Writer's Voice and was awarded the 1997 Josephine Gates Kelly Memorial Fellowship from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. He left Chicago with his new wife and son for Door County, Wisconsin, in 1998.

Turcotte is author of The Feathered Heart (Michigan State University Press, 1998, revised edition); Songs of Our Ancestors (Children's Press, 1995); a chapbook, Road Noise (Mesilla Press, 1998); Le Chant de la Route (bilingual, La Vague Verte, Paris, 2001); and Exploding Chippewas (Northwestern University Press, 2002). His work has appeared in many literary journals, including TriQuarterly, POETRY, Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, Sentence, North American Review, and Door County Living Magazine, and has been anthologized in several collections, including The POETRY Anthology, 1912-2002, Poetry Daily: 366, Stray Dogs, PowerLines, and What Saves Us. His poem, The Flower On, was part of the Poetry Society of America’s inaugural Poetry In Motion project, which placed poetry placards on public transportation in cities across the United States. His fiction and prose work have appeared in several journals, including Rosebud and Hunger Mountain. He is included in the new and first-ever Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, entitled When the Light of the World Was Subdued Our Light Came Through. His poem, “Dear New Blood,” was recently featured at Poem-A-Day and on the poetry podcast Poetry Unbound, hosted by Pádraig Ó Tuama.

Turcotte was the recipient of a 2001-2002 Lannan Foundation Literary Award and was awarded 1999 and 2003 Literary Fellowships by the Wisconsin Arts Board. He was selected for a National Book Foundation American Voices assignment at Wind River, Wyoming, and a Lannan Writer’s Residency in Marfa, Texas. His work is included in the NEA/Poetry Foundation project Poetry Out Loud.

In 2005 he returned to college where he completed an MFA in Creative Writing at Western Michigan University. After graduation he served as the 2008-2009 Visiting Native Writer at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico; was on the faculty of The Solstice low-res MFA Program, now at Lasell University near Boston; and was Visiting Writer-In-Residence for Spring 2014 at the Center For The Writing Arts at Northwestern University.  He returned to Chicago in 2009 to serve as Senior Lecturer and Distinguished-Writer-In-Residence in the English Department at DePaul University. He and his wife, Susan, live near Lake Michigan in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

The Illinois Poet Laureate promotes access to poetry for all Illinoisans. In his role as Illinois Poet Laureate, Mark Turcotte will present readings, conversations, and other programming about poetry across the state. You can request an appearance, poetry reading, or presentation by Turcotte by contacting his office:

Mark Turcotte
Illinois Poet Laureate
poet.laureate@ilhumanities.org

Mark Turcotte is the sixth Illinoisan to hold the title of Poet Laureate, an honorary position selected by a committee of experts and subsequently appointed by the governor. Former Illinois Poet Laureates include: Angela Jackson, Howard Austin, Carl Sandburg, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Kevin Stein.

The Illinois Poet Laureate advances the awareness of and appreciation for literary arts and humanities within the state. As a distinguished poet, the Poet Laureate represents and celebrates the diversity and history of Illinois by promoting literacy and the art of poetry through making content available and presentations at a range of public, educational, private, and electronic venues—including, but not limited to, schools, libraries, universities, community colleges, local writing groups, online, and social media. As a champion of the state’s literary community, the Poet Laureate endeavors to promote the many cultural and artistic achievements of the state of Illinois and demonstrates a commitment to promoting and celebrating the literature of Illinois’ diverse cultures, ages, abilities, orientations, and rural and urban regions.

In partnership with the Governor’s office, the Illinois Arts Council, Illinois Humanities, and the Poetry Foundation appoint a Search Committee made up of qualified individuals representing a diverse group of literary experts, writers, educators, and advocates from across the state to oversee the application and first round of selection. The Illinois Arts Council would like to officially acknowledge and thank the 2025 Poet Laureate Search Committee for their role in the selection of the Illinois Poet Laureate.

2025 Poet Laureate Search Committee
Nora Brooks-Blakely, Co-Chair, Chicago
Angela Jackson, Vice Chair, Chicago
Denzel Burke, Chicago
Susan Dickson, Chicago
Allison Funk, Edwardsville
Jenna Goldsmith, Rockford
Sally Graham, Skokie
Christopher Kempf, Champaign
Margy LaFreniere, Chicago
Ruby Mendenhall, Urbana
Simone Muench, Chicago