West Hartford’s Eighth Poet Laureate Named

The induction of Clare Rossini as West Hartford’s new Poet Laureate will take place as part of the Town Council meeting scheduled for Tues. April 8, 2025, 7:30 pm, in West Hartford’s Town Council chambers (Room 314, West Hartford Town Hall, 100 South Main Street).

Clare Rossini’s poems and essays have appeared in many fine journals and anthologies, including The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, The Iowa Review, Poetry, and The Best American Poetry series. Clare’s latest collection of poetry is Lingo (The University of Akron Press). More recently she co-edited an anthology titled The Poetry of Capital (U of Wisconsin, 2020). She’s received grants and awards from the State of Connecticut, the Minnesota Arts Board, the Bush Foundation, and the Maxwell Shepherd Foundation. She has been awarded residencies at MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the American Academy in Rome. After teaching at the college level for over four decades—including 23 years at Trinity College in Hartford—Clare recently retired. More at: clarerossini.com

The West Harford Poet Laureate is an honorary title given to a poet-resident of West Hartford, who serves a three-year term with a simple mandate of promoting the art of the poetry and literary writing in the West Hartford community. In 2008, the town poet laureate position was initiated by Maria Sassi (who became the town’s first Poet Laureate) in consultation with then town council member and now Mayor Shari Cantor. After Maria Sassi’s term, six other Poets Laureate of West Hartford have been named: Dennis Barone, James Finnegan, Ginny Lowe Connors, Christine Beck, Julie Choffel, and Benjamin Grossberg, the outgoing town poet laureate. Ben Grossberg and other former poets laureate plan to attend the April 8 Town Council meeting to welcome Clare Rossini into her role as the eighth West Hartford Poet Laureate.

West Hartford is one of many towns in Connecticut to have named a poet laureate. There is a Connecticut Council of Poets Laureate: see more information on its website.