Poet Laureate Katharine Coles to Visit Antarctica Through the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program

For immediate release Wendi Hassan, 801.236.7548
8 November 2010 Communications Specialist, Utah Division of Arts & Museums

Claudia Nakano, 801.859.8443
Communications Director, Utah Dept. of Community and Culture

Poet Laureate Katharine Coles to Visit Antarctica
Through the National Science Foundation’s
Antarctic Artists and Writers Program

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Poet Laureate Katharine Coles is traveling to Antarctica this winter as part of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. The Utah Division of Arts & Museums will post updates of her experience at www.artsandmuseums.utah.gov.

Coles left the United States November 22 to begin the four day journey to Antarctica, where she will observe and write for two weeks. The interplay between geography, science and literature is a longstanding interest for Coles, who has traveled to Havana, Indonesia, and the Amazon River for previous projects and co-directs the Utah Symposium in Science and Literature with mathematician and biologist Fred Adler. Coles plans to include work developed in Antarctica in an upcoming book of poetry and art called Natural Curiosities, a partnership between Coles and visual artist Maureen O’Hara Ure that has already taken the collaborators to Italy and Turkey.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our Poet Laureate,” said Margaret Hunt, Director of the Division of Arts & Musuems, “and we are excited to follow her journey and see Antarctica through her eyes. Katharine’s generosity in sharing both the raw experience and her finished poetry with Utahns through the Poet Laureate Program will have a far reaching and long lasting impact.”

The Antarctic Artists and Writers Program enables serious writings and works of art that increase public understanding of the Antarctic, both the continent and the surrounding oceans. The program helps individual artists make use of existing, limited resources and gain access to this rugged and remote region.

The Poet Laureate is a governor-appointed advocate for literature and the arts throughout the state. Katharine Coles is currently serving a 5-year term as Poet Laureate. She is a professor of creative writing at the University of Utah and is also the founding director of the Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago.

For more information visit the Division of Arts & Museums website at www.artsandmuseums.utah.gov or contact Literary Arts Manager Guy Lebeda at glebeda@utah.gov, 801-236-7553.


About the Utah Division of Arts & Museums
The Utah Division of Arts & Museums is a division of the Utah Department of Community and Culture with a goal to promote innovation in and the growth of Utah’s arts and culture community. The Division provides funding, education, and technical services to individuals and organizations statewide so that all Utahns, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or economic status, can access, understand, and receive the benefits of arts and culture. Additional information on these programs and services can be found at www.artsandmuseums.utah.gov or by calling 801.236.7555.

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