Georgia State Poet Laureate

David Bottoms

Start of Term: May 31, 2000

Adopted on January 18, 1925

David Bottoms was nominated for the post of Georgia Poet Laureate by the Georgia Humanities Council and selected by Governor Barnes. He will hold the title of Georgia Poet Laureate for the length of Governor Barnes' term in office.

Bottoms was born in Canton, Georgia, in 1949. His first book, Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump, was chosen by Robert Penn Warren as the 1979 winner of the prestigious Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets. Throughout his career, Dr. Bottoms has been singled out for a number of other honors, including an Ingram Merrill Award, the Levinson Prize of Poetry magazine, an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (with James Dickey and Allen Ginsberg on the selection committee), and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

He is the author of five books of poetry, including Armored Hearts: Selected and New Poems and the recently released Vagrant Grace, as well as two novels. He is also a founding editor, along with noted fiction writer Pam Durban, of the literary journal Five Points, published at Georgia State University, where Dr. Bottoms is Professor of Creative Writing. He lives in Marietta with his wife, Kelly Jean Beard, and their daughter, Rachel.

Position History:
Position established January 18, 1925, by governor's proclamation, codified in Georgia State Code, Sec. 50-1-3.

Previous Laureates:
Frank L. Stanton (Jan. 18, 1925-Jan. 7, 1927)
Ernest Neal (Aug. 20, 1927-Jan. 23, 1943)
Wightman F. Melton (Jan. 25, 1943-Oct. 12, 1944)
Oliver F. Reeves (Nov. 16, 1944-Jan. 23, 1963)
Agnes C. Bramblett (Sept. 13, 1963-March 30, 1973)
Conrad Aiken (March 30, 1973-Aug. 17, 1973)
John R. Lewis, Jr. (Dec. 24, 1974-Jan. 18, 1997)
Bettie Mixon Sellers (1997-2000)
 

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