Tennessee State Poet Laureate

Margaret "Maggi" Britton Vaughn

Adopted in 1999.

Designated as Tennessee's Poet Laureate for the term of her natural life by House Joint Resolution 101 of the 101st General Assembly in 1999. Vaughn, a native of Murfreesboro, had her first critically acclaimed book, Fifty Years of Saturday Nights, published in 1975. Some of Vaughn's other works include Grand Ole Saturday Night, The Light in the Kitchen Window, the play, I Wonder If Eleanor Roosevelt Ever Made a Quilt, and Who Are We.
 

Better known as Maggi, Margaret Britton Vaughn is the longest-reigning poet laureate of the State of Tennessee. Appointed by the state legislature and "in office" since 1993, she has published nine books of poems and short stories, including:

• Acres That Grow Stones
• Bell Buckle Biscuits
• Grand Ole Saturday Night
• Life's Down to Old Woman's Shoes, and
• Kin

She has appeared on radio and television, including:

• TNT's Roots of Country
• CBS/TNN's Century of Country Music, and
• Programs on PBS, USA, and the BBC.

Her plays have been produced at Nashville Barn Theater, John Galt Theater, St. George Episcopal Church, Unity Church, Middle Tennessee State University, Webb School, and the National Quilters Convention. They include:

• Wishful Thinking
• While the Dew Is Still on the Roses
• Treatment of Guilt
• I Never Heard Me Laugh
• I Wonder if Eleanor Roosevelt Ever Made A Quilt, and
• Howdee!, co-written with Andy Landis

A professional songwriter, Vaughn has written songs recorded by:

• Loretta Lynn
• Conway Twitty
• Ernest Tubb
• Stonewall Jackson and
• Norma Jean.

Maggi lives in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, where she works in a storefront office and boasts a scale model of the Statue of Liberty in her front yard.

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