The city of Wallace Stevens has picked its first-ever poet laureate, tasked with writing about Hartford and inspiring young poets within it. Frederick-Douglass Knowles II, an associate professor at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich, was appointed by Mayor Luke Bronin, and heads to the city council for confirmation Tuesday.
After graduating from Eastern Connecticut State in 1999, Knowles began reading poems from a notebook at Signatures Cafe, a Hartford spot for spoken-word poetry. By 2004, his interest in poetry had grown to encompass written verse as well, and after earning his master’s at Southern Connecticut State, Knowles joined the faculty at Three Rivers. He lives in Parkville today.
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