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LISTEN: Missouri Poet Laureate William Trowbridge's Unofficial Missouri Poem

Laura Spencer
/
KCUR

William Trowbridge is Missouri’s third poet laureate. He was appointed to a two-year term, and that was three years ago. But, he says, he continues to serve because he hasn’t been told to stop — yet.

When Trowbridge first took on the role, he was asked to write a poem about Missouri. He didn’t want to write a typical “I love my state poem,” so he came up with something else: "Unofficial Missouri Poem."

Besides his distinguished professor emeritus status at Northwest Missouri State University, Trowbridge teaches in the University of Nebraska low-residency MFA in writing program. 

 
His latest, and tenth, publication is a chapbook illustrated comic-book style. It's due out this spring. Here's a preview: 

All of our WORD readings, including bonus tracks by some readers, are archived on SoundCloud.

Laura Spencer is staff writer/editor at the Kansas City Public Library and a former arts reporter at KCUR.
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