Mimi Herman, a Durham-based poet, has been selected as the region’s 2017 Piedmont Laureate. During 2017, Ms. Herman will appear at workshops, reading programs and speaking engagements throughout Wake, Durham and Orange counties.
The Piedmont Laureate program is dedicated to building a literary bridge for residents to come together and celebrate the art of writing. Co-sponsored by the City of Raleigh Arts Commission, Durham Arts Council, Orange County Arts Commission and United Arts Council of Raleigh & Wake County, the Piedmont Laureate program’s mission is to “promote awareness and heighten appreciation for excellence in the literary arts throughout the Piedmont region.”
The program focuses on a different literary form each year, including poetry, novels, creative non-fiction, drama/screenwriting, children’s literature, short fiction, speculative fiction, and mystery fiction.
As Piedmont Laureate, Mimi Herman will receive an honorarium and serve until Dec. 31. Her duties will include presenting public readings and workshops, participating at select public functions and creating at least one original activity to expand appreciation of poetry.
A schedule of the Laureate’s 2017 activities will be posted on the sponsoring agency websites and on the Piedmont Laureate website at www.piedmontlaureate.com.
Mimi Herman is Director of the United Arts Council Arts Integration Institute, and a teaching artist, writer and editor. Since 1990, she has engaged over 25,000 students and teachers with writing residencies, as well as designing and providing professional development in arts integration for teaching artists, teachers and administrators throughout the country.
She has taught in the Masters of Education and EdD programs at Lesley University, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and has been an associate editor for Teaching Artist Journal. Mimi holds a BA from UNC-CH and an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College.
Her writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, Crab Orchard Review, The Hollins Critic, Main Street Rag, Prime Number Magazine and other journals. She has performed her poetry and fiction at venues ranging from Why There Are Words in Sausalito, California to Symphony Space and the Civic Center Synagogue in New York City.
With her partner, John Yewell, she offers Writeaways retreats for writers in France, Italy and on the North Carolina coast.
Mimi does her own carpentry and plumbing, and can milk a cow and a goat, though not at the same time.
For more information about the Piedmont Laureate program, visit www.piedmontlaureate.com; contact Katie Murray, director of the Orange County Arts Commission, at 919.245-2335 or kmurray@orangecountync.gov, or contact any of the other sponsoring agencies.