Borough Names New Bard

Julio Marzan has gone from Harvard to verse. Marzan, a widely published writer who held a visiting professorship at Harvard University in 2006, has been named the fourth Poet Laureate of Queens. The appointment was announced by Borough President Helen Marshall and QC President James Muyskens at Borough Hall on May 4.

“Julio Marzan has an international perspective and a strong, lyrical voice that, like Walt Whitman’s ‘hears America singing,’” said Muyskens, whose presence at the ceremony underscored its connections to QC: Friends of the Queens College Library proposed the idea of selecting a Queens Poet Laureate in 1996, and a year later, QC Professor Emeritus Stephen Stepanchev became the first person to fill the honorary position.

During his three-year tenure, Marzan is expected to participate in readings and other events occurring within Queens County. While his job description is vague, there’s no doubt about his credentials. The author of two volumes of poetry—Translations Without Originals and Puerta de Tierra—he has contributed work to numerous anthologies and served as a professor of English at Nassau Community College. Equally important, he has lived in Queens for 36 years; would-be laureates have to be borough residents of at least two years’ standing. In addition, they must have a significant publication record in English and must have written poems inspired by, or related to, Queens.

For the current term, 45 applicants vied for the right to succeed Whitestone author Ishle Yi Park, who took over the title from teacher Hal Sirowitz in 2004. The winner was chosen by a panel that included all three former Poet Laureates, as well as Linda Bannerman-Martin, curator of the Black Heritage Reference Center of the Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center, and Lynn Lobell, managing director of the Queens Council on the Arts.