Richard Hague named next Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate

The Mercantile Library has named longtime educator and award-winning writer Richard Hague as the next Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate.

Hague will serve a two-year term promoting poetry across the city, reading original work at events and leading literary programs. The position includes a stipend jointly funded by the City of Cincinnati and the library.

Hague succeeds Yalie Kamara, who concluded her term earlier this year. Pauletta Hansel and Manuel Iris held the post before her.

His tenure begins Tuesday, July 8, with an induction ceremony at 6 p.m. at the library in downtown Cincinnati.

“Not only am I honored to be named Poet Laureate, but I look forward to supporting poets and the art of poetry in the city I have lived, studied and taught in for sixty years,” Hague said. “I also hope to celebrate, among many other things, Cincinnati’s river heritage, being myself a native of another old Ohio River town, Steubenville… Finally, I am privileged to follow Pauletta Hansel, Manuel Iris and Yalie Kamara in maintaining the vital and varied poetry scene they have created.”

The ‘right poet right now’

A graduate of Xavier University, Hague has taught writing and literature in the Cincinnati region for more than five decades. His work has appeared in “Poetry,” “Smartish Pace,” “Appalachian Journal,” “Northern Appalachian Review” and dozens of other journals and anthologies.

He is the author or editor of 22 books of poetry and prose, including “Continued Cases” and “Earnest Occupations: Teaching, Writing, Gardening and Other Local Work,” which earned a “Recommended” listing from the “US Review of Books.” A Katharine Bakeless Scholar at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Hague studied with author Scott Russell Sanders.

“Richard Hague has been Cincinnati’s poetry teacher for decades,” said John Faherty, executive director of The Mercantile Library. “His poems are lyrical, powerful and fearless. He is the right poet right now.”