A professor at Northwest Missouri State University has been named Missouri Poet Laureate.

William Trowbridge is a distinguished university professor emeritus at Northwest, and the author of more than 340 published or forthcoming poems.

Governor Jay Nixon announced the appointment Friday. During his two year term, Trowbridge will present and lecture on poetry to school, community and civic groups throughout the state.

 

On the poet’s web site is this description, attributed to David Citino:

“So much of contemporary literature is still long-faced, self-righteous, dour — one long tuneless lament. Trowbridge refuses to join the funeral procession, knowing as he does that many serious and sober and weighty things can be conveyed through comedy, and that laughter may well be the one appropriate response to the post post-modern condition.”

“Professor Trowbridge is one of the country’s outstanding poets, and we are honored to have him as Missouri’s poet laureate,” Gov. Nixon said. “With a number of outstanding candidates from our state, the decision is never easy. I appreciate the work of the Missouri Center for the Book and of the advisory committee in making its recommendation to me.”

Professor Trowbridge has published eight collections of poems, including Ship of Fool in 2011. His work has been reprinted in more than 30 anthologies and textbooks. He was co-editor of The Laurel Review from 1986 to 2000, and his poetry has earned several honors and awards.

Trowbridge obtained his bachelor’s degree in philosophy and his master’s degree in English from the University of Missouri. He earned his doctorate in English from Vanderbilt University. Trowbridge was on the faculty of Northwest Missouri State University from 1971 to 1998.

William Trowbridge is Missouri’s third poet laureate; he succeeds David Clewell, of Webster Groves, a professor of English at Webster University in St. Louis.