The Montgomery County Poet Laureate Program was founded by Joanne Leva of Lansdale, PA, to recognize and promote excellence in poetry. Modeled after the Bucks County Poet Laureate Program, which has been running successfully for over 30 years, the Montgomery County Poet Laureate Program has just completed it's tenth successful year.

The Montgomery County Poet Laureate Program promotes a sense of accomplishment and pride among students, artists, and citizens who choose to participate. The program benefits the county by building a long-term infrastructure for literary advancements in our community, in our schools and in our homes.

The Montgomery County Poet Laureate Program is supported by the Indian Valley Arts Foundation, Montgomery Theater and Arcadia University.

What is a Poet Laureate?
A Poet Laureate is an individual who composes poems, who has the ability to express poetic ideas in beautiful language, and has been identified as having the highest degree of excellence in poetry.

The Selection Process
Three recognized poets, two of which reside in the Delaware Valley, the third, a "celebrity judge", are called upon to adjudicate and assign numeric value to the top 25 selected manuscripts. These numeric values are calculated to determine the winner in a fair and objective way.

What does the Poet Laureate do?
The winner of the Montgomery County Poet Laureate competition represents Montgomery County by reading their poetry at various venues within the county that Joanne Leva facilitates.