Chard deNiord, a Providence College English professor, has been named Vermont’s poet laureate. A resident of Westminster in southern Vermont, deNiord replaces Syndey Lea as poet laureate in the Green Mountain state.
deNiord joined the PC faculty in 1998 and won the Joseph R. Accinno Faculty Teaching Award at PC in 2011. A co-founder of the New England College MFA program, he is the author of many poetry collections, including `Interstate’ (2015), `The Double Truth’ (2011), `Night Mowing’ (2005), `Sharp Golden Thorn’ (2003) and `Asleep in the Fire’ (1990).
He was officially installed as the state’s poet laureate yesterday at a Statehouse ceremony in Montpelier. He follows a long line of prominent poets who have served as Vermont’s poetlaureate, including Robert Frost, Grace Paley, Pawtucket native Galway Kinnell and Louise Gluck.
Before coming to the PC English Department, he taught English, comparative religion and philsophy at the Putney School in Vermont.
