Rhode Island’s Poet Laureate Rick Benjamin plans to leave the state for a post in California. Benjamin will resign as of mid-January and take a teaching position at the University of California in Santa Barbara.
Governor Gina Raimondo’s office said the State Arts Council will begin to organize a search for a new state poet.
Benjamin was appointed state poet in 2013 by then-Governor Lincoln Chafee. The five-year appointment made Benjamin the 5th state poet in Rhode Island history.
