Poet Laureate Program
The City understands the value of the literary arts in shaping a vibrant, inclusive, and creative community, and is committed to uplifting diverse poetic voices across neighborhoods and generations.
The Poet Laureate Program recognizes and supports an outstanding local poet who serves as a volunteer ambassador for poetry, literature, and the arts. The program aims to inspire community engagement, promote the literary arts, and celebrate the City’s cultural richness through the spoken and written word.
Background
On January 20, 2022, the City formally named Cynthia Pratt as its inaugural Poet Laureate through an official proclamation. This proclamation honors her lifelong dedication to poetry, education, and community engagement. This appointment reflects the City’s commitment to fostering literary arts and celebrating the power of poetry to inspire, connect, and uplift.
Looking to the future, the City and Cynthia created a Poet Laureate Program Policy to continue and expand the program, including new artists. On December 2, 2025, the City Council adopted the Policy.
On May 19, 2026, the Lacey City Council appointed Sonya Wohletz as its second Poet Laureate.
About Sonya Wohletz
Sonya Wohletz (she/hers) is a poet who has lived in Lacey since 2017. Her work has been published in Latin American Literary Review, Blue Unicorn, Neologism, Aftershock Review, and many others. Her first book, Bir Sıra Sonra/One Row After, was published in 2022 by First Matter Press, and her second book, +Milklings+, is currently on pre-order with South Broadway Press. She has a background in Latin American Art History and now works in behavioral health. She is the recipient of a Fulbright-Hayes award and is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. As Lacey’s Poet Laureate, she aims to engage the community through projects that explore the many ways we experience home and belonging
Poetry Statement
Poetry is language dreaming itself into being. Along with some of the earliest archaeological evidence of humans, one finds signs of poetic thinking: flowers at burial sites, arrangements of stones, and cave paintings. These all express an innate faculty to use symbolic communication and share meaning in community, all of which are crucial to our survival.
As an art form, poetry is very free, yet also very rigorous and demanding. It can be so many different things—a puzzle, a form of play, a declaration of love, an archaeological site, a diorama, a mantra, a prayer, a ritual, or the verbal equivalent of a doom drawer.
The wonderful thing about poetry is this innate adaptability—one does not need to purchase expensive equipment to compose or experience poetry—and indeed, certain forms of poetic expression have never been recorded with physical implements. Nor does one need specialized training to appreciate poetry, though studying poetic traditions is incredibly meaningful. Poetry allows us to access our creativity, memory, emotions, traditions, and, when spoken in specific contexts, can enact healing. There is the process of creating a poem—of being open to inspiration, sounds, rhythm, and images—and there is the delight one experiences in receiving and caring for that expression in time and place. Poetry allows us to exist in alternative modes of consciousness and invites us to resist the urge to assign linear narratives or interpretations. As Jane Hirshfield states, poetry carries within it the potential for transformation, transcendence, and liberation. – Sonya Wohletz
Sonya’s Poetry and Public Readings
Morning on Pattison Lake
Glass rivers pour out
Sky pearls the camelia
Morning crawls, stands up
Past Poets Laureate
Cynthia Pratt
Cynthia Pratt (she/her) served as Lacey’s first Poet Laureate from 2022 to 2026. She is a former Lacey Councilmember and Deputy Mayor of the City of Lacey for 12 years; her term ended in December 2021.
