About us . . .

The Louisiana Poetry Project is dedicated to promoting poetry across the state.

Our goals are:

To encourage students to read, understand and enjoy poetry, especially poets with ties to Louisiana.

To provide educators in all disciplines from grades K-16 with ideas to incorporate poetry into their classrooms.

To promote professional poets who either have lived or are living in Louisiana.

This website contains a poem of the day complete with lesson plans for the school year, a section on favorite poems, a listing of poetry events happening across the state, and a listing of professional poets who are associated with Louisiana, as well as their biographies and bibliographies.

We realize our listing may not be complete at this time. We are working from the information we have at present with a limited number of volunteers to accomplish the task. This is our beginning. We look forward to seeing this site grow over time and hope this will become a much used and much loved site.

Who we are . . .

Laurie A. Williams, creator of the Louisiana Poetry Project, has a B.F.A. in creative writing from Arkansas Tech University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of New Orleans. She taught English in New Orleans area schools for eleven years and is also a teacher consultant with the Greater New Orleans Writing Project. She works with area teachers on getting more poetry in the classroom.

Alice Louise Lewis was born, raised, and educated in New Orleans. She graduated with a cum laude BA from Dillard Universsity in education, certification – grades 1-8; an honors MS in Reading, certification – Reading Specialist; plus 30 hours with certification to teach Academically Gifted Students. She is a member of IRA, NCTE, NWP/GNOWP. Ms. Lewis’s interests include reading for pleasure and research, writing poetry, and travel. She is a supporter of the cultural arts and students and adults who participate in them. She eagerly looks forward to participation in and supporting the student and adult poets of the Louisiana Poetry Project.

Cassie Seiple is a teacher consultant for the Greater New Orleans Writing Project and currently teachers at Lusher Charter School in New Orleans.

Gina Ferrara is a teacher consultant with the Greater New Orleans Writing Project.

Therese Fitzpatrick is a teacher consultant for the Greater New Orleans Writing Project.

Sarah Ocmand is a teacher consultant for the Greater New Orleans Writing Project.

Nancy Jaynes is a teacher consultant with the Greater New Orleans Project and currently teaches at St. Andrew Episcopal in New Orleans.

Dave Inman is a lifelong lover of words, particularly those words that inspire young people to love words, too. He has been a teacher and administrator in both middle and high school settings, in traditional public schools, independent schools, and the leading out-of-school educational organization Breakthrough Collaborative. He has worked with students of all ages and special needs backgrounds, from diverse communities in Virginia, Louisiana (New Orleans), and Florida (Miami). Dave holds a B.A. in English and a M.A. in Teaching, both from the University of Virginia. He is the creator of TeachYALit.com – The YA Lit Review, and he also maintains the reading/writing/book review blog Broncofashion.

Caroline Derbes has taught for 30 years in the public schools of southeastern Louisiana (Jefferson, St. Charles, and Ascension), eighteen of which have been in the gifted program of EBRP schools. She earned my Bachelor’s Degree ’72 UNO, MEd ’87 UNO, Gifted Certification LSU ’89, and Art Certification LSU’ 2004. She met Sandford (Sandy) Lyne when he came to teach the 3rd – 5th grade gifted classes during a weeklong series of poetry-writing mornings and was inspired to fish for poems along with my students. She became a fellow in the SELU NWP the summer of 2005 and have continued writing with Dr. Louth’s groups in writing marathons both in Hammond and New Orleans.

Jerome White is a math teacher and a teacher consultant for the Greater New Orleans Writing Project.

Contact us at louisianapoetryproject@gmail.com

About the Louisiana map on our index page . . .

This graphic is designed to illustrate the concept of poets and poetry throughout our state. To keep the names legible, we could only use 40% of our poets’ list. We appreciate each poet and thank you all for your cooperation and participation in this site.