PRESS RELEASE - City Arts Commission Announces Rufina C. Garay As Next Poet Laureate

The two-year ceremonial and educational role promotes literary arts and our creative community.

NOVEMBER 4, 2025 PORT TOWNSEND – The City of Port Townsend is pleased to announce that Rufina C. Garay has been chosen as the City’s second Poet Laureate, an appointment made by Mayor David J. Faber and approved by City Council on Monday, November 3. Garay is an interdisciplinary poet, artist, 
and practitioner of Taoist meditative arts in which poetry is a healing practice. She is the founder of “Shattering Glass,” an ever-evolving curation of established and emerging poets 
from the Olympic Peninsula who amplify social and environmental justice issues. Garay will begin her two-term as the City’s civic poet in January of 2026.

The Poet Laureate Program is a program of the Port Townsend Arts Commission (PTAC), in partnership with the Port Townsend Public Library. The Poet Laureate serves the community in ceremonial, educational, and inspirational ways, infusing literary arts into civic dialogue. The program was launched in 2023 to honor Port Townsend’s vibrant creative community, promote the city’s robust literary arts, and celebrate the written word. Conner Bouchard-Roberts was appointed as the inaugural Poet Laureate in 2023 and will serve in the position through the end of this year.

“The Poet Laureate program celebrates the ways poetry connects us to place, to one another, and to ourselves,” says Alexis Arrabito, PTAC Chair, “Rufina brings a deep sense of imagination and heart to this role, and I am as thrilled for her as I am excited for our community.”

Garay’s appointment to succeed Bouchard-Roberts is based on a recommendation from a fiveperson selection panel, including a PTAC member, City Councilmember Ben Thomas, and three literary artists: Bouchard-Roberts, poet Amber Huntsman, and Clallam County Poet Laureate Nellie Bridge. 

Katy Goodman, City of Port Townsend Arts and Culture Coordinator and staff liaison to PTAC, said of the appointment, “It is exciting to see this program start its next chapter. Conner’s work as the inaugural Laureate has done so much to bring poetry to the city in beautiful, thoughtful ways. I can’t wait to see how Rufina builds on this foundation and moves the program forward with her deeply community-minded perspective.”

The Port Townsend Poet Laureate serves a two-year term and is provided with an honorarium of $1,500 each year. The Port Townsend Library Friends and Foundation provide additional support for the program. During their term they provide publicly accessible programs, work with the Port Townsend Public Library on educational initiatives, contribute to City publications and events, and create special projects that highlight the literary arts for the community. 

Of her plans for her time as Poet Laureate, Garay states, “My poetry invites inclusion. I will offer hospitality through poetry by welcoming people to public dedications and meetings, ground them in our collective humanity and hope in uncertain times, provide opportunities for civic engagement and empathic and civil dialogue on current issues, and collaborate with partner community organizations to make literary arts accessible to all.”

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To learn more visit: https://cityofpt.us/bc-ac/page/city-port-townsend-poet-laureate