Dawn Potter named Maine’s seventh Poet Laureate

Dawn Potter is a poet, essayist, teacher, editor, gardener, cook, and cat wrangler. She is Maine’s seventh Poet Laureate, serving from 2026 to 2031, and is currently based in Portland after homesteading for more than two decades in the woods of Somerset County. She is married to photographer and carpenter Thomas Birtwistle, and they have two sons, both of whom also work in the arts.

Dawn has published seven collections of poetry, two books of nonfiction, a teaching text, and an edited volume of writings about poetry. Her memoir, Tracing Paradise: Two Years in Harmony with John Milton, won a Maine Literary Award in Nonfiction, and she has received grants and fellowships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Writer’s Center, and the Maine Arts Commission. Her poems and essays have appeared in the Beloit Poetry Journal, the Sewanee Review, the Threepenny Review, and elsewhere. Dawn has been a visiting writer at the Solstice MFA Program, Smith College, Bates College, and many other institutions. When not teaching, she works as a freelance editor for literary and academic presses.

In addition to her personal projects, Dawn is involved in a number of collaborations with other artists. These include writing, designing, and performing the multidisciplinary Monson Maine, USA with the poet Teresa Carson, the poet and performance artist Gretchen Berg, and the dancer Gwyneth Jones. With the poets Jeanne Marie Beaumont and Teresa Carson, she publishes conversations and communal poetry experiments in their Substack journal Poetry Lab Notes. She also writes weekly with the May Street Writers, a group of Portland-area poets who generate new drafts through interactive prompts and share this supportive model in their teaching and public outreach.