INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Arts Commission announced that Curtis L. Crisler has been named the Indiana Poet Laureate. Crisler is the eighth Hoosier named to this honorary position and succeeds Matthew Graham, who has held the role since 2020.
Crisler was born and raised in Gary, Indiana. He received a BA in English, with a minor in Theatre, from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, now Purdue Fort Wayne, and he received his MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. An award-winning poet and author, Crisler’s Doing Drive-Bys on How to Love in the Midwest won the C&R Press Award for poetry. He has published numerous other poetry books, young adult books, poetry chapbooks, been anthologized in many publications, and published in a variety of magazines and journals. He is Professor of English at Purdue University Fort Wayne.
