2024 Poet Laureate
Commissioned in Bucks County

Congratulations to Lake Angela, the 2024 Bucks County Poet Laureate. Ms. Angela and Ethel Rackin, director of the Poet Laureate program and Bucks County Community College professor, attended this week’s Commissioners’ meeting to recognize the accomplishment and the 48th annual contest.

Bucks County Community College names new poet laureate, continuing long literary tradition

Enjoy this great article by Emily Neil of WHYY.ORG which honors the new Bucks County Poet Laureate, Lake Angela, as well as the years of success the program has enjoyed--and a lovely nod to Volta: Center for Writing Arts.

What a rich, deep poetry culture we enjoy here in Bucks County.

"Bucks County Community College celebrated the 48th annual Bucks County Poet Laureate contest with a reading and reception Nov. 16 at Tyler Hall on the College’s Newtown campus. Featured at the reading were (left-right) contest runner-up Robbin Farr of Doylestown, 2023 Poet Laureate Tara Tamburello of Langhorne Manor, Poet Laureate Director Prof. Ethel Rackin of Fountainvlle, runner-up Judith Adams Lagana of New Hope, runner-up Madline Marriott of Northampton, and 2024 Poet Laureate Lake Angela of Warrington. (Courtesy of Bucks County Community College)"

Announcing the 2023 Bucks County Poet Laureate:
Lake Angela

Lake Angela of Warrington has been named the 2024 Bucks County Poet Laureate, announced the director of the Poet Laureate program and professor at Bucks County Community College, Ethel Rackin, Ph.D.

Angela, a published poet, translator, and dance choreographer, rose to the top of more than 50 entries in the 48th annual contest, said Dr. Rackin who administers the program on behalf of the College. The contest is supported by the Bucks County Commissioners.

Angela holds a Ph.D. in intersemiotic translation and is a medieval mystic. Her poems have appeared in Seneca Review, BODY, The Common, Passages North, and Poetry Salzburg Review, among others; her books include Organblooms, Words for the Dead, and Scivias Choreomaniae. She is the director of the poety-dance group Companyia Lake Angela, and her current hobbies involve exchanging multimedia dialogues with disabilities advocacy artists and translating poetry into movement to further her project of illuminating the creative potential of schizophrenia-spectrum associative thinking.

Residing in Warrington, Pennsylvania, Angela works alongside poet Sara Ries Dziekonski as Poetry Midwives, part of the nonprofit literary organization Keep St. Pete Lit that assists writers around the world. Her current hobbies involve exchanging multimedia dialogues with disabilities advocacy artists and translating poetry into movement to further her project of illuminating the creative potential of schizophrenia-spectrum associative thinking; she invites you to view some of this work. Lake also collaborates with her spouse, writer and multimedia artist Kevin Richard Kaiser, and their baby, Quixot, who likes to compose atonal music for their performance projects.

2024 Bucks County High School
Poet of the Year Competition Winners

Entries from all over the County were judged by current Poet Laureate Tara Tamburello, and last year's Laureate Tom Mallouk.

  • Winner: Cecilia Shine, Neshaminy High School, 12th Grade

    “One Heart Too Many,” “The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine,” “It Must Be a Dream”

  • 1st Runner-up: Jack DeBoyace, Central Bucks High School East, 10th Grade

    “Amy, a Wind,” “Again Pangaea,” “I Love You Sierra Star”

  • 2nd Runner-up: Kade Booker, Neshaminy High School, 12th Grade

  • “The Whole Forest a Grave,” “When Soup Comes to Shove, There Is,” “Can I Be a Different Piece of Your Picture”

  • 3rd Runner-up: Olivia Cao, Central Bucks High School South, 12th Grade

  • “Ode to My Mother,” “Better Late Than Never,” “Dear Perfectionism”

Announcing the 2023 Bucks County Poet Laureate:
Tara Tamburello

Tara was raised in Bucks County, along the bank of the Neshaminy Creek. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Ghost City Review, Bone Parade, Rust + Moth, and other journals, as well as in anthologies by Vestal Review and Sans. PRESS. She is a past winner of the Bucks County Short Fiction Contest and was a runner-up for the poet laureate competition in 2021. She lives in Langhorne with her husband, two children, and cat, and she works on the Law School Admission Council (LSAC)'s marketing team. Aside from writing, she enjoys gardening, playing video games and music, hiking, and painting. You can find more of her work at taratamburello.com.

Here’s what our final judge, Joanna Fuhrman, had to say about Tara’s work:

The language in these poems is no-nonsense and full of verve and swerve. The voice is idiosyncratic, reflecting a poet with a wry voice and a vision capable of looking into the future and the past at the same moment. I admire the speed at which these poems move, the range of themes, and the freshness of the imagery and phrasing.