Our History
As planning for the Residential College in the Arts & Humanities (RCAH) at MSU was being finalized in 2006-07, poet and Professor Anita Skeen, director of the College of Arts & Letter's Residential Option in Arts and Letters (ROIAL), was selected as one of the new college's faculty members. With the establishment of the RCAH, Professor Skeen saw the opportunity to advocate for something she found lacking at MSU: a center for poetry.
The goal was to make poetry more widely accessible and to find ways to make it a part of people's everyday lives. She collected information on poetry centers around the country and prepared to make her case to Dean Stephen Esquith. As Skeen later recalled, “I said, ‘I think we should have a poetry center.’ He looked at me and, without further discussion, said, ‘OK.’” When the RCAH opened its doors in 2007, so too did the RCAH Center for Poetry.
In those early days, the first few readings were given by poets from the MSU faculty, including Skeen, Professor Gordon Henry, and University Distinguished Professor and renowned poet Diane Wakoski. Another early visitor was the award-winning poet Carolyn Forché, who is an alum of Justin Morrill College, a predecessor to RCAH.
Professor Skeen directed the Center with the assistance of two students: an independent study student, Stephanie Glazier, who would earn the title Assistant to the Director, and a professorial assistant, Lia Greenwell, who would serve as programming coordinator. Readings were and continue to be free and open to the public, keeping poetry accessible to all. As Skeen has stated, part of the Center’s “original mission was to bring together the community and the university.”
In 2011, the Center added an undergraduate prize for poetry, the Balocating Prize, established and funded by Skeen's former ROIAL student Annie Balocating. The Balocating family continues to fund this prize in memory of Annie, who passed away in 2018.
As a poet, Skeen thought there should be more opportunities for emerging poets to publish their work and proposed a poetry book prize to MSU Press. The Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize was established in 2016 and publishes a new volume of poetry annually. Skeen is series editor of Wheelbarrow Books, which will release its 14th title in early 2025.
In 2016, the Center worked with the Lansing Poetry Club on an effort to establish a state poet laureate. While this effort failed, a new effort, supported by the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP), succeeded in 2017 to establish a Lansing Poet Laureate program. The program began as a partnership of LEAP, the Lansing Poetry Club, and the RCAH Center for Poetry. In 2023, the program transitioned to the Arts Council of Greater Lansing which now administers the program with continued sponsorship from LEAP. Inaugural Lansing Poet Laureate Dennis Hinrichsen served from 2017-2019, Laura Apol served from 2019-2021, Masaki Takahashi served from 2022-2024, and Ruelaine Stokes is the current Lansing Poet Laureate, whose term is 2024-2026.
Founding director Anita Skeen retired in spring 2020, with poet Cindy Hunter Morgan serving as interim director during Skeen’s 2018-19 consultantship year. Lauren Russell joined RCAH in 2020 as an assistant professor and the director of the Center for Poetry and served through April 2023, shepherding the Center's move through virtual programming due to the COVID-19 pandemic and back again, with a return to in-person programming in April 2022 featuring Layli Long Soldier, Jonah Mixon-Webster, and JJJJJerome Ellis.
In fall 2024, Dr. Toby Altman joined RCAH as an assistant professor and the director of the Center for Poetry. Toby Altman holds an MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a Ph.D. in English Literature from Northwestern University. He is the author of Arcadia, Indiana (2017, Plays Inverse) and Discipline Park (2023, Wendy’s Subway). A third book, Jewel Box, is forthcoming from Essay Press in 2025.
Images (top to bottom):
The four poets of the Center for Poetry’s Fall 2007 Reading Series (left-right): Anita Skeen, Gordon Henry, Carolyn Forché, and Diane Wakoski.
Lia Greenwell (left), Anita Skeen (center), and Stephanie Glazier at the RCAH Center for Poetry Tenth Anniversary celebration, April 4, 2018
This entry for the 2018 Edible Books contest features two dishes from Fellowship of the Ring by J.R. R. Tolkein.
Linnea Jimison (left), with student interns Kelsey Block, Sarah Teppen, director Anita Skeen, and student intern Jenny Crakes (right), April 2015.
Carolyn Forché (left) with Annie Balocating (center) and Anita Skeen, April 2015.
Center for Poetry student interns Shannon McGlone (left), Arzelia Williams, and Allison Costello (standing, right) staff the Wheelbarrow Books table at the AWP 2018 Bookfair in Tampa, Florida.
Lansing Poet Laureate (2024-2026) Ruelaine Stokes.
Center for Poetry director Lauren Russell (2nd from right) listens to Layli Long Soldier (2nd from left) along with Jonah Mixon-Webster (center) and JJJJJerome Ellis (right) at Poetry of Witness, Poetry of Resistance, April 2022.
Toby Altman.