Virginia Poets Database: A Literary and Educational Resource

The Virginia Poets Database is a digital archive of Virginia poets meant to serve as a literary and educational resource, created by Luisa A. Igloria, 20th Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia with the help of Old Dominion University Libraries and a fellowship from the Academy of American Poets.

This archive is structured using eight Virginia regions. While it makes no claims to be the definitive or exhaustive resource on this subject area, it aims to provide a centralized location of such information that will grow and develop over time, and that may be useful to students, teachers, and the general public.

The Virginia Poets Database aims to feature information on Virginia-born poets, poets who are current residents, and poets who have spent significant time doing literary work in Virginia (for the archive to represent poets of the state as fairly as possible, poets must have resided in the state for more than the duration of their time in a university program). The goal is to feature historically recognized or established poets alongside emerging poets, and spotlight those from underrepresented communities. Further, it aims to gather information that shows the richness and diversity of poetry and poets in the state.

The purpose of this database is to create a growing and relevant repository of information on Virginia poets, but by doing so it is not making any claims about literary merit. It does not consider itself the steward for literary merit in poetry for the state of Virginia. However, since any archive must have clear organizational criteria for it to be meaningful, it asks potential contributors to review the guidelines/criteria for submitting their information for inclusion There is no fixed deadline for submission.

The hope is for this archive to be inclusive, though admittedly it cannot be exhaustive— that type of goal cannot be met through a website alone. We look forward to your contributions.