Texas Poet Laureate Makes a Mansfield Stop

The 2010 Texas State Poet Laureate and Mansfield HS alumna, Karla K. Morton visited and spoke to students in the school library on Tuesday, April 17. 

Ms. Morton is continuing her publicity tour for her newest poetry book, “Little Town, Little Texas” (Spring 2013, TCU Press). Art work and poetry created by three of MHS English teacher, Corinne Thomason’s Creative Writing students were selected to be published in this upcoming book. She made a previous stop on this tour at Mansfield HS back in 2010.

Morton read some of her poetry and shared with the young writers ideas for getting their works published. She also offered thoughts and words of encouragement for the students to aspire to higher education and beyond.  

Ms. Morton loves to promote poetry and serves as a board member of the Greater Denton Arts Council, a founding member of the Denton Poets’ Assembly (part of the Poetry Society of Texas) and as a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, the Western Writers of America, the Writer’s League of Texas and the Academy of American Poets. In her role as Texas Poet Laureate, she created the Little Town, Texas Tour, and logged thousands of miles across Texas to take poetry and the arts into schools across Texas, focusing particularly on small towns underserved by the arts.

Karla K. Morton, the 2010 Texas Poet Laureate and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, is a celebrated poet, author, storyteller and speaker. A Betsy Colquitt Award Winner, a two-time Indie National Book Award Winner, a Councilor-at-Large for the Poetry Society of Texas and a Foreward Book of the Year Award Finalist, she has been widely published in literary journals and is the author of six books of poetry. Morton was born in Fort Worth, graduated from Mansfield High School, holds a Journalism degree from Texas A&M University and currently resides in Denton, Texas.