For Barrie, Ont.’s poet laureate, having her term as the people’s poet come to an end is a bit bittersweet, with half of it during COVID while also becoming a published author.
From 2018 to 2022, Victoria Butler served as Barrie’s third poet laureate. Being elected when she was 22, Butler is the youngest person to hold the position and the first woman.
As her laureateship ends in November, she spoke to Global News about the experience and her hopes for those that take her place.
Nominators are now open for the City of Barrie’s next poet laureate to serve a four-year term helping to raise the city’s literary arts profile.
The poet laureate, or “the people’s poet,” acts as a champion for poetry, language, and the arts by raising its profile through public engagements and civic interactions.
The poet laureate acts as a literary ambassador and works to educate and promote poetry and the literary arts in our city and serves for a four-year term.
“I was adopted as poet laureate when I was 22 years old, which is kind of crazy. I was just a silly child at that point, and it was a big, beautiful responsibility,” she told Global News.
“I really loved being poet laureate. It was a huge honour to be rewarded with such a prestigious title and given that great responsibility. I had so many opportunities come up as a result of my laureateship.”
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Despite pandemic setbacks, Butler said she still tried to find ways to engage the community, holding online poetry readings when in-person events were not allowed.
The position opened up several opportunities for Butler to share her work in cities across Ontario and meet fellow Canadian poets whom she admired.
She said being the poet laureate also inspired her to go back to school and pursue a degree in creative writing by helping her realize that she could have a writing career.
“This has been a dream come true since I was a little kid, and actually, it was pretty surreal,” Butler said.
“I always kind of put my writing on the back burner for other things and never took it seriously and was like, ‘Oh, you know, it’s just a hobby.’ I find a lot of artists kind of fall into that mentality, not realizing that they can have a career in that.”
During her tenure in the role, she worked on several projects, including creating The Northern Appeal, a publication featuring local creatives in Simcoe County, was a featured reader at Facilitate in Toronto, and published three poetry books.
The first was a joint poetry project with the Barrie Historical Archives called Old Prayers, a collection of photos and accompanying poems.
Her second book, Little Miracles, is a collection of poetry published through Black Moss Press.
The third book, Hollow Touge, is a collection of poems and works of art honouring women in the community who were murdered and victims of violence. All of the proceeds from the book’s publication go to support the Barrie Women and Children’s Shelter.
So far, Butler said her Hollow Touge project has raised just over $1,000 to support the shelter.
Looking to the future, Butler is hopeful that the next person who takes on the role pushes to have it expanded with more funding to help with the position.
As it is currently set up, the poet laureate gets an annual stipend of $1,000 a year, but Butler said adding things like a project budget would allow the next person to plan more events for the city.
“There’s a lot of opportunity to expand the program, encourage a bunch of different writers to pursue this as a field that they want to be involved in, and I think Barrie would be really wise to invest in the expansion of the program adding project budget, adding a greater stipend,” she said.
“I really hope that the next poet laureate pushes for that, and I will definitely be in touch with them to encourage that as well.”
As for the person who takes her place, Butler is hopeful her successor will be able to use their position to speak freely about the issues impacting those in the community.
“I think there’s a lot of room to acknowledge the history and the prestige of this position and to encourage writing about the things that matter in the city and what the people are going to and what the people need, because you are essentially a voice for the people through poetry.”
Nominations for the position are open until Monday, Oct. 31, at 4:30 p.m.
More details are available on the city’s website.
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