North Dakota Poet Laureate Larry Woiwode has named Bonnie Larson Staiger as an associate poet laureate to help increase awareness of poetry around the state.
Staiger, a Bismarck resident and founder of the Staiger Consulting Group, is an award-winning poet who often writes of the subtleties of life on the plains of the "New American West." She won an Independent Press Award for her debut collection, "Destiny Manifested," and is working on a second book.
Woiwode, a University of Jamestown professor, novelist and National Book Award finalist, has been North Dakota's poet laureate since 1995. He and Staiger plan to organize a group that speaks for poets in the state.
Woiwode will formally appoint Staiger and open a reading by her at the North Dakota Heritage Center's Northern Lights Atrium at 7 p.m. on July 10.