We are delighted to announce the selection of the newest Marin County Poet Laureate for 2023-2025: Francesca Bell!

A note from Francesca Bell:

It is a great and joyful honor to be named the new Marin County Poet Laureate. I’m humbled to
follow in the footsteps of our previous poets laureate, all writers and humans I admire. I hope
that my work sharing the pleasures of poetry will further the work each laureate undertook
during their own terms.

We moved often when I was growing up—by the time I started 6 th grade, I’d been to five
different schools—and I feel lucky to have lived longer in Marin County than I’ve ever lived
anywhere. For twenty-four years, I have wandered Marin County open space with an ever-
changing cast of goofy, eccentric dogs. I’ve raised my three children here, and I’ve written most
of my poems at my Novato kitchen counter. Marin County has provided me a wonderful place to
raise my children, access to staggering natural beauty, and a rich poetry community that has
generously supported my development as a writer. Especially Marin Poetry Center, where I’ve
attended readings and workshops and have also served on the board, and David St. John’s
workshops in Sausalito have nurtured me as I’ve worked to build a life as a poet.

Throughout my life, I’ve written and read poetry to get to know myself, humanity, and the world
better. Poetry has served as a source of comfort and pleasure and refuge. As Marin County Poet
Laureate, it is my goal to share the many gifts poetry has to offer as widely as possible,
particularly with those who may not have had much exposure to it before—the unsheltered,
those experiencing incarceration, children, and others who may have simply never given poetry
much of a try. Poetry resources and updates on my projects will be available soon on the Poet
Laureate page of my website, www.francescabellpoet.com.

Francesca Bell is a poet and translator. She is the author of two collections of poetry, Bright Stain
(Red Hen Press, 2019), which was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Julie
Suk Award, and What Small Sound (Red Hen Press, 2023). She translated Max Sessner’s
collection, Whoever Drowned Here (Red Hen Press, 2023), from its original German. Her work
appears widely in magazines such as ELLE, Los Angeles Review of Books, New England Review,
North American Review, Mid-American Review, and Rattle. Bell grew up in Washington and
Idaho and did not complete middle school, high school, or college. She is the former poetry
editor of River Styx and the current translation editor of Los Angeles Review. She lives with her
family in Novato.

Visit the Poet Laureate Facebook page and the Poet Laureate Website.