Mercer Instructor, Former Emory Prof Named Georgia Poet Laureate

Gov. Nathan Deal has named writing instructor Judson C. Mitcham as Georgia Poet Laureate. Mitcham succeeds College of Liberal Arts graduate David Bottoms, who had held the post for 12 years. Mitcham lives in Macon and teaches in the university's creative writing program.

"Judson has been among my favorite poets ever since I met him at a reading 20 years ago," said Gordon Johnston, professor of English and head of the creative writing major, in a statement. "His poems were so warm and human and so true to the lives of the kind of people I grew up with here in Georgia that I felt a kinship to him. His poems have that effect on people. His novels do, too. Word that he is poet laureate makes me proud to be a Georgia native."

Mitcham's work has been published in literary journals including Georgia Review, Poetry, Hudson Review and Harper’s Magazine. He has published three collections of poems, including This April Day (2002) and A Little Salvation (2007). Mitcham's first collection, Somewhere in Ecclesiastes, earned him the Devins Award and Georgia Author of the Year in 1991. His novel The Sweet Everlasting was published in 1996 and was awarded the Townsend Prize for Fiction as well as his second Georgia Author of the Year award. His novel, Sabbath Creek, published in 2004, also won the Townsend Prize for Fiction, making Mitcham the first author to receive the award twice. He is also a recipient of the Pushcart Prize for his work.

Mitcham has held fellowships in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Georgia Council for the Arts. He retired in 2004 from Fort Valley State University where he taught psychology and served as department chairman. Following his retirement, he has served as adjunct professor of creative writing at the University of Georgia and at Emory University. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where he completed multiple degrees, his final being a doctorate in psychology.