LOIS REQUIST, POET LAUREATE 2012-2014
Lois Requist, Poet Laureate 2012-2014
Lois Requist attended San Franciso State University, where she received a BA & MA in English, with an emphasis on Creative Writing. She specialized in poetry. Over time, she has written fiction, nonfiction, and journalism for various media.
She has published a novel, Where Lilacs Bloom, and a nonfiction book about her adventure in a RV, called RVing Solo Across America....without a cat, dog, man, or gun. See her website.
Her poem, "The God of War" was part of the I Read the News Today, Oh Boy! exhibit at the Benicia Library. She contributed to Poem Homes, volunteered to help with the Poetry Out Loud contest, and attended First Tuesday Poetry Group.
She chaired the Open Government Commission for the City of Benicia and was President of the League of Women Voters of Benicia. Previously, she was president of the Diablo Valley League of Women Voters and served a term on the board of the League of Women Voters of California.
In the last year, she has worked to establish the Benicia Literary Arts.
A partial list of publications include: Alaska Quarterly, Amelia, Contra Costa Times, Contra Costa Sun, Futurific Magazine, Monterey Life, Oakland Tribune, Oh! Idaho, Old West, Rocking Chair Reader: Coming Home, Sacramento Magazine, San Francisco Examiner, Survivors Review, and Trillum Literary Journal.
Prizes won include: The Academy of American Poets, California Writers Club, Connecticut River Review, Grandmother Earth XIV: 2008, Gulf Coast Writers Association, Missouri State Poetry Society, North Texas Professional Writers Association, San Francisco Browning Society, Soul-Making Literary Competition, Tennessee Writers Alliance, Valley Writers' Guild, Spencerville, Ontario, 2003 -- Short Story, 2005 -- Creative Nonfiction.
Poetry
See Her Poetry Reading - October 5, 2012 at the Library
On the Water's Edge
I see posts,old pilings, parts of piers
Little houses on the water
History gathers here
Not only mine
Drawn here from a dry Idaho
An irrigated desert
Those who earlier lived on this edge
Fished, grew babies, brothels, and bars
Churches, too, schools
The water's edge
Has always pulled humans
Like the moon's tidal tug
For food or fish or possibilities
Of what connects and what separates us
The sun and moon rise here
Sometimes the moon sends its beams
Sashaying orange across the water
It is good to walk and live and be part
Of now and the past
To spot a ship on the horizon
Sails billowing my imagination
With what will be after
Along this edge
More of her poems can be found in anthologies in the catalog.
updated 07-2014