At the January 17, 2023 city council meeting, renowned author and Abenaki elder Joseph Bruchac was formally welcomed as the city’s first-ever poet laureate. The resolution which was approved states that “the Poet Laureate will always strive to create community in the City of Saratoga Springs.”
The resolution also states that:
WHEREAS, Joseph Bruchac, writer, educator, musician, storyteller and poet, was born
and raised in Saratoga Springs, and
WHEREAS, Dr. Bruchac is renowned for his knowledge of Indigenous Americans,
particularly those in the Northeast. He is the author of more than 120 books, along with many
poems and short stories. He has received the Knickerbocker Award from the New York Library
Association, the Carter G. Woodson Book Award, a Rockefeller Humanities fellowship, a
National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the Cherokee Nation Prose Award, the Hope S.
Dean Award for Children’s Literature, both Writer of the Year and Storyteller of the Year
Awards from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers, and the Native Writers
Circle of America Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to all this, he is greatly appreciated
for his efforts in assisting many Native writers to get their works published; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Bruchac’s carefully researched and crafted work opens up to us the
culture and folklore of people who have been often left out of the story of our country. He is a
well known and well respected member of our community, and he is warmly received and
acclaimed everywhere he appears. He raises awareness of our region’s history and of the things
that make it a special and important place,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that this City Council hereby appoints Joseph
Bruchac as Poet Laureate of the City of Saratoga Springs…
The complete resolution can be downloaded from this page on the city website; click on the “Resolution” link.