Winona State University English professor James Armstrong has been selected to be Winona’s inaugural Poet Laureate.

Armstrong will spend the next two years as an ambassador for poetry in Winona.

Armstrong received his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University, an M.F.A. from Western Michigan University and a Ph.D. in American Literature from Boston University.

Armstrong, a professor at WSU since 1999, previously taught at Northwestern University and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Writing Program.

He has published poems and essays in TriQuarterly, RHINO, Porcupine, Gulf Coast, Orion and other journals. He was the recipient of the PEN-New England Discovery Award for Poetry 1996, and was Artist in Residence at Isle Royale National Park in 1994. In 1999 he received an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Poetry. He has published two book of poetry, Monument in a Summer Hat (New Issues Press, 1999) and Blue Lash (Milkweed Editions, 2006).

For more information,call Armstrong at (507) 457-5418.