About the Metro Library Poet Laureate
Metro Library is excited to launch its first Poet Laureate award!
The Metro Poet Laureate will be the library's ambassador in promoting poetry, its reading, recitation, and creation. We hope that through public programming and promotion of poetry, our county finds new means of expression and new paths to understanding our world. The Poet Laureate's work should reflect their experiences in Oklahoma, or an as an Oklahoman.
The Poet Laureate program represents a powerful new chapter in how we connect our community through the written word. We believe poetry has the power to inspire, heal and bring people together. This initiative reflects our commitment to fostering creativity and ensuring that everyone in Oklahoma County has access to the transformative experience of literature.
- Jason Kuhl, CEO of the Metropolitan Library System
Meet the 2025 Poet Laureate
Hallie Waugh
Hallie Waugh writes at the intersection of embodiment, spirituality and connection to place. She holds an MFA in Poetry, and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in New York Quarterly, Windhover, Dappled Things, Mom Egg Review, Motherwell, Ekstasis and others. A seasoned educator, Waugh has taught poetry at the collegiate level and is passionate about weaving poetry into everyday life.
Outside her poetry, Waugh works as a copywriter, nonprofit grant writer, and brand strategist with local agency Cooper House. She lives in Oklahoma City with her high school sweetheart, their two young sons and a lively Boxer mix. A regular at the Belle Isle Library and Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library, she’s often seen with her children and an ambitious stack of books in tow.
She also publishes a twice-monthly Substack newsletter, “Weekend Exhale," where she shares poetry and personal reflections.
Poetry invites us into stillness and curiosity in a way few other genres do. I want to help more Oklahomans experience poetry's rhythms, peculiarity and delight.