Bucks County Community College names this year’s poet laureate

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Madeline Marriott is Bucks County’s 2025 poet laureate.

She’s the second-youngest poet laureate in the oldest program of its kind in Pennsylvania, housed at Bucks County Community College.

“I feel very lucky to live in a place that values poetry,” Marriott, a lifelong resident of Holland, Northampton Township, told WHYY News.

Marriott said she has always been a “lifelong, voracious reader,” and started out writing stories as a child at a desktop computer in her parents’ basement.

She first became enchanted by poetry when her dad, an English major in college, shared with her Robert Frost’s poem, “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening.”

Marriott started writing poetry in high school, and delved deeper into the craft as an English major at Lafayette College.

Her growth as a poet has been nurtured through community, she said. A monthly poetry series at The Newtown Bookshop, where Marriott works part-time, has provided her with mentorship and inspiration.

“It’s really been a privilege to be around some well-established poets from the area, hear them read their work, and read my work for them,” she said. “I’m the youngest in that group by a significant amount. And I’ve always kind of been like, ‘How do you guys title your poems?’ Like, ‘Everybody tell me how you do that.’”

Marriott said she’s also asked other attendees for their feedback on her own poems.

“I have definitely taken advantage of having their kind of prowess around, and I just love hearing them, and I love asking them questions,” she said.

Lynn Fanok, one of three runners-up for this year’s poet laureate honor, founded the monthly poetry series at The Newtown Bookshop nearly a decade ago.

Fanok said she launched the program in 2016 to foster community among local poets and writers.

“By having a group like the Newtown poets, it allows other people to share their stories, and I think it makes people feel less alone,” Fanok said. “And in these times in particular, it tends to be a bit lonely, I think, isolating. And this gives an outlet for people, … gives them a voice, and I think it’s very important in the world.”

Having that community as a writer makes a difference, Marriott said.

“It’s really important to me that I’ve been able to see that this is something that people are passionate about, and something that people do, and something that I can do,” she said of the group. “They make me proud to be a poet and excited to keep doing it.”

Marriott is currently enrolled in a Master’s of Writing Studies at St. Joseph’s University and works as a freelance journalist. Her children’s book, coming out this spring, tells the story of forest animals who make a suit for their porcupine friend so she can participate in a group hug.

Some of Marriott’s favorite poets include Mary Oliver and Wendy Cope, and Marriott even has a line from Cope’s poem, “Orange,” tattooed on her arm.

“I just have tried to read widely,” she said. “Because I think there’s a perception of poetry is like one particular thing, and that’s really not true. For every taste, for every poet, there is really a different experience of reading poetry. So I’ve tried to read widely to find what kind of speaks to me.”

Although Bucks County poet laureates are not required to do projects, Marriott said she would like to do some creative writing workshops at schools during her tenure.

She said everyone can learn how to write their own poetry.

“The hardest part of anything is just starting to write,” Marriott said. “And I think a lot of people think, ‘Well, I don’t know how to write a poem.’ And I don’t think you have to start by writing a poem. I think you start by putting your thoughts on a page, seeing its shape.”

Marriott said she likes to write by hand, and commits to the practice even if it’s just for a few minutes a day.

“Almost nobody’s job is poet, including myself,” she said. “So it can be hard to take that additional time, but I think I have learned [that] even five minutes, which I think most people have, really works to get things moving in your head.”