Begin Where You Are is the first anthology of work from all 10 of Colorado’s poet laureates from 1919 until the present day. In 1919, Colorado was the second state to appoint a Poet Laureate.
Turner Wyatt, a Durango resident who helped direct and compile the anthology, says it’s surprising that a western state was ahead of the curve.
“And I think it really shows how much we value poetry here in the West and in Colorado, that we weren’t or willing to take it for granted,” Wyatt said. “That we had to kind of make a statement for how important poetry was to us.”
Wyatt is an entrepreneur who has helped start a handful of social enterprises and nonprofits. A few years ago, he helped create the poet laureate program in Durango. Around that time, he discovered the National Poet Laureate anthology, which featured a number of his favorite poets.
“I went, ‘Wow! Now I am going to buy the Colorado poet laureate anthology, and none existed. So that’s when my entrepreneurial brain started firing. And I called Booby LeFebre. And he said, 'I don’t know, but we should make it exist.’”
Since 2023, Wyatt, LeFebre, the late Andrea Gibson, and other Colorado writers and poets have helped create this collection. The book is organized in reverse chronological order, from the present day to the original poet laureate.
“One of the most interesting parts of the book is watching the evolution of poetry,” Wyatt said. “In 1919, the poet laureate was Alice Polk Hill. And she, like most poets then, used very traditional verse, and this sort of old-fashioned, some people might say antiquated style of poetry. You fast forward 100-hundred years and you have Andrea Gibson, who is this world-famous, queer icon, whose poems follow no verse.”
Begin Where You Are features unpublished poetry from the late Andrea Gibson, a beloved activist and spoken word poet who passed away in July 2025 from ovarian cancer. Gibson’s poetry focused on gender, politics, LGBTQ topics, and mortality. Gibson was selected as the Colorado poet laureate in 2023. Wyatt says they played an essential role in the vision and direction of the project, all while having a terminal diagnosis.
“I think one of the most special parts of this project is feeling like we got to be, not only alive at the same time as this person, who I believe will be a part of literary history, into the future for generations, but that we actually got to be in their orbit. And what an honor to even be a small part of carrying on this person’s legacy and expanding the scope, and helping more people hear their message.”
Wyatt says the poet laureate has been limited to events in the metro areas of the state. He hopes this can change.
“And so living down here in Durango or the other corners of the state, we’re missing out on this really influential and meaningful poetry advocate that can help youth, people of all ages, have that moment when they fall in love with poetry. If they can’t come here and they can’t visit us in the more rural parts of the state, then many people will be missing out on that,” he said.
All proceeds from the book will establish an endowment to support travel expenses for the next poet laureate. Wyatt says this will help expand access to poetry across the state during a time when funding for the humanities is at risk.
Nominations for Colorado’s eleventh poet laureate are currently being reviewed by a panel from arts, humanities, education, and literary communities. The selection will be announced in early 2026.
