Norbert Krapf, Professor Emeritus of English at C.W. Post, Named Indiana State Poet Laureate

Norbert Krapf, Professor Emeritus of English at C.W. Post.

Indianapolis, IN — Norbert Krapf, professor emeritus of English at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, has been named the Indiana State Poet Laureate by the Indiana Arts Commission.

Krapf, a native of Jasper, Indiana, who currently resides in Indianapolis, was selected from a field of 19 poets nominated early this year to be considered for the two-year appointment.

When Krapf moved from Indiana to the New York area in 1970 he began to trace his family history, study German, and write poems. A professor of English at C.W. Post from 1970-2004, he served as director of the C.W. Post Poetry Center and was the Poet Laureate of the campus from 2004-2007. He returned to his home state in 2004.

"I knew it was going to be good to be living back in Indiana, but I had no idea it would be this good!” Krapf said. “For a poet so passionate about exploring his Indiana German origins and searching for home, being named Indiana Poet Laureate is a tremendous affirmation. I hope to make my energies and enthusiasms contagious!"

The Poet Laureate selection committee, comprised of faculty representing seven Indiana higher education institutions, recommended Krapf’s nomination for approval by the Commission at its recent quarterly meeting in Fort Wayne. Krapf’s term as Indiana Poet Laureate begins immediately and will continue through calendar year 2009.

Since 1976, Krapf has written or edited 21 books, two of which are his translations from the German. This fall, IU Press will release his latest work, Bloodroot: Indiana Poems, a selection of 175 poems written between 1971 and 2007. In 2007, Acme Records of Bloomington, Indiana released Krapf’s and jazz pianist-composer Monika Herzig’s CD Imagine – Indiana in Music and Words. Recently the Indiana Historical Society Press released his prose memoir, The Ripest Moments: A Southern Indiana Childhood. Krapf twice served in Germany as a Senior Fulbright Professor of American Poetry, and he was also a U.S. Exchange Teacher at West Oxon Technical College, England.

"All these projects have deepened my contact with the landscape and the people that figure in so many of my poems," Krapf said.

In addition to his work as a poet and educator, Krapf became a board member of Etheridge Knight, Inc. which promotes the arts for youth, youth at risk, adults, seniors, disabled and incarcerated individuals, as well as residents traditionally underserved by the arts community.

Krapf will represent the State of Indiana and the art of poetry through the development and implementation of programming to the education community and general public. The Poet Laureate makes formal presentations at various educational facilities and offers advice to the Commission concerning ways to further the art of poetry in Indiana.

"I am moved and honored to be named Indiana Poet Laureate,” Krapf said. “This is the right time for me to make a contribution to the life of poetry in our state. I wish that my Indiana-loving parents were still alive to savor the unexpected honor."

Posted: June 24, 2008