By Mike Templeton

The Mercantile Library of Cincinnati just announced that long-time Cincinnati writer, poet, and urban Appalachian Richard Hague has been awarded the honor of the Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate for 2025-2027. The Position of Poet Laureate is a two-year post that includes a stipend underwritten by the City of Cincinnati and the Mercantile Library. The Poet Laureate promotes poetry throughout the city, reads poems at events, and leads programming. I doubt I need to mention how exciting it is that this makes the second urban Appalachian poet, after longtime UACC member Pauletta Hansel, as Poet Laureate of Cincinnati. Pauletta had this to say about Richard Hague’s well-deserved: “Honestly, I cannot imagine another poet more qualified to serve in this role. That Dick’s poetry is superb almost goes without saying, given his history of publications and awards. And his service to the poets of this city spans decades and ranges from mentorship of his high school students to that of poets who themselves have made significant contribution to the field. Dick has been my teacher, cheerleader and friend since I was a teenager. I am so thrilled that his contributions are recognized in this way.” The Mercantile Library will hold a special event to celebrate with Richard Hague on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, at 6:00pm. It is free, but reservations are required.

Richard Hague’s association with the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition is well-known, and his work in greater Cincinnati as a spokesperson for urban Appalachia is a powerful point of pride for everyone associated with urban Appalachian life and culture. Richard Hague has also been an exemplary figure in greater Cincinnati as a supporter of literary culture and as an educator. Obviously, everyone at UACC is ecstatic about the news, and to get a sense of how to take it all in, I contacted Richard Hague to see what he had to say about it all. Hague said he is “excited and a little nervous” at this stage of things. He told me it is all so new. “I don’t even know what it all will entail just yet,” he told me. “Lots of readings, workshops—I do have my first office hours already set up. Beginning Saturday July 12, noon-2:00 pm, I will settle in at that post.” While a quick check of the Mercantile Library website indicates they have not yet updated the Poet Laureate page with this event, you should soon be able to find it here.

I was curious to ask Hague about his thoughts about what it might mean for him to receive this honor as an urban Appalachian poet. He explained that his experience is different than the southern Appalachian poets. “I grew up in Steubenville, in northern Appalachia. This was an extremely industrial area. My poetry often deals with the conditions of growing up in an industrialized and heavily polluted area,” he told me. The movement for Hague and others in northern Appalachia was westward, out of the industrialized northern Appalachian areas toward places like Cincinnati and Columbus. Hague made it a point to tell me that, although he grew up in that industrial world of eastern Ohio, it was the woodlands of Ohio that shaped him as much as anything else. As he said, “I spent half my life in the woods. We were right in the circle of Wayne National Forest, and this was powerfully influential to me.”  Hague’s experiences add depth and range to the poetry of the Appalachian experience, an experience that can sometimes be misunderstood with a narrow focus on southern Appalachia.

Upon learning of the announcement, Ohio Poet Laureate, and the author of Dirt Songs,Kari Gunter-Seymour said: “I just heard the news that Cincinnati’s newly appointed Poet Laureate is the extraordinary Richard Hague, and I could not be more thrilled. Hague has lived a genuine life—a steelworker, railroad man, scholar, teacher and passionate activist. He writes with a genuine voice and steel-trap honesty. A person would be hard pressed to find a finer poet than Richard Hague. Cincinnati and all of Ohio is lucky to call him our own.”

Finally, I checked in with UACC Core member Sherry Cook Stanforth who told me that “Dick Hague is an inspiring cultural force and wordsmith for the entire Appalachian region, and his tenure as Cincinnati’s Poet Laureate will bring an impactful creative resource for our community. One of the most powerful gifts he brings to the table, among many, is his knowledge of river culture. No one captures the essence of river species and flowing water’s vast nature more memorably, and he challenges all of us to better know the valuable resource of flowing water in our own backyards, and how a small creek might lead to large, complex connections among human beings and other living things.” With this we should bear in mind Sherry Cook Stanforth and Dick Hague’s work with Riparian, the anthology of work inspired by and for the Ohio River. As his co-editor, Sherry speaks with a great deal of authority, and her assessment of what Richard Hague will bring to Cincinnati as Poet Laureate offers something we can all look forward to seeing over the time of his tenure.

Richard Hague told me his first office hours will be the “second Saturday of each month, 12 noon-2pm. His plans for this time are packed with plans to help other poets, new and experienced, toward developing their work, learning to appreciate the details and complexities of poetry more generally, and even practical matters like “submitting, publishing, networking, reading, and performing. This will include things like “general pointers for revision and a voluntary read-around of drafts.” Richard Hague is already hard at work, which comes as no surprise to those who know him.

The City of Cincinnati is lucky to have Richard Hague as the new Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate, if I do say so myself. Hague brings such a wealth of knowledge and experience to this position, along with his compassionate insights into the world around us that make for the best kind of poet and writer. The Urban Appalachian Community Coalition could not be happier with this development, and we are looking forward to the upcoming event to mark the occasion. On Tuesday, July 8, 2025, at 6:00pm, The Mercantile Library will hold a special event to celebrate with Richard Hague for his appointment as the Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate Details in the event at the Mercantile Library can be found at this link: mercantilelibrary.com/events/calendar/2025/07/08/2025-2027-cincinnati-and-mercantile-library-poet-laureate-celebration-with-richard-hague.

Michael Templeton is a writer, and independent scholar. He is the author of The Chief of Birds: A Memoir published with Erratum Press and Impossible to Believe, published by Iff Books. He is also the author of Collected Apoems, forthcoming from LJMcD Communications and the awaiting of awaiting: a novella, with Nut Hole Publishing. Check out his profile in UACC’s Cultural Directory. He has published numerous articles and essays on contemporary culture and works of creative non-fiction as well as experimental works and poetry. He lives in West Milton, Ohio with his wife who is an artist.