April 2, 2025 

Media Contacts:  
Marcine Miller, executive director, public information office, 509-682-6582, mmiller2@wvc.edu 

Derek Sheffield, a professor of English at Wenatchee Valley College, has been named Washington State Poet Laureate by Governor Bob Ferguson. A celebration of the start of Sheffield’s term, the “Passing of the Laurel” event, will be held on Wednesday, April 30, at 7 p.m. in The Grove Recital Hall on the Wenatchee campus. 

To register for this free event, please visit the 2025 Passing of the Laurel page at eventbrite.com.  

Sheffield will serve as poet laureate for a two-year term. In this role, he will travel around the state to build awareness and appreciation of poetry through readings, events, and projects. The laureate visits schools, museums, carceral institutions, and other community spaces. 

“Much of what I will share with others across the state comes directly from my twenty-four years of being part of this incredible Wenatchee Valley community,” Sheffield said. “I have learned so much from my students, colleagues, and fellow citizens. Bits of shiny brilliance, tidbits of kindness, lyric wisdoms. My basket is full and ready for sharing.” 

“On behalf of Wenatchee Valley College, I would like to congratulate Professor Sheffield on this tremendous achievement,” said President Faimous Harrison. “It’s such an honor to work with an amazing, talented member of our faculty. Professor Sheffield has enriched the lives of countless WVC students with his passion for teaching and writing, and we are thrilled that the rest of our beautiful state will have the opportunity to learn from his poetry.” 

Sheffield is the author of “Not For Luck,” selected for the Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize, and “Through the Second Skin,” runner-up for the Emily Dickinson First Book Award and a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. He co-edited “Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy” with Simmons Buntin and Elizabeth Dodd, as well as “Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry” with Elizabeth Bradfield and CMarie Fuhrman.  

His awards include the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, the Foreword Reviews Indies Book of the Year in Nature Writing, and the James Hearst Poetry Prize judged by Li-Young Lee. 

At WVC, Sheffield is the coordinator of the Visiting Writers Series and has brought past poets laureate to the college to give readings and workshops with students. He serves as co-chair of the Sustainability Committee with geography faculty member Dr. Joan Qazi, and, alongside retired biology professor Dr. Dan Stephens, taught Northwest Nature Writing, a learning community that combines writing with field ecology.  

He has won the WVC Excellence in Teaching Award five times, served as commencement speaker twice, and won the Linda Schultz Herzog Faculty Member of the Year Award in 2016.  

In addition to his roles as poet and professor, Sheffield is the poetry editor of Terrain.org. 

The Washington State Arts Commission (ArtsWA) and Humanities Washington have co-managed the Washington State Poet Laureate program since its founding in 2007. Funding for the poet laureate program is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Arts WA, and Humanities Washington. 

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Wenatchee Valley College enriches North Central Washington by serving educational and cultural needs of communities and residents throughout the service area. The college is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion for all students and employees and provides high-quality transfer, liberal arts, professional/technical, basic skills and continuing education for students of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds. Visit our website, wvc.edu. 

Wenatchee Valley College is committed to a policy of equal opportunity in employment and student enrollment. All programs are free from discrimination and harassment against any person because of race, creed, color, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, or the use of a service animal by a person with a disability, age, parental status or families with children, marital status, religion, genetic information, honorably discharged veteran or military status or any other prohibited basis per RCW 49.60.030, 040 and other federal and state laws and regulations, or participation in the complaint process. 

The following persons have been designated to handle inquiries regarding the non-discrimination policies and Title IX compliance for both the Wenatchee and Omak campuses: 

To report discrimination or harassment: Title IX Coordinator, Human Resources, Wenatchi Hall 2322M, (509) 682-6445, title9@wvc.edu. 

To request disability accommodations: Student Access Manager, Wenatchi Hall 2131, (509) 682-6854, TTY/TTD: dial 711, sas@wvc.edu.