Earlier this year, Bard College professor Robert Kelly was appointed Dutchess County’s first poet laureate. Kelly was invited to read his poetry at County Executive Marc Molinaro’s state of the county address last month at the Bardavon 1869 Opera House. WAMC’s Hudson Valley Bureau Chief spoke with Robert Kelly about that night and what he has planned as poet laureate.
Kelly is the founding director of the writing program at Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts. He serves as the Asher B. Edelman Professor of Literature and co-director of the Program in Written Arts. Kelly has taught at the Annandale-on-Hudson college since 1961 and published more than 50 books of poetry and prose. He says he did not know what to expect from the Dutchess County executive’s state of the county speech or from his role as poet laureate.
