LEXINGTON, Va. Aug. 7, 2025 — Virginia’s poet laureate, Mattie Quesenberry Smith, Ph.D., instructor in the Department of English, Rhetoric and Humanistic Studies at Virginia Military Institute, in partnership with the Central Rappahannock Regional Library, the Friends of Handley Regional Library System, the Peninsula Patriots, the Poetry Society of Virginia (PSV), the Richmond Public Library, the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, and the Williamsburg Regional Library, has launched “Perseverance and Resilience,” a project that supports veterans’ health and well-being through poetry.

The project involves regional workshops facilitated by creative writing instructors and contemporary veteran poets. Through the workshops, veterans will explore the ways they have persevered and found resilience in challenging times.  

The project also incorporates a veterans’ poetry contest; the design, production, and installation of the contest winner’s poem on a broadside in facilities serving veterans throughout the state; an anthology of poems collected from the contest finalists and selected entrants; and two public celebrations dedicated to the participating veterans, their families, and the workshop facilitators.

The contest is in memory of retired Navy Cmdr. Edward W. Lull, a former executive director and president of PSV and 20-year veteran who passed away last year. All veterans of the U.S. military are eligible to submit up to three poems which address veterans’ experiences with perseverance and resilience during active duty and/or throughout their re-entry into civilian life. Each poem can be written in any form, but cannot exceed 45 lines in length.  

Poems will be judged for first, second, third, and honorable mention prizes. Entries should be submitted online. The deadline is Monday, Sept. 15, 2025.   

In July, the Academy of American Poets, a leading financial supporter of poets in the U.S, awarded $50,000 in fellowships to 23 civic projects designed by Smith and other poets laureate serving in cities and states across the nation. These fellowships recognize poets laureate for their literary excellence while enabling them to undertake impactful and timely projects that engage their communities through the transformative power of poetry. In addition, the Academy will provide more than $95,000 total in matching grants to 21 local 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations collaborating with the 2025 fellows on their work. Questions regarding the veterans’ poetry project, “Perseverance and Resilience,” may be submitted to Smith here.   

Marianne Hause
Communications & Marketing
VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE