Prince Albert poet Lynda Monahan has been named the 12th Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan with a term of Aug. 1, 2026 to July 31, 2028.
The position was recently announced by the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild. Monahan is the first Poet Laureate from Prince Albert and area in the program’s history.
Monahan said that she was honoured and privileged to be named the 12th Poet Laureate for Saskatchewan in a prepared statement.
“I see this as a position of great responsibility and stewardship-to promote a love of poetry and creative writing in general,” Monahan said. “It is through time spent in the sharing of creative writing that we learn to understand ourselves and others that we can say ‘This is me. These are my thoughts and feelings.’”
Monahan described herself as a longstanding member of the Saskatchewan writing community. She said she has benefitted from the Saskatchewan Writer’s Guild’s programs in the past, and jumped at the opportunity to give back.
“I am happy to have this opportunity to promote our province’s Writer’s Guild and our vibrant writing community,” she said. “I am excited for every opportunity to engage with writers, both emerging and established.”
Monahan also believes in the power of poetry as a medium. She said the art inform “isn’t just for the select few”. She said it can have a powerful impact on people of all backgrounds.
“Poetry can speak to some of the hardest things of our lives,” she said. “I believe poetry can be a way out of darkness, can shine a light in shadowy places.
“It’s important to me to bring poetry to those who might not get to experience it—marginalized people, those in hospitals and care homes, regional newcomers—and to bring poetry to the streets and the riverbank as we have done recently in my hometown of Prince Albert.”
For the past four years, Monahan, along with the City of Prince Albert’s Municipal Cultural Action Plan, has presented a Poetry Walk which features local poets work displayed along the Rotary Trail and in downtown Prince Albert. A second guided Poetry Walk with Monahan is planned for Culture Days in September.
She also remembered her friend and famous Saskatchewan Poet John V. Hicks, for whom the Gallery in the Margo Fournier Arts Centre is named.
“My friend and former honourary writer in residence in Prince Albert was the poet John V. Hicks. Jack said that poetry should hit you in the heart. He also told me that poetry is a pretty big tent and it is. The poetry tent covers spoken word, sound poetry, lyric, prose poems, elegies, ekphrastic poems and many others. Poetry isn’t elitist. It’s inclusive,” Monahan said.
“As Poet Laureate for Saskatchewan, that is my goal, that is my goal-to include everyone under poetry’s big tent, to let everyone have the opportunity to share underneath that canopy.”
Monahan is also proud to represent the North and rural communities as Poet Laureate, and to promote readings and creative workshops that take place outside of Saskatchewan’s two major cities.
“I want to celebrate the lakes and forests of North Central Saskatchwan, the place that is my home,” she said.
Monahan is author of five poetry collections, A Slow Dance in the Flames (Coteau Books, 1998), What My Body Knows (Coteau Books, 2003), Verge (Guernica Editions, 2015), a cowritten collection, A Beautiful Stone: poems and ululations (Radiant Press 2019), The Door at the End of Everything (Shadowpaw Press, 2024) and a chapbook titled The Book of Bill.
She has been writer-in-residence at St. Peter’s College facilitated retreat, Balfour Collegiate in Regina, the Prince Albert Public Library, and writer-on-the-wards at Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert. She recently completed a year as lead artist for an Artists in Communities project through SK Arts, mentoring local artists to develop long-term community arts programming.
According to a release by the Guild the Saskatchewan Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate celebrates Saskatchewan—its people, spirit, land—through the literary arts, and act as an ambassador and champion of poetry and writing. The Poets’ commitment to writing, passion for poetry, and community engagement through their positions will raise awareness of the power of poetry and engage all residents, including youth, in the written and spoken word.
Commencing in 2000, the Saskatchewan Poet Laureate Program was the first provincial program of its kind in Canada. The Youth Poet Laureate position was created in 2019. The Poets Laureate are under the patronage of the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, Her Honour the Honourable Bernadette McIntyre.
For additional Poet Laureate program information or to request a reading or talk by our Youth Poet Laureate or Poet Laureate, visit: https://skwriter.com/programs-and-services/poet-laureate-program
Along with Monahan, Aya Skouta, a Canadian-Moroccan poet, writer, and student at the University of Saskatchewan was announced as the seventh Youth Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan from August 1, 2026 to July 31, 2027.
