URBANA, IL (Chambana Today) – Meet Urbana’s 2025 Poet Laureate, Angela Patton.
Angela Patton is a published book author, small business owner, and currently works for Champaign County. Angie was a journalist and editor early into her career. She was also a communications professional at the University of Illinois for over a decade. Patton was selected through a competitive application process by a panel of literary and arts experts.
The poet laureate receives a $2,000 honorarium for their one-year term, which is funded by the City of Urbana’s Arts and Culture Program. Angela’s proposal was to lead workshops for writers and to build writing programming for Urbana residents of all ages. This impressed the jury and she received the title of Poet Laureate.
She has a great breadth of experience and great potential for mentorship.
The mission of the Poet Laureate program is to celebrate poetry, creative writing, and the arts and enrich Urbana’s diverse community through outreach activities. Each year, the selected Urbana Poet Laureate is tasked with creating a unique artistic legacy that elevates the importance of creative writing as an art form.