UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Professor of English Erin Murphy, an award-winning poet and prose writer, educator and community arts practitioner committed to collaboration, has been named the 2026–27 Penn State Laureate.
The Penn State Laureate is a full-year position awarded to a full-time faculty member in the humanities or arts, designed to bring greater visibility to the arts, humanities, and broader University mission. Each laureate brings a unique scholarly or artistic perspective to a wide variety of audiences across Pennsylvania.
Murphy joined the faculty in 2005. Her teaching focuses on poetry, nonfiction, and fiction, as well as editing and medical humanities. She is the recipient of the University-wide Penn State Alumni Teaching Fellow Award and the Athleen J. Stere Teaching Award.
Her work explores themes of inequality, gender and philosophical inquiry, frequently through the lens of everyday experiences and humor. She is the author or editor of 16 books, most recently "Mother as Conjunction: Lyric Essays" (2026); "Human Resources" (2025); and "Fluent in Blue" (2024), winner of the 2025 American Book Fest Best Book Award for Poetry; and "Swoon: New and Selected Poems" (April 2026). She is credited with inventing the demi-sonnet, a seven-line poetic form.
Murphy’s writing has earned numerous honors, including a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize, the Paterson Prize for Literary Excellence, two Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards, the Foley Poetry Award and fellowships from the Maryland State Arts Council, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and Penn State’s Humanities Institute. Her individual works have appeared in Ecotone, the Georgia Review, Women’s Studies Quarterly, New World Writing, the Best of Brevity, Best of the Net, Best Microfiction and anthologies from Random House, Bloomsbury and dozens of other presses.
Her other notable works include edited anthologies published and forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press, the University of Nebraska Press, and SUNY Press. This spring, the Penn State University Libraries Open Publishing will release her edited collection "The Book of Jobs: Poems About Work" as a free open access anthology. John Marsh, chair of the English department, said "The Book of Jobs" is “an absorbing, inspiring collection” that “offers a glimpse into lives that might otherwise remain in the dark.”
Beyond teaching and publishing, Murphy has made a significant impact on the arts community as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Blair County where she presents workshops, readings and other events. She is an inductee in the Blair County Arts Hall of Fame and the recipient of the WISE Women Tribute Award in Arts in Letters.
A common thread in Murphy’s community arts practice is a commitment to collaboration. Working with colleagues in the social sciences, performing arts, and other fields, she has spearheaded a number of collaborative, multi-disciplinary projects, including “In My America,” “Life Lines,” and “I Want to Hear.” [See links below.]
As Penn State Laureate, Murphy plans to offer interactive presentations, visit classes across disciplines and speak at K12 schools. Her engagement with various audiences will culminate in a collaborative poem featuring lines from students, faculty and staff.
As a previous executive director of a nonprofit arts organization and Artist in the Schools for the Maryland State Arts Council, Murphy brings extensive programming and arts education experience to this role. Her two years as the University’s 2023-25 Mellon Academic Leadership Fellow for the Big Ten Academic Alliance provided additional skills and connections that will serve her as laureate.