UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As the 2026-27 Penn State Laureate, poet and professor of English Erin Murphy is traveling across the commonwealth to share her poetry and engage community members in a collaborative poem project.
Murphy’s schedule includes more than 20 events across the state, including campus-wide presentations and community workshops. A full schedule is available online.
During each of her visits, Murphy is offering an interactive presentation titled “With These Hands: A Collaborative Poetry Experience,” during which she shares poems from her latest books, “Swoon: New & Selected Poems” and the open access anthology “The Book of Jobs: Poems About Work,” published by Penn State University Libraries.
All attendees will have the opportunity to create and submit their own lines of poetry. At the end of her laureate term, Murphy said she plans to compose a University-wide collaborative poem featuring contributions from selected lines by Penn State community members from across the commonwealth.
Murphy’s other activities during her campus visits include visiting classes in subjects ranging from creative writing to biology, leading community workshops and offering a Pop-Up Poetry Fortune Telling Booth during which she engages informally with students by creating “fortunes” based on poems.
In addition to in-person events, Murphy is offering an online presentation on Thursday, Jan. 28, at 12:15 p.m. Zoom registration details will be forthcoming on her Laureate webpage.
Murphy’s first Laureate stop was Penn State Dubois on Sept. 2, where she gave a presentation and poetry fortune-telling and visited an American Studies class to discuss popular culture in the arts.
“Professor Murphy brought an incredible sense of warmth, curiosity, and vitality to our campus during her visit as the Penn State Laureate,” said Jungwoo Ryoo, chancellor and chief academic officer at Penn State DuBois. "Her sessions were exceptionally engaging and approachable, completely stripping away the intimidation often associated with the arts. Nowhere was that dedication to accessibility more palpable than at her poetry fortune-telling pop-up stations, where she met our campus community members right where they were — turning brief, everyday encounters into meaningful, creative connections."
Angela Pettitt, teaching professor of English at Penn State DuBois, said Murphy’s "enthusiasm was infectious, and the poems she shared were thought-provoking, humorous, and acutely relevant to contemporary society,” adding that Murphy is “an immensely talented and passionate poet with a keen ability to make her work accessible and relatable to everyone in the audience."
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.