Poet Laureate of Tompkins County

The position of Tompkins County Poet Laureate was established by the Tompkins County Legislature in 2001 to honor local outstanding poets, integrate poetry into the community, enrich the education of our young people, and enhance the county’s position as a cultural center.

What is a Poet Laureate?

A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring organization.  The tradition is believed to have started in what is now Italy in the 14th century.  Today, more than a dozen countries around the world continue the tradition.  The United States created the position of national poet laureate in 1937, and today many U.S. states and communities name their own poets laureate.

Tompkins County's Poet Laureate 

Since its establishment, the selection and announcement of the Tompkins County Poet Laureate has been a process administered by the Community Arts Partnership (CAP). CAP solicits nominations and organizes the selection panel for appointment to the post. Appointments have been for two-year terms. This is an honorary position, with a $1,500 stipend in place for 2025.
 

Poet Laureate nicole v. basta

On August 5, 2025, the Community Arts Partnership presented nicole v. basta to the Tompkins County Legislature as the County’s next Poet Laureate, serving a term through the end of 2026. 

nicole is a poet with proud familial roots in the coal mines and garment factories of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Her poetry, art practices, and teaching practice are rooted in wild making, and connected to the traditional sense of intuition and resourcefulness of her ancestors. That being said, she creates with the blessings of sacred uselessness and is actively decolonizing her idea of success. She believes in a better world despite it all.

Her poems have found homes in places like Ploughshares, The North American Review, Third Coast, The Cortland Review, Best New Poets 2023, Waxwing, RHINO, Plume, Ninth Letter, and Colorado Review, and have been on PBS and read on the radio.

nicole’s first chapbook V was chosen by Rigoberto González as the winner of The New School’s Annual Contest, and her second chapbook the next field over was published by Tolsun Books in 2022. She is a graduate of the Ithaca College Writing Program and has an MFA in Poetry from The New School.

nicole is a community educator who teaches generative creative writing classes for all and offers one-on-one and small group mentorship. Her work as a multi-disciplinary arts event’s producer began in Brooklyn where she was the co-founder and curator of Say Yes Electric Collective (2015-2018) which explored through monthly performance nights not only the intersection of the arts but also where the arts intersect community support and activism. nicole has curated several events since she moved back to Ithaca in 2020.

nicole is also a visual artist who works in mixed media collage, book making, and cyanotype.
She has collaborated with musicians, dancers, architects, sculptors, poets etc. and her work has been generously supported by residencies and grants from Monson Arts, the Saltonstall Foundation, Art Farm Nebraska, Terra Cultura, Community Arts Partnership, The New York State Council on the Arts, and Poets & Writers. 

Says Megan Barber, Executive Director of the Community Arts Partnership, which administers the Poet Laureate selection process, "We're grateful to Tompkins County for establishing the position of Poet Laureate. It's important for a creative and civically-minded community like ours to have this position, and each Poet Laureate has an impact on our lives here. We are excited to have nicole join the lineage of Tompkins County Poet Laureates.”

nicole states: “For me, poetry has always been inextricably linked to community. How we build with language is not dissimilar to how we build bonds with our neighbors and how we speak out and show up for others. I look forward to continuing to strengthen my ties within our community and I am beyond honored to serve as Poet Laureate for this sweet town that gave me my second upbringing.” 

To find out more about nicole, take a class, or connect with her, visit www.nicolevbasta.com 
(photo credit: Alyvia Covert)