Ms. Vicinanza is the inaugural Poet Laureate for Southbury, Connecticut, appointed in October of 2022. She has served as a Master Teaching Artist in Poetry for the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, as editor for several literary magazines, and as the founder and executive director of the Connecticut Poetry Festival (1997, 2001, 2003). Ms. Vicinanza is the author of six collections of poetry, is currently working on several new collections, and a memoir. A member of two national slam poetry teams, Ms. Vicinanza competed in National Slam Championships in 1994 and 1996. She was a member of the U.S. Slam Team that competed in Sweden in 1997, as well as the executive director of the 1997 National Poetry Slam Championships held in Middletown, Connecticut, the largest single poetry event in the state’s history. Ms. Vicinanza has been featured in venues from Stockholm, Sweden to San Francisco, has been a poet laureate nominee for the state of Connecticut as well as the recipient of the 2003
