What a treasure we have in Peter Meinke, Poet Laureate of Florida and Eckerd icon

We suppose it shouldn't come as any surprise that Peter Meinke, who is an icon at Eckerd College, has been honored with the prestigious William Meredith Award in Poetry for his work.

Peter is Florida's Poet Laureate and professor emeritus at Eckerd College. He participates every year in the Writers in Paradise week at Eckerd, and frequently can be seen around town at literary functions of all kinds. William Meredith was Poet Laureate of the United States in the late Seventies and he and Peter were friends in Washington then.

If you haven't read Peter Meinke, you really ought to make a point of it. His work is full of dark wit, and his wry observations on the state of the world are spot on. His latest poetry collection is Lucky Bones (2014). He also has collections of short stories, The Piano Tuner (1986), Unheard Music (2007), and The Expert Witness: 26 short stories with 26 drawings (2016), with illustrations by his wife, Jeanne Meinke.  She also illustrated Truth and Affection: the Poet's Notebook (2013), Peter's collection of his columns from Creative Loafing.