Poet laureates are hired based on their careers, expertise and, of course, talent. They're responsible for the artistic growth of the city or town employing them.
In 2010, Candice James was named poet laureate of New Westminster. James is now beginning her second term.
"When I became poet laureate, there were 17 across Canada and it's becoming more popular for cities to have poet laureates . there could be 22 or 23 (in Canada) now," she said.
James has been writing poetry since she was in her 30s. She had to drive her daughter to a school program in Burnaby and because she was living in Crescent Beach, rather than drive home, she would sit in her car and wait for her daughter to finish. James passed her time writing. She wrote about everyday things and she wrote about love, loss and grief.
She published her first book of poems in 1979 after a friend sent her work to the University of New Brunswick's famous Fiddlehead Publishing. James recalls lying to Fred Cogswell - director of the publishing house - when he asked her how many poems she had written.
At the time she only had about 180 complete poems, but told Cogswell she had well over 300. He told her he would be in Vancouver in three weeks and that he'd like to meet with her to discuss her work.
"For the next three weeks I almost didn't even see daylight; I just wrote, wrote, wrote because I didn't not want to have enough," she said. "By the time he came out I had about 308 or 309."
Cogswell and James spent a few of days going over the poems, choosing ones that would make up the contents of A Split in the Water.
After her book was released, James took a step in a different direction and joined a country music band. But in 2004, she put down her mike and picked up a pen again.
When she saw the city was looking for a poet laureate, she applied and was chosen. Since then, she has represented New Westminster's literary community in and around the city.
"I promote literary work within the community and promote New Westminster outside of the community," she said.
Part of James' duties, as poet laureate, include attending civic events and producing commissioned poems for the city.
"If they want a poem about something, then yes, I'll write it. It might not be my best ork but I write it to the best of my ability," she said.
James never re-uses her commissioned poems. She prefers to write new poems for each event, even if it's an annual one.
Since she became poet laureate, James has been working to grow the literary community in New Westminster.
"I've started up a new literary society in New West called the (Royal City) Literary Arts Society," she said.
She hopes the society will expand on what the arts council does, focusing more specifically on the written word.
"It'd be nice to have something just for words, just for literary, just for people that write," she said.
James also spearheaded Poetic Justice, which is a weekly open mike night for poets to perform their work.
For the remaining three years of her term, James hopes to inspire more local poets to come out of the woodwork.
"What I would really like to see in the next three years is I'd really like to see Royal City Literary Arts Society really flourish, and that's a top priority," she said. "I'd like to see more and more poets get involved, come out, (and) get up on these stages."
