Peter Meinke
Class of 1950
Peter Meinke, after being St. Petersburg’s first Poet
Laureate, is now Poet Laureate of Florida.
After graduating from MLHS, he received his A.B.
at Hamilton College and, after serving in the Army,
his M.A. at the University of Michigan, and Ph. D.
at the University of Minnesota.
Mr. Meinke directed the Writing Workshop at
Eckerd College for many years, and has been a
Distinguished Writer in Residence at dozens of
colleges and universities, including Davidson
College, Wichita University, and Old Dominion
University.
Mr. Meinke’s work has received many national awards, among them two NEA
Fellowships, a Fulbright Professorship at the University of Warsaw, and three
awards from the Poetry Society of America.
His most recent books are The Expert Witness (2016), a collection of short
stories; The Elf Poem (2015), a children’s book (both illustrated by his wife
Jeanne Clark); and Lucky Bones (2014), his
eighth collection in the prestigious Pitt Poetry Series.
In addition to receiving the Outstanding
Teacher Award at Eckerd College, Mr.
Meinke last year received the SunLit
Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award for
“his outstanding contribution to Letters.”
Mr. Meinke has read his poetry in many
countries, and with his family has lived often
overseas. He and his wife, artist Jeanne
Clark (MLHS class of ’53), have lived in St.
Petersburg, Florida for 50 years.