Clark County Poet Laureate

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Clark County Poet Laureate

Clark County welcomes Elle Hope as the new Clark County Poet Laureate!

Elle Hope is an interdisciplinary poet and organizer whose work explores culture, the body, identity, mental health, and womanhood. A nationally touring artist, she was a finalist in the Button Poetry Video Contest for "God Bless America" (2024) and was named one of Desert Companion's "Ones to Watch" (2022). In 2025, she received a writer’s fellowship to Martha's Vineyard and helped the Spotlight Poetry Slam Team earn Las Vegas's first-ever regional win at the Chicharra Regional Poetry Competition.

Hope has performed at the Utah Arts Festival and Black Mountain Institute's "Wave In" Festival and completed a performance residency with Vegas City Opera. Her work has been published by Nevada Humanities and The Beyond the Neon Anthology and has been exhibited at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, The Living Gallery in Brooklyn, and the HerStory exhibition in Los Angeles.

A committed community builder, Hope is the founder and president of Spotlight Poetry, a Las Vegas nonprofit that mentors poets and creates accessible spaces for writers and performers. She also founded the Phenomenal Womxn Poetry Festival, Las Vegas's first three-day regional poetry festival, and sits on the national advisory committee for the National Association of Performance Poetry and Slam (NAPPS). As a teaching artist partnered with the Nevada Arts Council, she has led workshops in Las Vegas, Reno, Portland, and New York City.

Her proudest publication is Young, Gifted, & Black: A Poetic Anthology (Vols. 1–3), a self-published series featuring more than 50 Black poets from across the country.

Learn more about her work www.ellehopeofficial.com . Follow her on Instagram @ellehopew and TikTok @ellehopethepoet.

About the Poet Laureate position

The Poet Laureate program celebrates Clark County's literary community and aims to strengthen literary arts by engaging diverse communities. The Poet Laureate will serve as a cultural ambassador for poetry, conducting public events County-wide, and representing Southern Nevada's rich literary history and diversity. They will participate in ceremonial, educational, and cultural activities and promote a love for literary arts through workshops, readings, panels, festivals, and public appearances. Additionally, they will provide a commissioned poem related to their body of work while in the position.

The CCPL program was established in 2015, and past poets include:

Goals

The Poet Laureate program celebrates Clark County’s vibrant literary community and aims to strengthen the future of literary arts in our city by engaging a broad range of communities. The CCPL post will serve as a cultural ambassador for the poetic artform, written and/or spoken, and conduct engaging public events for constituents County-wide.

As both a local resident and a distinguished poet, the CCPL will represent and celebrate the rich literary history and the diversity of Southern Nevada. As a spokesperson for the area’s literary community, the CCPL will help reinforce the role of literature and the arts in civic life and will actively participate in ceremonial, educational and cultural activities in the community during the term of service.

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