LEXINGTON — Virginia Poet Laureate Mattie Quesenberry Smith, Ph.D., an English instructor at Virginia Military Institute, has launched Perseverance and Resilience, a statewide project supporting veterans’ health and well-being through poetry.

The initiative, organized with multiple regional libraries and arts organizations, will host workshops led by creative writing instructors and veteran poets. Participants will reflect on how they’ve persevered and found resilience during service and civilian life.

The project features a veterans’ poetry contest in memory of retired Navy Cmdr. Edward W. Lull, former Poetry Society of Virginia president. Contest winners will see their work produced as broadsides displayed in veteran-serving facilities statewide. An anthology will publish selected poems, with two public celebrations planned.

All U.S. veterans may submit up to three poems, each no longer than 45 lines, by Sept. 15, 2025, via Poetry Society of Virginia’s submission portal.

Smith’s project is supported by a $50,000 fellowship from the Academy of American Poets, awarded to 23 poets laureate nationwide for civic literary projects. Matching grants will go to nonprofit partners assisting with the work.