Milwaukee Poet Laureate
The Milwaukee Poet Laureate project, initiated in February 2000, is a program of the Milwaukee Public Library supported by the Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library.
The project committee selects a local poet to serve as Milwaukee Poet Laureate for a two-year term. The poet laureate makes several guest appearances during the term, promoting poetry throughout the community.
2025-2026 Poet Laureate: Shelly Conley
Milwaukee native Shelly Conley has always had a Love for words. As a skilled writer, poet, and all around creative, her listeners call her “gifted”, “inspirational”, “illustrator” and
“amazing”, to quote a few words. Her writing is reflective, forgiving, and creates a call to action for the listeners. Shelly is a 7-time member of Milwaukee’s National Poetry Slam Team. Her talent has led her to numerous poetry venues, community panels, artistic documentaries and musical collaborations with local and national talent.
She recently released Rewind - A Cathartic Autobiography, a magical blend of childhood journal pages, poetry, an amazing soundtrack and more, available at shellyconley.com.
With more than 20 years of experience working with youth and young adults in various capacities, Shelly encourages individuals to be honest and introspective in their writing, to forgive themselves and others, and to operate from a space of Love – especially when it’s difficult. Since 2014, Shelly has served as Program Director and Co-facilitator for My Sista’s KeepHer (MSK).
2025-2026 Runners Up
Chuck Stebelton
Chuck Stebelton is author most recently of One Hundred Patterns & Three Heuristics (Green Gallery Press, 2023). His previous poetry collections include An Apostle Island (Oxeye Press, 2021), The Platformist (Cultural Society, 2012), and Circulation Flowers (Tougher Disguises, 2005). He currently serves as Special Projects Manager for Woodland Pattern, a nonprofit literary arts organization, and he teaches Creative Writing in the English Department at Carthage College. As a poet and Wisconsin Master Naturalist volunteer, he has led workshops and field trips for nonprofit organizations and conservancy groups including Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters; Milwaukee Public Library; Woodland Pattern Book Center; Friends of Lorine Niedecker; and Lynden Sculpture Garden. He recently completed an ARTservancy artist residency with River Revitalization Foundation and has held residencies at Lynden Sculpture Garden in 2011, 2014, and from 2018 to 2025.
Nikki Janzen
Lovingly known in the poetry community as "Darlin" Nikki, this social justice educator, mentor, spoken word poet, mixed media artist, jewley creator, restorative justice trainer and beloved community workshopper, first used poetry to escape and later as an antidote to the racial and socio-economic tensions in her life.
As a World Slam Haiku Champion, Two time Grand Slam Champion of Milwaukee, BET Slam Regional Winner, Teacher of the Year with a Master's in Multi-cultural education and undergrad in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Nikki uses her words to cultivate healing spaces, paint stories of hope, dream of liberation, revive humans as folk tales not to be forgotten and to bridge diverse communities; knowing that white supremacy culture hurts everyone in different ways, she creates brave spaces, where participants can use self-reflection, imagination and the joy of wordplay to overcome any challenge.
Her poetry album Healing Broken can be found on Apple Music, iTunes and on YouTube. The founder of BelovedHealing has published five poetry chat books, her work can be found in countless anthologies such as Hummingbird Press, Red Reads First and Still Water Collective. Videos of youth poetry can also be found on YouTube page Beloved Healing. Her Blog, racial healing workshop information and jewlery store can be found at BelovedealingLLC.Com. This summer, her powerful, pedagogy changing essay Transformational Restorative Practices will be published.