State's new poet laureate and Lummi tribal member talks about 'innate music of language'

Rena Priest, the Bellingham writer, WWU alumna and member of Lummi Nation who is Washington state’s new poet laureate, is the first Native American in that role and hopes “to be the first in a long line of many.”

Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Priest, 42, the state’s sixth poet laureate. Her two-year term began Thursday, April 15.

Priest succeeds Claudia Castro Luna, a Seattle resident.