Aurora native Ahja Fox is the city's new Honorary Poet Laureate. She was selected out of six candidates by a panel that included the two former city poets, Jovan Mays (2013 to 2017) and Assetou Xango (2017 to 2020), the State Poet Laureate Bobby LeFebre and Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky, after an extensive application process, which included a written application, in-person interview and performance of an original work. Fox was recommended by the Aurora Public Library Board for appointment by the City Council, which took place in July and sworn in last Monday, Aug. 8, for a four-year term ending in 2026.
Fox graduated from the University of Colorado Denver with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English/Creative Writing and a minor in Psychology. Her work has been published in various online and print journals, including Five:2:One, LEVELER, Wrongdoing Magazine, Okay Donkey, SWWIM and Driftwood Press. She also participates in various events across Colorado and co-hosts Art of Storytelling. Past related experience includes managing editor for Homology Lit, assistant poetry editor for Copper Nickel and editor, professor and academic director for Poetix University.
She describes poetry as a superpower and as "everyone's birthright to use language, regardless of whether actual "words" are ever said, and that gift alone is so grand, but poetry gives you a model that is endless even in its form and apparent rules." Ahja also participates in various events across Colorado and co-hosts Art of Storytelling.
As the new Poet Laureate, Ahja's goal is to inspire others through her work in a unique way, "when I say to inspire, I mean to stimulate or to incite an urge for the reader or listener to do some more exploring or research of their own." Watch Ahja Fox perform her poem "In Other Worlds."
The city's Honorary Poet Laureate program recognizes the importance of literature as a vital part of our shared and diverse culture. Poetry expresses personal and public stories in an art form accessible to all and provides an outlet for feelings, experiences and questions about the world.