JAMESTOWN, N.D. (KFGO) – North Dakota’s long-time poet laureate has died. Larry Woiwode, who was also a recipient of the state’s highest citizen honor, Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award, was 79. Governor Doug Burgum said in a statement that Woiwode inspired and mentored countless writers and always remembered his North Dakota roots.
Woiwode was born in 1941 in Carrington, near his hometown of Sykeston. His stories and poetry appeared in The New Yorker and The Paris Review. He was a recipient of the William Faulkner Foundation Award, and the Medal of Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He also was a finalist for both the Book Critics Circle and the National Book Awards.
He wrote and raised a family in southwest North Dakota, on a farmstead near the town of Burt. He taught writing classes in Jamestown, where his funeral will be held Tuesday.
