Come meet alum Jennifer Bartell Boykin, MFA MLIS, chat with her about her career journey, and enjoy light refreshments.

Jennifer Bartell Boykin is the Poet Laureate of the City of Columbia, South Carolina. She received an MFA and MLIS from the University of South Carolina. Her debut book of poetry is Traveling Mercy (Finishing Line Press, 2023) and features the Bluefield community, which is in Johnsonville, SC. Her second book Only Believe (The Word Works, 2024) won the 2023 Hilary Tham Capital Collection Prize. An alumna of Agnes Scott College, Jennifer is an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate Fellow and has additional fellowships from Callaloo and The Watering Hole. She is a school librarian at Muller Road Middle School in Blythewood, SC.