Young poet honoured as city laureate for Plymouth

Mimi Jones is "honoured" to be Plymouth Young City Laureate 2023

Plymouth's new Young City Laureate is hoping to shine a light on the city's queer community, and those with autism during their time in the role.

Poet and playwright Mimi Jones, 19, has been appointed to the role for 2023.

It involves celebrating special events and occasions in the city with invitations to perform as a voice of young people in libraries, schools and at festivals.

The writer said they were "honoured" to be appointed.

"We have such an amazing queer and neurodiverse community that I am thrilled to work with further, and to share more writing as a queer, autistic writer," they said.

The Laureateship is a partnership between Literature Works, Plymouth City Council, Plymouth Culture and With Flying Colours.

The teenager hosts an event called Queer Out Loud that gives a platform for people in the community to share their art.

The poet hopes to give a voice to young people during their time in the role

They said: "I have no desire to slate the poetry community in Plymouth but we have a very old, white man community.

"They are lovely, and they are great poets, but it is not the most comfortable place for people to go that want to talk about their experience as a trans person, or their first date with a woman or something like that.

"While they are not going to shiver in disgust or anything, they are not the people who are going to understand it."

Organisers said the Laureateship gives a young writer the opportunity to represent their city in words, while also developing their creative practice through writing commissions and events.

Helen Chaloner, chief executive of Literature Works said: "It's such a positive for a city to support and celebrate a Young City Laureate and Plymouth can be particularly proud of Mimi."

During their Laureateship, the teenager will receive three paid writing commissions and perform at several events in Plymouth across the year alongside other writers.

They said: "I know there are so many other poets and creatives that are in Plymouth that I just haven't had the chance to meet yet, so to hopefully be able to through this role, through workshops, or open mics or anything I get put up for, is going to be really cool - to find out who else is in this very big, small town."