Carol Connolly, a mentor, advisor, literary program coordinator, community activist, and Saint Paul’s first poet laureate was honored with the Kay Sexton Award on April 16, 2011 at the 23rd annual Minnesota Book Awards Gala presented by RBC Wealth Management. In the words of Carolyn Holbrook, 2010 winner of the Kay Sexton Award, “Carol’s commitment to literature spans several decades and cuts across the many invisible lines that tend to divide us: age, race, economics, political affiliation, gender and sexual orientation.”
Connolly works tirelessly for the betterment of the literary community and the community at large. She is committed to supporting other writers, exposing readers to diverse literary voices, and bringing poetry to the streets.
For thirteen years, Connolly has coordinated and hosted the Third Tuesday reading series now held at the University Club. Her goals for the monthly program include sparking curiosity about new writers and books, making literature more democratic, and raising funds for organizations by passing the hat at the monthly events.
The current recipient of the Third Tuesday donations is the Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk project. This project literally brings the written word to people on the streets by imprinting poetry by local poets in concrete as the City goes about its normal business of repairing broken sidewalks. Says Marcus Young, lead artist for Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk, “Carol has been an unrelenting supporter, an advisor, and overall guardian angel. She has served on the contest selection panel all three years and has been instrumental in gaining media attention and community involvement for the project.” To date, the program has created 367 installations of a collection of 31 poems.
As Saint Paul’s poet laureate, a lifetime appointment from Mayor Chris Coleman made in 2006, Connolly brings poetic perspective to government events. In 1985, Connolly published her first book of poems, Payments Due. These poems were then adapted into a play that ran for two years in California and two years in Minnesota. Her latest work, All This and More: New and Selected Poems, was published in 2009.
More than a writer and local champion of the local literary community, Connolly is also a political activist for social justice in areas such as human rights, women’s rights, and the peace movement. She has served as chair of the Saint Paul Human Rights Commission, co-chaired the Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus, coordinated DC Comic’s Wonder Women Foundation, and served as a Minnesota Racing Commissioner.