Bus Lines Came Back for its 15th Year!

The 2023 Bus Lines poetry contest winners gathered to celebrate their selection earlier in November at Pinney Library. Madison Poet Laureate Angie Trudell-Vasquez organized the gathering with the support of library and arts program staff. The Madison Poet Laureate volunteers countless hours to our community. Their initiatives are supported in part by contributions to the John Tuschen Poet Laureate Memorial Fund, an endowment established by Madison’s second Poet Laureate, Andrea Musher, who kick started the fund with her own generous personal gift.

Bus Lines started during Poet Laureate emerita Fabu Carter's term, and initially only included poems from MMSD HS students. Each subsequent Poet Laureate has put their own unique spin on it.  When Oscar Mireles was Poet Laureate, for example, he opened the door for multi-lingual submissions. Bus Lines now includes poetry by Madison poets of all ages, making the program a model of intergenerational civic engagement through the arts.

Each year, the Poet Laureate opens a call for poems, judges the submissions, and makes recommendations to staff. Illustrations are then designed for each poem, and the resulting images are mounted on busses for all to see. This year, Mark Fitzgerald, a graphic designer in the Planning Division, created the illustrations, formatted them for both the busses and the prints each poet took home, and photographed the Bus Lines Poetry winners with their work.  This is a prime example of what we mean when we say "Team City" – multiple agencies working together for the good of the community. 

Congratulations to this year's winners! You can see their short and sweet (and sometimes salty) poems, and the illustrations, on busses around town, or in this illustrated PDF.

• “Land and People” by Rudy Bankston
• “To my children in our garden” by Daniela Chandler
• “Madison Metro” by Harmony, 3rd grader at Lincoln Elementary
• “Trees in the Wind” by Kael, 3rd grader at Lincoln Elementary
• “Remember” by Nola Pastor
• “Solid Gold” by Mary Louise Peters

Want to join these folks and ‘bus-a-rhyme’ about Madison for the whole city to see? Start writing now, and look for the 16th annual Bus Lines contest in 2024.