(a) The position of California Poet Laureate is hereby established.

(b) The California Poet Laureate shall be appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate from a list of three nominees provided by the Arts Council garnered through the following process:

(1) The council shall establish a panel of three literary experts, which may include any of the following:

(A) Literature professors and teachers, including professional poets teaching in such programs as California Poets in the Schools and other arts in schools programs.

(B) Public and private arts organizations that have a significant literary component.

(C) Professional poets.

(D) Boards and directors of literary organizations.

(E) Literary critics.

(F) Others deemed by the director to have expertise in contemporary American poetry.

(2) (A) The panel shall solicit nominations from a broad array of literary sources and individuals, including, but not limited to, all of the following:

(i) University and college literature departments.

(ii) Literary organizations, societies, and centers.

(iii) Poetry book publishers and poetry editors.

(iv) Directors of poetry reading series.

(v) Independent book sellers specializing in poetry.

(B) The panel shall make every effort to ensure that information regarding the solicitation of nominations is broadly distributed.

(3) The council may establish other rules and regulations regarding the nomination process and expend funds for those purposes.

(c) Each nominee for California Poet Laureate submitted by the Arts Council to the Governor shall have resided in California for at least 10 years, have a significant body of published work, and be widely considered to be a poet of stature.

(d) A poet laureate appointed pursuant to this section shall serve for a term of two years, and may not serve more than two terms.

(Added by Stats. 2001, Ch. 206, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2002.)