{{short description|American poet}} {{BLP sources|date=November 2019}} {{infobox writer |name=Judson Mitcham |birth_date={{birth year and age|1948}} |birth_place=Monroe, Georgia, U.S. |occupation={{flatlist| *Author *poet }} |education=University of Georgia (PhD) |awards=Townsend Prize for Fiction (x2) |parents=Wilson Mitcham<br>Myrtle }} '''Judson Mitcham''' (born 1948<ref name="Ruppersburg2007">{{cite book|last=Ruppersburg|first=Hugh|title=The new Georgia encyclopedia companion to Georgia literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JegLXYrq1bMC&pg=PA322|accessdate=25 June 2011|date=April 2007|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-2876-8|pages=322–}}</ref>) is an American author and poet best known for being the state of Georgia's tenth official poet laureate between 2012 and 2019. He is the only writer to win the Townsend Prize for Fiction twice. His poetry is featured regularly in publications such as ''Harpers'', ''The Georgia Review'', ''The Chattahoochee Review'', ''The Gettysburg Review'', and ''Southern Poetry Review''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Biographies&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=MultiTab&searchType=PersonSearchForm&currentPosition=2&docId=GALE%7CH1000159119&docType=Biography&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZXAM-MOD1&prodId=BIC&contentSet=GALE%7CH1000159119&searchId=R1&userGroupName=gainstoftech&inPS=true |title=Judson Mitcham |date= September 27, 2005 |publisher= Gale |accessdate= November 14, 2019 }}</ref>

In 2002, Mitcham began teaching writing workshops as a part-time professor at Mercer University. He also directed the Summer Writers' Institute at Emory University.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/judson-mitcham-b-1948 |title=Judson Mitcham (b. 1948) |author=Hugh Ruppersburg |date=July 10, 2002 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |accessdate=November 14, 2019 }}</ref>

==Life and career== Judson Cofield Mitcham was born in 1948 in Monroe, Georgia to Wilson Mitcham, who worked at the local mill, and Myrtle, who worked for the New Deal Seed Loan Program.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://georgiawritershalloffame.org/honorees/judson-mitcham |title=Judson Mitcham |publisher=University of Georgia Libraries |accessdate=November 14, 2019 }}</ref> When he was 16, Judson Mitcham was involved in a car accident while driving a Chevrolet Corvair, which caused the death of one of his friends. Thinking about this incident was among the things that fueled Mitcham to write.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://chestateereview.wordpress.com/2015/07/02/interview-with-the-georgia-poet-laureate/ |title=Interview With the Georgia Poet Laureate |author=Brittany Barron |date=July 2, 2015 |publisher=The Chestatee Review |accessdate=November 14, 2019 }}</ref>

Mitcham studied psychology at University of Georgia, receiving his Ph.D. at 1974. He taught psychology at Fort Valley State University until his retirement in 2004.

In interviews, Mitcham has stated he had not written poetry in a serious way until he was 30.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.artsatl.org/qa-judson-mitcham-georgias-poet-laureate/ |title=The ArtsATL Q&A: Judson Mitcham on the troubling South and being Georgia’s poet laureate |author=Lauren Watel |date=November 6, 2012 |publisher=ARTS ATL 2019 |accessdate=November 14, 2019 }}</ref> He originally wanted to write songs, but realized that his lyrical skills were a lot better than his music skills. His first published poetry collection, ''Somewhere in Ecclesiastes'', won him both the ''Devins Award'' and the ''Georgia Author of the Year''. His first novel, ''The Sweet Everlasting'', won the Townsend Prize for Fiction.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/mitcham-judson-1948 |title=MITCHAM, Judson 1948- |date=November 3, 2019 |publisher=Encyclopedia.com |accessdate=November 14, 2019 }}</ref> Mitcham stated that he wrote "narrative poems", and thus switching from poetry to fiction was a natural one. His poems and novels are set in Georgia, and the themes of his works include family, loss, age, and spirituality.

In 2012, Georgia's Governor Nathan Deal named him the state's Poet Laureate. As Poet Laureate, he initiated Poet Laureate's Prize, awarded annually to an original poem written by a Georgia high school student. In 2013, Mitcham was inducted into Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. He resides in Macon with his wife. He has two children and four grandchildren.

== Bibliography == {{Incomplete list |date=April 2026}}{{bots|deny=Citation bot}}

=== Poetry === ;Collections * ''Somewhere in Ecclesiastes'' (1991) * ''The Sweet Everlasting'' (1996) * ''This April Day'' (2003) * ''Sabbath Creek'' (2004) * ''Heart of All Greatness'' (2007) * ''A Little Salvation: Poems Old and New'' (2007) ;List of poems {|class='wikitable sortable' |- !width=25%|Title !|Year !|First published !|Reprinted/collected |- |Preface to an omnibus interview |1994 |{{cite journal |author=Mitcham, Judson |date=Summer 1994 |title=Preface to an omnibus interview |journal=The Georgia Review}} |{{cite journal |author=Mitcham, Judson |date=November 1994 |title=Preface to an omnibus interview |journal=Harper's Magazine |volume=289 |issue=1734 |pages=32}} |- |}

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}} {{GA Poets Laureate|state=autocollapse}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitcham, Judson}} Category:21st-century American novelists Category:American male novelists Category:Living people Category:1948 births Category:21st-century American poets Category:American male poets Category:20th-century American poets Category:20th-century American novelists Category:20th-century American male writers Category:21st-century American male writers Category:Harper's Magazine people Category:Poets laureate of Georgia (U.S. state)

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