For more than a century, Colorado has named poets to a public role. Alice Polk Hill was the first in 1919. Begin Where You Are: The Colorado Poets Laureate Anthology gathers work from all 10 of the state’s poets laureate in one volume, from Hill to Andrea Gibson.

The book is rooted in Colorado place names, public life and regional history. In the introduction, Khadijah Queen names Estes Park, Barr Lake, Chatfield State Park, Cherry Creek State Park, Fruita, Fort Collins, Leadville, Littleton, Boulder, Basalt, Durango, Denver, Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs. The anthology includes poets from different eras, backgrounds and traditions.

The book opens with earlier laureates, including Miller, Robertson, Shields and Ferril. Nellie Burget Miller writes of home, faith and ordinary domestic life. Margaret Clyde Robertson writes from Leadville and mining life. Milford E. Shields writes of the San Juan Basin. Thomas Hornsby Ferril brings war, history and short lyric poems.

The later laureates bring different subjects and a different diction. Bobby LeFebre writes of grandparents, chile, tamales, labor, faith and Chicano inheritance. In “Fields,” “Chile,” “Tamales” and “Magic,” LeFebre writes about family history, labor, migration and ritual. Andrea Gibson’s section places poetry in Boulder open mics, Denver slams, public readings, workshops and events around the state. Gibson writes that “most of what I know about poetry I learned from the poets of Colorado.”

The anthology also treats the laureateship as public work, not just an honorary title. In the preface, Turner Wyatt describes the poet laureate’s work in practical terms: readings, workshops, interviews, school visits and classroom outreach. He writes that the project grew in part from an effort to widen access to poetry in Colorado, especially in rural communities and communities of color. A portion of sales, he says, will support poetry programming in parts of the state where the laureate has rarely visited because of funding limits.

Taken together, the selections form a record of Colorado writing across more than 100 years. The anthology does not present a single Colorado voice. It gathers many of them in one place.