JoAnn Balingit

JoAnn Balingit is an American poet and nonfiction writer who served as the 16th poet laureate of Delaware. Appointed to the position by governor Ruth Ann Minner from May 2008 until 2015, she was the first person of color to hold the title. She is also a reporter for Delaware Online, a subsection of The News Journal, and an adjunct professor at the University of Delaware, where she teaches poetry.

Balingit is the author of the book Words For House Story, a poetry collection featured in Beltway Poetry Quarterly, a Washington D.C.–based Literary Journal. She also wrote two award-winning chapbooks, Forage and Your Heart and How It Works, which explore female identity and Philippine ancestry. More of her published work can be found in anthologies such as No Place Like Here: Southern Delaware Poetry and Prose and On the Mason Dixon Line: Contemporary Delaware Writers.