Not as much a romantic as she is a realist, there's a palpable pragmatism to Tacoma's new poet laureate, Josie Emmons Turner.

If you expect the usual june-moon-spoon doggerel from this poet, you won't find it. There are no cute, rhyming monosyllabics in her writing. Emmons Turner takes on tough topics like death, loss, difficult family relationships and the complexity of love. She refers to the canonized masters as the "old dead guys." She won't even entertain the lofty notion that poetry could heal the world. "That's a lot of responsibility to put on a poem," she says.

Emmons Turner will be reading her work at her first public poetry reading as Tacoma's new poet laureate during a free event at the bellaballs btudio (747 S. Fawcett Ave., Suite B) Thursday, April 28,at 7 p.m. Emmons Turner will be joined by three former Tacoma poets laureate and special guest poets.

Read Tammy Robacker's interview with Josie Emmons Turner here.

[bellaballs studio, Josie Emmons Turner, Thursday, April 28, free, 7 p.m., 747 S. Fawcett Ave., Suite B, Tacoma]