[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 14050]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                         TRIBUTE TO SYDNEY LEA

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, earlier this month, Vermont's Governor 
Peter Shumlin appointed Sydney Lea to serve as Vermont's new Poet 
Laureate. This honor has been bestowed to Vermonters whose poetry 
manifests a high degree of excellence since Governor Kunin 
reestablished the position of Poet Laureate in 1988. Sydney Lea is 
certainly deserving of this honor.
  A resident of Newbury, VT, Sydney has written a number of poetry 
collections including Young of the Year, Ghost Pain, Pursuit of a 
Wound, and The Floating Candles to name a few. His pieces have been 
published in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the New Republic, 
Sports Illustrated, and many others. In 2000, his poem, Pursuit of a 
Wound, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. In 1998, he 
was a cowinner of the Poets' Prize, one of the nation's highest honors 
for a single collection of poems.
  Sydney has taught at Dartmouth, Wesleyan, and Middlebury College as 
well as the University of Vermont and Yale University. He has also 
spent time teaching at the Franklin College in Switzerland and the 
National Hungarian University in Budapest. His dedication to and love 
for the written word has inspired hundreds of students in Vermont and 
around the globe. As a Central Vermont Adult Basic Education board 
member, he continues to see education as a lifelong process. Sydney's 
stories attract a wide array of audiences and come alive for Vermonters 
of all generations. His personal dedication to land conservation has 
given him an unique ability to describe our beautiful New England 
landscape.
  I am proud of Sydney Lea and applaud his accomplishments as a 
distinguished Vermonter and poet. When I called to congratulate him he 
was characteristically modest, but we are so proud of him, and I join 
all Vermonters in congratulating him on this appointment.

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