Jennifer Bartell Boykin is the Poet Laureate of the City of Columbia. She received an MFA and MLIS from the University of South Carolina. Her debut book of poetry is Traveling Mercy (Finishing Line Press, 2023) and her second book Only Believe (The Word Works, 2024) won the 2023 Hilary Tham Capital Collection Prize. An alumna of Agnes Scott College, Jennifer is an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate Fellow and has additional fellowships from Callaloo and The Watering Hole.