Indiana's state poet laureate position was unofficially established in 1927 and officially created in 2005. On January 1, 2014, George Kalamaras began his two-year term as poet laureate of the state. Kalamaras is the author of six books of poetry, including Kingdom of Throat-Stuck Luck (2011), winner of the Elixir Press Poetry Contest, and The Theory and Function of Mangoes (2002), winner of the Four Way Books Intro Series. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and from the Indiana Arts Commission. Since 1990, he has served as professor of English at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.