The Violette Newton Collection

West Texas A&M University is the home of the Violette Newton Collection. Violette Newton is the author of twenty books of poetry and was named Poet Laureate of Texas by the Texas legislature in 1973.

Her work has drawn major awards from the Poetry Society of America, the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, and the Poetry Society of Texas. Newton's first book was published when she was fifty-five years old. In 1975 she won the Medwick Award from the Poetry Society of America for a poem on a humanitarian theme. For her contribution to the arts, she was inducted into the Southeast Texas Women's Hall of Fame in 1991. In 1994 the Texas poetry society gave her its highest accolade in the Hilton Ross Greer Award.

Violette Newton donated a collection of her papers and possessions to the Cornette Library in 2005. The collection is located in the library's Texas Poets' Corner and is currently being processed. For information regarding access, please call (806) 651-2209 or e-mail a librarian.