Emily Dickinson Statue Officially Joins WT’s Poets’ Garden

Copy by Chip Chandler, 806-651-2124, cchandler@wtamu.edu

CANYON, Texas — The newest poet in one of West Texas A&M University’s most peaceful gardens officially will be welcomed to her new home Sept. 15.

A statue of poet Emily Dickinson by sculptor Jane DeDecker will be celebrated during a come-and-go reception from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 15 in Cornette Library’s Poets’ Garden at the east entrance of the library.

The Dickinson sculpture joins one of poet Robert Frost. Both statues were commissioned by the Texas Poets’ Corner Advisory Board.

“Students have discovered the space as a great study space because of the shade created by the tree canopy,” said Shawna Kennedy-Witthar, Cornette Library’s director of information and library resources. “Jane DeDecker’s depiction of Emily Dickinson helps create a mood of contemplation and reflection in the garden.”

Also new in the garden is a bench donated by the Cornette family.

President James P. Cornette, the University’s third president, led WT at a transformative time. During his tenure, which spanned from 1948 to 1973, WT saw explosive growth and significant changes in curriculum and administration, and as enrollment soared, so too did campus construction, with the addition of several major buildings in the 1950s and 1960s, including the library, which officially opened in 1974.

The Texas Poets’ Corner, which was established in 2003 in WT’s Cornette Library, was bequeathed a $2.8 million estate gift in 2021 by the late Dr. Jenny Lind Porter Scott, a former Texas Poet Laureate and WT assistant professor of English.

The Poets’ Corner advisory board plans to add a sculpture of an American poet to the garden every three years.

The Dickinson statue officially was unveiled in 2025 but remained inside the library while remodeling and landscaping work took place.

About West Texas A&M University

West Texas A&M University is a Regional Research University in Canyon, Texas, on a 342-acre residential campus, as well as the Harrington Academic Hall WTAMU Amarillo Center in downtown Amarillo. Established in 1910, the University has been part of The Texas A&M University System since 1990. WT boasts an enrollment of more than 9,000 and offers multiple options for students to graduate and succeed: 65 undergraduate degree programs, including eight associate degrees; and 41 graduate degrees, including an integrated bachelor’s and master’s degree, a specialist degree and three doctoral degrees. WT recently earned a Carnegie Foundation classification as a Research College and University. The Buffaloes are a member of the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference and offers 16 men’s and women’s athletics programs.

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