![\"Nicole](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_6666.jpeg\" "\\"Nicole")
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Nicole Tallman is Miami-Dade County\u2019s new poet laureate. She poses a for a photo on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, outside the county\u2019s Main Library in downtown Miami, where Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced her selection for the honorary post. Tallman works in Levine Cava\u2019s office as chief of staff to a top deputy of the mayor, Chief Operating Officer Jimmy Morales.<\/p>\n
By DOUGLAS HANKS<\/p>\n
dhanks@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
Nicole Tallman\u2019s job as a senior staffer under Miami-Dade County\u2019s mayor puts her on the frontlines of county government\u2019s many failings, mishaps and challenges. But that hasn\u2019t stopped the administrator from looking up to revere what the sky has to offer on a clear day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Miami, the sky turns pink then blue,\u201d Tallman wrote in a sonnet titled \u201cJune,\u201d released on Instagram last month for World Poetry Day. \u201cIt\u2019s a scene I see every morning from my room. And I work so hard for this view.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her poetry offers a rare collection of literary introspection from within Miami-Dade County government, where Tallman works as chief of staff to a top deputy of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. Now, the 49-year-old is moving into a more prominent role as the county\u2019s official poet \u2014 a position Levine Cava created during her first term as mayor. This is the first time Miami-Dade\u2019s poet laureate<\/a> will be a county employee, too, pushing Tallman into the spotlight after years of behind-the-scenes work for public figures in local government.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to thank my mother for reading poetry to me from a very, very young age,\u201d Tallman said Wednesday onstage at the county\u2019s Main Library, where Levine Cava named her the county\u2019s final poet laureate before the term-limited mayor leaves office in 2028. \u201cAnd to my father, who supported my love of reading.\u201d<\/p>\n Tallman, chief of staff to the county\u2019s chief operating officer, Jimmy Morales, said her workday usually starts around 7 a.m. \u201cDon\u2019t ask me when it ends,\u201d she told the Miami Herald in between posing for photographs with friends from the O, Miami Poetry Festival and the outgoing poet laureate, Caridad Moro-Gronlier<\/a>.<\/p>\n Moro-Gronlier praised Tallman as a \u201ccourageous poet\u201d in part for her willingness to team up with other writers to create poems together. She also said Tallman tends to keep it tight on the page. \u201cMany of her poems are short and accessible,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re digestible.\u201d<\/p>\n