Denise Sweet served as the second Poet Laureate for the state of Wisconsin (2005-2008). Her book Songs For Discharming won the Council for Wisconsin Writer’s Posner Award for poetry in 1998. Other publications include Know By Heart (1990), Days of Obsidian, Days of Grace (1992; one of four authors), and Nitawichige (1996; one of four authors). She has presented nearly 100 readings in Wisconsin and around the United States, as well as Canada, Mexico, London, England, and Guatemala.
Sweet has served as poet-in-residence in various venues such as Grand Marais Art Colony in northern Minnesota, and Apostle Island National Lakeshore in northern Wisconsin, and Split Rock Arts Program in Duluth, Minnesota. In 2003, Sweet taught creative writing and helped develop a community theatre program at Rough High School Rock on the Navajo nation reservation in Arizona. As a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, she was the director of "Who We Are, What Is Ours: Young Writers Workshop," UW- Green Bay’s first self-sponsored pre-college program for students of color.
Aside from the publications listed, Sweet’s work has been featured in public art exhibits as well as part of multi-media presentations of Native American creative expression. Additionally, Sweet has delivered the keynote address at the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, the Multi-Ethnic Youth Leadership Conference, and the Texas State University Annual Native American Literary Symposium. She is a professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
