Yoonsoo Nam (2021-2023)

Yoonsoo Nam served as Lewisville’s Poet Laureate from 2021 to 2023. Nam is the director of Stream Art located in Flower Mound. She is an artist and a poet who paints the spiritual reality with unique colors and writes beautiful poems that carry deep meanings and symbols. She uses metaphorical expressions of simple dots, lines, and textures to release love, peace and hope to the world. Her inspirational paintings and poems have been impacting many people in various countries.

Nam was born in Seoul, South Korea, graduated from Ewha Womans University with Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts, and graduated from Seoul Jangsin University with a Master of Divinity.

Nam’s term ran from March 2021 through March 2023.

2021-2023 term poems written:

• Welcome This New Day, annexation of Castle Hills, Nov. 15, 2021

Paul Holcomb (2014-2020)

J. Paul Holcomb served as the Lewisville Poet Laureate from 2014 until his death in December 2019.

During his first term as Poet Laureate, he wrote several original works including commemoration of Lewisville’s 90th and 91st birthdays. For the dedication ceremony of Wayne Ferguson Plaza in Old Town, Holcomb reflected upon the plaza as it relates to the city, “It gives citizens of Lewisville the opportunity to relax and visit, to reflect with pride among the trees and the fountains on what our city was and what our city has become.”

Holcomb lived for many years in Lewisville where he and his wife raised their family and were LHS Farmer parents. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Holcomb worked in the telecommunications industry for most of his career. He held a B.A. in Mathematics from McMurry College (now University) in Abilene and did additional studies in English Literature at Syracuse University and the University of North Texas. He held a Masters of Applied Science in Computer Science from Southern Methodist University.

Holcomb had been a member of the Poetry Society of Texas since 1984 and served as president of the organization from 1999 until 2002. He was a founding member of the Denton Poets Assembly and has mentored many North Texas poets. He published 235 of his poems to date, with his work appearing in The Texas Poetry Calendar, Windhover, Ilya’s Honey, Concho River Review and in Poetry Society of Texas prize-winning anthologies, among other outlets. He was the featured State Poet at the Austin International Poetry Festival in 2013.

Link to YouTube video playlist of Poet Laureate J. Paul Holcomb

2018-2020 term poems written:

• Texas International Pop Festival, Lewisville, Labor Day Weekend, 1969

2016-2018 term poems written:

• Remembering and Celebrating Libraries
• Dedication of the Gene Carey Animal Shelter and Adoption Center
• Happy 93^rd Birthday, Lewisville!
• Process - Commissioned in honor of the installation and dedication of Lewisville’s first piece of permanent public art Earth and Beyond by artist Daren Fagan

2014-2016 term poems written:

• Lewisville's 90th Birthday
• Happy 91st Birthday
• Upon the Dedication of Wayne Ferguson Plaza

Other poems by J. Paul Holcomb:

• Heavenly Bodies (for Sue Ann)
• When I Hear You Sing
• The Danger in Looking For Good Grass
• The Clank of Loose Blades

For more information on the Poet Laureate program program contact Denise Helbing, Lewisville Grand Manager.