Meet Marguerite Costigan

Meet our 2024 Poetry judge, Marguerite Costigan.

The final round of last year’s poetry entries in the Golden Quill Writing Contest was judged by former San Luis Obispo County Poet Laureate Marguerite Costigan. We’ll be announcing our 2025 judges soon!

Marguerite Costigan is a professional artist, naturalist, and life-long poet. She began writing poetry as a child on her father’s farm in rural Pennsylvania. In high school, her work was included in a national poetry anthology. A 44-year transplant to California, her poems embrace multiple themes: the human condition, the environment, war and love. Her work has appeared in Pudding MagazineCafé SoloAsylum, the anthology Poems for Endangered Places, and the international magazine Le Fenetre. She has taught with the California State Poets in the Schools program, has been reading her work live before Central Coast audiences since the 1970’s, and has been proclaimed San Luis Obispo County Poet Laureate 2015-16 by the Board of Supervisors. Marguerite lives in San Luis Obispo, California with her musician/writer husband and one skittery cat.

The 2025 Golden Quill Writing Contest opens April 1, 2025. First and second place Golden Quill Writing Contest winners in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry are guaranteed publication in the journal, and all submissions will be considered for publication.