Andrea Gibson, the spoken-word virtuoso whose raw explorations of gender, politics and mortality made them a leading voice in contemporary poetry, died early Monday at their home in Boulder, Colorado, after a four-year fight with ovarian cancer, their wife Megan Falley said. Gibson, who was 49, had served as Colorado’s poet laureate since 2023. Born in Calais, Maine, and a Colorado resident since the late 1990s, Gibson published seven books and seven performance albums, earning a national following for electrifying live shows and winning the inaugural Women of the World Poetry Slam in 2008. Their appointment as the state’s ninth poet laureate formalised a decades-long commitment to bringing poetry into classrooms, small venues and LGBTQ+ spaces across the United States. Gibson and Falley are the subjects of “Come See Me in the Good Light,” a documentary directed by Ryan White that chronicles the couple’s life amid Gibson’s terminal diagnosis. The film won the Festival Favorite Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and is due to stream on Apple TV+ later this year; it features an original song co-written by Gibson with Sara Bareilles and Brandi Carlile. Colorado Governor Jared Polis said the poet’s “unique ability to connect with the vast and diverse poetry lovers of Colorado will be deeply missed.” Tributes from writers, activists and cancer patients highlighted Gibson’s final poem, “Love Letter from the Afterlife,” which closes with the line, “Dying is the opposite of leaving.” Memorial plans have not yet been announced.