CalPoets' 2019 Statewide Symposium on August 2 to 4, 2019 in San Juan Bautista, California, is open to the public and geared towards literary teaching artists (for all audiences), classroom educators, poets, MFA candidates and more. Content will be engaging for those brand new to teaching the literary arts and to the "old hats" among us.
Juan Felipe Herrera is this year's creative writing workshop leader, keynote reader, and presenter. In 2015 Juan Felipe Herrera was appointed the 21st United States Poet Laureate, the first Mexican American to hold the position. Herrera grew up in California as the son to migrant farmers, which he has commented strongly shaped much of his work. A Washington Post article tells the story that “As a child, Herrera learned to love poetry by singing about the Mexican Revolution with his mother, a migrant farmworker in California. Inspired by her spirit, he has spent his life crossing borders, erasing boundaries and expanding the American chorus.”