Antonio López

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Poet Laureate of San Mateo County, California, 2025–2027
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Antonio López was born in Redwood City, California, in 1994, and was raised in East Palo Alto, California, by parents who immigrated from Michoacán, México. He holds degrees from Duke University, Rutgers University–Newark, and the University of Oxford, and received his PhD in modern thought and literature from Stanford University in 2026. 

López is the author of The Right to Remain Violets (University of Arizona Press, 2027) and Gentefication (Four Way Books, 2019), selected by Gregory Pardlo for the Levis Prize in Poetry. 

López’s other honors include a 2018 Marshall Scholarship, a Pushcart Prize, and designation as a 2025 Obama Foundation USA Leader. 

López served his hometown of East Palo Alto as a city council member and mayor from 2020 to 2024 and currently serves as poet laureate of San Mateo County through 2027. He is codirector of research at the coast side nonprofit, Ayudando Latinos a Soñar (ALAS).