Introducing the 7th Santa Barbara Poet Laureate
The new Poet Laureate will be announced at the beginning of April. We look forward to the first feature reading by our new PL!
Featured Poet Nan Cohen’s new book is Unfinished City, which was awarded the inaugural Michael Dryden Poetry Prize by Gunpowder Press. She also the author of Rope Bridge (Cherry Grove Collections, 2005). A past Wallace Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, she has taught at USC, Antioch University Los Angeles, and UCLA, among others, and currently chairs the English Department at an independent school in Los Angeles. She has received a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award, the Stanley P. Young Fellowship from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is Poetry Director of the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference. nancohen.wordpress.com
Student Poet Pablo Robles is a 4th year English Major at UCSB with a focus in professional writing. His hometown is Downey, California. He has spent all my life in Los Angeles and feels enriched by his Latin roots: “I see them grow deeper every year. My mother is my hero and my father was the best teacher I have ever had. They left South Central Los Angeles to give me a better life … each cousin, uncle, aunt and grandparent has fought with all their power so my family could make it and here I am performing with all my heart for them.”
The Santa Barbara Poetry Series presents a student, local, and visiting poet each quarter of the year. All poets receive an honorarium for their readings. The Series is coordinated by Chryss Yost and George Yatchisin and co-sponsored by Gunpowder Press, with generous support from Nancy Gifford. This event is supported in part by Poets & Writers through grants it has received from The James Irvine Foundation and the Hearst Foundations. For more information see gunpowderpress.com.
Information about Santa Barbara Public Library System locations, hours, events, and programs is available at SBPLibrary.org. All Library programs are free and open to the public.