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The California State Poet Laureate is coming to the Contemporary Club in Redlands, CA on Jan. 20, and he is seeking poems. Juan Felipe Herrera is author of 28 books and currently serves as the Tomas Rivera Endowed Chair for the Department of Creative Writing at UC Riverside. He was appointed Poet Laureate for the state of California in March 2012.
When Herrera comes to
Redlands he plans to discuss his signature Poet Laureate project, "The
Most Incredible & Biggest Poem on Unity in the World," according to
announcements from A.K. Smiley Public Library and the Inlandia Institute, the
nonprofit literary center in Riverside.
Herrera will also be
collecting contributions of poetry from the public, the key element of
"The Most Incredible & Biggest Poem," library and institute
officials said.
To assist his collection
efforts, Herrera launched a Facebook page in
September 2012 dedicated to compiling fragments of contributed poetry,
officials said. "The tagline reads, 'Put your Unity into Action - write a
poem for unity - or a phrase or a line. All languages, bilingual too - to
create One collective poem for all to see.' Along with contributions that have
come through other channels, Herrera is at work creating what he hopes will be
the largest community-based poetry project on the subject of unity that has
ever been attempted," library and institute officials said.
Herrera's latest request is
for contributions of poetry paying tribute to victims of the Dec. 14 shootings
at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. He started this recent effort
with his poem, "Little Ones We Carry You," and dozens more poems have
been contributed by others since its launch, officials said.
Herrera is a former
professor and chair of Chicano and Latin American Studies at California State
University, Fresno, from 1990 to 2004 and a teaching assistant fellow at the
Iowa Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa from 1988 to 1990. His work
has received critical acclaim including national and international awards,
library and institute officials said.
"The mission of the California
Poet Laureate is to advocate for the art of poetry in classrooms and boardrooms
across the state, to inspire an emerging generation of literary artists, and to
educate all Californians about the many poets and authors who have influenced
our great state through creative literary expression," officials said.
The Inlandia Institute
publishes regional writing in print and electronic form, including books
published in partnership with Heyday under the Inlandia imprint, the annual
Inlandia creative writing anthology, Writing from Inlandia, and the online
literary journal, Inlandia: A Literary Journey, according to the institute.
The institute also provides
creative literacy programs for children, as well as creative writing workshops
for teens and adults in Riverside, Idyllwild, Ontario and Palm Springs.
Anyone can contribute to
the "The Most Incredible & Biggest Poem on Unity in the World,"
including people who attend the event in Redlands. Contributions can also be
emailed to juan.herrera@ucr.edu or mailed to:
The Redlands event is
planned at 1 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Contemporary Club, 173 S. Eureka St., Redlands, CA, adjacent
to the A.K. Smiley Public Library.
Light refreshments will be
served. For more information, call Cati Porter at (951) 218-4464 or Smiley Library at (909) 798-7565.
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