Houston has a new voice for poetry. Reyes Ramirez has been named the city’s seventh Poet Laureate, just in time for National Poetry Month and National Library Week.
The announcement came during a Thursday night reception hosted by the Houston Public Library. Library Director Sandy Gaw praised Ramirez as “the future of Houston’s literary landscape.”
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“As the next Poet Laureate, I want to show how amazing the city of Houston is for art, because Houston itself is a juncture of all sorts of diasporas, of cultures, of peoples that are talking to each other just so casually. I want to highlight how Houston incorporates histories of the South, of the borderlands, of the Southwest, of the West, of the urban, of the rural, of farms, of city skyscrapers. All these things are in conversation with each other. I want to show how Houston not only is a major point of literature for Texas and the United States but the world,” said Ramirez.
He was selected by a panel of poets, educators, and literary leaders including Brown, journalist Brooke Lewis, and Amir Safi of Write About Now.
During his two-year term, Ramirez will lead free community workshops, participate in City and Library events, and launch a signature outreach project to bring poetry to every corner of Houston.
With the support of HPL’s 44 locations and its reach across 2.3 million residents, Ramirez is set to make poetry a part of daily life in Houston—one verse at a time.