Texas has been appointing state poets laureate since 1933, encouraging distinguished writers to share their talent and promote their craft statewide, but only since 2012 have Texas cities been naming their own poetry ambassadors.
San Antonio was first, joined by Houston and other cities, including Corpus Christi and McAllen. This year, Dallas appointed its inaugural poet laureate—after a brief debate ensued over whether the state’s biggest banking city needed a bard at all.
“Every single city that can advocate within its city council or [with] its mayor can get a poet laureate. There’s a way to approach and ask them to establish the office,” said Guadalupe Mendez, the 2022 Texas poet laureate.
The positions are mostly honorary, usually without assigned duties or salary, and go to poets with extensively published work. Each poet typically receives an honorarium, but the amount varies. Funding may come from local library groups or from a hotel occupancy tax dedicated to the arts. The Academy of American Poets recently announced that it will be awarding a combined total of $1.1 million to its 2022 Poet Laureate Fellows, a list that includes Houston’s poet laureate.
Chosen poets keep busy representing their city and their craft through readings, workshops, and other events or projects for terms of one or more years.
Here’s how three poets laureate—all literary people of color—represent Texas cities through their work, their words, and their lives.
JOAQUIN ZIHUATANEJO, DALLAS: BECAUSE THEY WERE, WE ARE Joaquin Zihuatanejo grew up in East Dallas in a hardworking family. His abuelo, Silas, a yardman who drove around many neighborhoods in search of work, would often find things others had abandoned. One day, he came upon a shelf of books, and on that shelf was The Norton Anthology of Poetry.
When he was about seven, Zihuatanejo began reading the book aloud to his grandfather every night
