SC County Poet Laureate

Poet Laureate Mission & Role in the Community

The Santa Cruz County Poet Laureate is an honorary position appointed by the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. The Poet Laureate is responsible for elevating poetry in our community, educating the public about the value of creative expression, inspiring diverse voices to emerge, creating new points of connection among residents in our county, and increasing access to our cultural resources.

2023 - 2024 Poet Laureate: Farnaz Fatemi

Farnaz Fatemi, an Iranian American poet and writer, is a founding member of The Hive Poetry Collective, a member of Writers of Color – Santa Cruz County, and a former Lecturer in Writing at UCSC. In summers she teaches new transfer students in UCSC’s Transfer Edge program. Her book, Sister Tongue, was published in September 2022. It won the 2021 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, selected by Tracy K. Smith, and received a Starred Review from Publisher’s Weekly.  Some of her poems and lyric essays appear in Poem-a-Day (Poets.org), Tab Journal, Pedestal Review, Nowruz Journal, Grist Journal and Tupelo Quarterly and the anthologies Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and its Diaspora and Halal If You Hear Me.  More at farnazfatemi.com

Upcoming Events

• Find Your Poetry Voice
  

• Poetry in the Park

In the Media

• Interview on KQED
• February 2nd, 2023: Lookout Local article by Wallace Baine
• January 31st, 2023: Press Release - Santa Cruz County Poet Laureate Selected
• April 30th, 2023: How new Santa Cruz poet laureate Farnaz Fatemi navigates her twin heritages, American and Iranian
  

The position is sponsored by the County of Santa Cruz Department of Parks, Open Spaces, and Cultural Services, in collaboration with the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, Arts Council Santa Cruz County, and Poetry Santa Cruz.