A crowd of well over 100 people turned out to hear Central Valley native and U.S. Poet-Laureate Juan Felipe Herrea February 23 at Fresno Pacific University.
“From Son of Migrant Farm Workers to Poet Laureate of the United States,” began at 7:00 p.m. in the Seminary Chapel in North Hall on the main campus. The event was sponsored by the FPU Council of Senior Professionals.
Born in Fowler to migrant farm workers and now living in Fresno, Herrea earned degrees from Stanford University and the University of Iowa and has been a faculty member at California State University, Fresno and the University of California-Riverside. The author of 30 books has won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International Latino Book Award, two Latino Hall of Fame Poetry Awards and the PEN USA National Poetry Award. After two years as California’s Poet Laureate, in June 2015 Herrea became the first Latino to earn the nation’s highest poetry honor.
Above, Herrea and Cindy Jurado, FPU director of College Hour and chapel programs.