The Santa Barbara Poetry Series will present its last reading of the 2018-19 season with featured readers Emma Trelles and Taylor Tejada, plus the soon-to-be-announced next Santa Barbara poet laureate, 7-8:30 p.m. Sunday, April 7, in the Santa Barbara Public Library’s Faulkner Gallery, 40 E. Anapamu St.
The free event is part of Santa Barbara’s April National Poetry Month celebration, and kicks off National Library Week (April 7-13) at the library. The National Library Week 2019 theme is Libraries = Strong Communities.
Featured reader for the evening will be the next Santa Barbara poet laureate, who will begin his or her 2019-21 term starting with an installation at City Hall on March 26.
The city of Santa Barbara established a position of poet laureate in 2005 to direct proper attention and honor to literary arts by using poetry to celebrate and elevate community events. Since the establishment of the position, the city has been fortunate of have seven exceptional poets laureate emeriti:
The late Barry Spacks; Perie Longo; David Starkey; Paul Willis; Chryss Yost; Sojourner Kincaid-Rolle; and Enid Osborn, who is just finishing her term. All have served to engage the community in greater appreciation for poetry, and have enhanced the experience of community events and celebrations.
Trelles is the daughter of Cuban immigrants and the author of Tropicalia (University of Notre Dame Press), winner of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, a finalist for Foreword/Indies poetry book of the year, and a recommended read by The Rumpus.
She is writing a second book of poems, Courage and the Clock. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Poetry, Best of the Net, Verse Daily, and To Give Life A Shape: Poems Inspired by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
Recent poems by Trelles appear or are forthcoming in the Colorado Review, Spillway, The Miami Rail, Zócalo Public Square, and SWWIM.
A recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs and a founding member of the AWP Latinx Caucus, Trelles teaches at Santa Barbara City College and programs the Mission Poetry Series.
Tejada is an English major in his final year at Westmont College. He is planning on going to graduate school to be able to teach. Taylor first decided to be an English major after writing what he termed “extremely subpar” poetry in high school.
During his first few years at college, Tejada stopped writing poetry and instead focused and prose. This year, he has returned to poetry and said he fondly remembers why poetry was the original reason he chose English as his major.
Some of Tejada’s favorite poets are Li-Young Lee, George Herbert, E.E. Cummings and Denise Levertov.
The Santa Barbara Poetry Series presents a student, local and visiting poet each quarter of the year. All poets receive an honorarium for their readings.
The series, coordinated by Chryss Yost and George Yatchisin and sponsored by Gunpowder Press in partnership with the Santa Barbara Public Library, is supported by the Peter Karoff Endowment for Poetry in Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara Poetry Fund.
For more information, visit gunpowderpress.com or sbplibrary.org.
— George Yatchisin for Santa Barbara Poetry Series.