The son of migrant farm workers, Herrera was educated at UCLA and Stanford University, and he earned his MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His numerous poetry collections include187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971-2007,Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems(2008), and Border-Crosser with a Lamborghini Dream (1999). In addition to publishing more than a dozen collections of poetry, Herrera has written short stories, young adult novels, and children’s literature. In 2015 he was named U.S. poet laureate.
In 2012, Herrera was named California's poet laureate, and the U.S. poet laureate in 2015. He has won the Hungry Mind Award of Distinction, the Focal Award, two Latino Hall of Fame Poetry Awards, and a PEN West Poetry Award. His honors include the UC Berkeley Regent’s Fellowship as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Stanford Chicano Fellows. He has also received several grants from the California Arts Council.
He has taught at California State University-Fresno and at the University of California-Riverside. He lives in California.
(Bio adapted from Poetry Foundation. Poem used by permission from A Arreguín: Correspondencías)
JUAN FELIPE HERRERA- VIDEO
JUAN FELIPE HERRERA- VIDEO
TASMANO
Tasmano
tasmano
let me
hold you
& let
me
bury myself
into your seasonalsalmon skin
ice disappearance
blackness lips
caballera máscaras cholula culebra gold
spattered spiral breasts la
humbre michoacana
de las cumbres brujas ripping spirit
flesh blue madness locuras dentro
greener yellowness tehuana tehuanasalt
storms arms i bow to
your tejido king kodiak spirit in your
sacred belly egg
man woman flayed scales fins gone lives
gone face destroyed turquoise
azar albedrío
love will
love unto infinity
WRITE YOUR POEMA
(VIDEO BELOW)
(VIDEO BELOW)
This prompt will be short and sweet. PBS and everybody loves to hear how nuestro maestro de poesia has been influenced by Ginsberg y Jackson Pollock.
Screw that. Viva la Raza. Escucha Carlos Santana. Escucha nuestro maestro Juan Felipe Herrera.
Escribe su poema. Baile. Canta. Viva la Raza. Si se puede. Write your poem. Dance. Sing.
