Claudia Castro Luna, Washington state poet laureate, will visit Walla Walla University on Tuesday, April 17. Castro Luna will read selections of her work in the Chan Shun Pavilion at 7 p.m., and all are welcome to attend.

The Washington State Poet Laureate program promotes awareness and appreciation of poetry through public readings, lectures, presentations, and workshops, and is jointly sponsored by Humanities Washington and Washington State Arts Commission (ArtsWA). The poet laureate is the person to make all of those events happen, and laureates find themselves traveling a lot, visiting communities across the state both big and small.

Dan Lamberton, WWU professor of English, served on the state committee to select the poet laureate and said there was a remarkably strong group of candidates this year. “Castro Luna’s dedication to speaking to the various populations of Washington state, as well as her own ability to give dynamic delivery of poetry, made her a very convincing choice, and I’m eager to have people in this community see what a gift she will be to this state’s legacy of literature and culture,” said Lamberton.

Castro Luna immigrated to the United States with her family as a teenager from war-torn El Salvador in 1981, and has come to call Seattle home. She has won acclaim for her books “This City,” and “Killing Marias,” as well as for her Seattle Poetic Grid, an online map featuring poems about different areas around the city. Castro Luna also served as Seattle’s first Civic Poet, a job that prepared her well for her new responsibilities as poet laureate.

Castro Luna’s reading at Walla Walla University is sponsored by WWU Humanities, Humanities Washington, and the Washington Arts Commission. For more information, contact Lamberton.

Posted April 11, 2018