Rachelle Escamilla Named 2024-2025 Monterey County Poet Laureate
Shown above are Rachelle Escamilla (c), with County Supervisor Glenn Church (l) and Arts4MC Executive Director Jacquie Atchison. Photo Credit: Arts Council for Monterey County.
January 23, 2024
Please join us in extending congratulations to Rachelle Escamilla on being named 2024-2025 Monterey County Poet Laureate! Rachelle is a lecturer of Public Speaking, Creative Writing and Poetry in the Department of Humanities and Communication. This honor was conferred at the January 23, 2024, Monterey County Board of Supervisors meeting by Jacquie Atcheson, Executive Director of the Arts Council for Monterey County. Our Department of Humanities & Communications is no stranger to the position, Escamilla succeeds Daniel Summerhill, former HCOM Associate Professor and Monterey County inaugural Poet Laureate.
During her term as Monterey County Poet Laureate, which begins immediately, Escamilla's role will be to celebrate Monterey County's cultural heritage and promote literacy and literature. The position also comes with a $5,000 stipend funded by Arts4MC.
She is the author of three books of poetry: Imaginary Animal (Willow Books, 2015 & 2021), Me Drawing a Picture of Me[n] (Willow Books, 2019) and Space Junk from the Heavenly Palace (Nomadic Press/Black Lawrence Press 2023). Escamilla is the founder of a number of organizations and literary programs including: The Poets and Writers Coalition and Legacy of Poetry Day at San José State University; The English-language Center for Creative Writing at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China; Literature of the Margins at the United States Consulate of Guangzhou, China and the Latinx Poetix Symposium at California State University Monterey Bay. From 2015-2020 Rachelle was the producer and host of the longest running poetry radio show in the US, Out of Our Minds on KKUP Cupertino 91.5 FM. She has also been awarded the Dennis Diderot Grant for 2025 to attend Château d'Orquevaux Artists & Writers Residency in Champagne-Ardenne, France “one of the top ten most beautiful residencies in the world.”
For students interested in taking a course with Escamilla, her courses for the Spring 24 semester include: HCOM 110: Fundamental Speaking and Listening, HCOM 229: Multicultural Poetry, HCOM 231: Latinx Creative Writing Workshop, and HCOM 328 Latina Life Stories. To read Escamilla's full bio and more information about here work and accolades, please visit www.poetita.com
CONGRATULATIONS to Rachelle!