“A Night of Celebration” with ire’ne lara silva as 2023 Texas Poet Laureate

Join Gemini Ink on Thursday, August 24th, for a festive evening celebrating ire’ne lara silva as our new 2023 Texas Poet Laureate.

ire’ne will be reading from her works, and she will be joined by South Texas writers Octavio Quintanilla, former San Antonio Poet Laureate and publisher of Alabrava press; Jen Yanez-Alaniz with her debut book of poems Surrogate Eater (Alabrava Press, 2023); and Gume Laurel, a Rio Grande Valley poet and YA author.

Come to Gemini Ink to meet and congratulate our new state Poet Laureate. Hear power-packed poetry and enjoy the literary company of other readers and writers while sipping cool summer  refreshments. Stay for the informal Q&A with ire’ne.

BIO’s:

ire’ne lara silva, the 2023 Texas State Poet Laureate, is the author of four poetry collections, furia, Blood Sugar Canto, CUICACALLI/House of Song, and FirstPoems; two chapbooks, Enduring Azucares and Hibiscus Tacos; and a short story collection, flesh to bone, which won the Premio Aztlán. ire’ne is the recipient of a 2021 Tasajillo Writers Grant, a 2017 NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant, the final Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, and was the Fiction Finalist for AROHO’s 2013 Gift of Freedom Award. Most recently, ire’ne was awarded the 2021 Texas Institute of Letters Shrake Award for Best Short Nonfiction. ire’ne is currently a Writer at Large for Texas Highways Magazine and is working on a second collection of short stories titled, the light of your body. A new poetry collection, the eaters of flowers, is forthcoming from Saddle Road Press in January 2024.

Jen Yáñez-Alaniz is a Chicana Mestiza activist, educator, poet, and PhD Fellow in Culture, Literacy, and Language at the University of Texas, San Antonio. Her poetry can be read in various journals and anthologies. She is the author of an extensive critical biography of Carmen Tafolla published in the forthcoming anthology Chicana Portraits. Her debut poetry chapbook, Surrogate Eater, was published by Alabrava Press in 2023. 

Octavio Quintanilla is the author of the poetry collection, If I Go Missing, the founder and director of the literature & arts festival, VersoFrontera, publisher of Alabrava Press, and former 2018-2020 Poet Laureate of San Antonio, TX. His Frontextos (visual poems) have been published and exhibited widely. His new poetry collection, The Book of Wounded Sparrows, is forthcoming from Texas Review Press in fall 2024. He teaches Literature and Creative Writing at Our Lady of the Lake University.

Gume Laurel is a Texan, native to the Rio Grande Valley on the southernmost border. For the past decade, he has dedicated himself to crafting literary works that promote inclusion and showcase diverse characters with intersectional identities. The bulk of Gume’s writings are focused on underrepresented groups, especially those from the communities he is a part of: Latine and queer. His writings include poetry and young adult fiction of various genres. When he isn’t writing, Gume can be found getting lost on a hiking trail with his dogs Blu and Mouse.