Juan Felipe Herrera

Juan Felipe Herrera is a distinguished poet, writer, and educator in the field of Literature, known for uplifting Chicanx culture and amplifying experiences of solidarity and empowerment through bilingual poetry and prose. Born in Fowler, California, in 1948 to migrant farmworkers, he earned a BA in social anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1972, an MA in social anthropology from Stanford University in 1980, and an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1990. Herrera's career includes serving as chair of the Chicano and Latin American Studies Department at California State University, Fresno from 1990, where he is now professor emeritus and coordinates the Laureate Lab Visual Wordist Studio at the Fresno State Library. He also held the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, where he is professor emeritus. Additionally, he has taught poetry, art, and performance at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, community art galleries, correctional facilities, and held visiting positions at various institutions.

Herrera's profound impact on Literature stems from his role as California Poet Laureate (2012–2015) and the 21st United States Poet Laureate (2015–2017), the first Latino appointee. His accolades include the 2024 MacArthur Fellowship, National Book Critics Circle Award for Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems (2008), Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (2022), Frost Medal for lifetime achievement in poetry (2023), PEN/Beyond Margins Award, L.A. Times Book Prize Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement (2015), and UCLA Chancellor’s Medal (2017). With over 30 books spanning poetry, prose, young adult novels, and children's literature, key works include Every Day We Get More Illegal (2020), Notes on the Assemblage (2015), Senegal Taxi (2013), Border-Crosser with a Lamborghini Dream (1998), Calling the Doves / El canto de las palomas (2014), and Jabberwalking (2018). His innovative, genre-crossing work chronicles Mexican-American lives, from Chicano Movement activism to contemporary immigration and border politics, blending experimental syntax, Indigenous motifs, and performance to foster empathy and possibility for marginalized communities.