Richard Blanco, 2013 Inaugural Poet

Richard Blanco (Dodge Poetry site)

As soon as I saw the exciting news that President Barack Obama named Richard Blanco, an out gay, Spanish-born poet of Cuban heritage to be his 2013 Inaugural Poet, I wanted to post about it.  Sheryl Gay Stolberg's New York Times article, "Poet's Kinship with the President," which announced it, manages to give a decent overview of Blanco's life and work. Other links below give much more information on Blanco's life, career and art.

A longtime resident of Miami and a trained civil engineer who practiced that profession for a while before returning to Florida International University to study poetry and writing, Blanco now lives in Maine and writes full-time. He has published three books of poetry, the first of which, City of a Hundred Fires, won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize and was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 1997.

According to Stolberg's article, he was selected on December 12, and has been drafting three poems, one of which will be selected by Obama and his team for inauguration day. Congratulations, Richard Blanco, and great choice, President Obama!

More links:

Richard Blanco's personal website

Richard Blanco on the Poetry Foundation website

Richard Blanco's poetry, Beltway Poetry Quarterly

An interview with Richard Blanco, Poetry Society of America website

Richard Blanco at Dodge Poetry