Friday, Jan 31, 2014
 by 
Warren Slocum
  • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    January 31, 2014

    Contact:  Supervisor Warren Slocum, 4th District, San Mateo County

    V: 650.363.4570   F:  650.366.6720   E:  wslocum@smcgov.org

    Alternate:  Marci Dragun, Legislative Aide

    V:  650.599.1021  C:  650.576-7658  E:  mdragun@smcgov.org

    San Mateo County’s First Poet Laureate Caroline Goodwin to be Honored at a Celebration of Poetry Reception 

    (Redwood City, CA)  - On Tuesday, February 4th, the San Mateo County Poet Laureate Advisory Committee will host a reception to celebrate poetry and welcome the County’s first Poet Laureate Caroline Goodwin as she begins her two-year term.  The event will take place from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the Oak Reading Room at the San Mateo Main Library located at 55 W. Third Avenue in San Mateo.  It is open to the public.

    San Mateo County Supervisor Warren Slocum, who is Co-Chair of the Poet Laureate Advisory Committee, will act as the Master of Ceremony for the evening.  The program will feature poetry readings from Caroline Goodwin, as well as two local city Poet Laureates, Dorsetta Hale, newly appointed Poet Laureate of Pacifica, and Kalamu Chaché, Poet Laureate of East Palo Alto.  Aragon High School senior Jack Herrera, recipient of the Young Poetry Award this past summer will also read one of his poems.  Aragon High School’s Jazz Combo will play during the reception.

     “In the short time since Caroline Goodwin was appointed San Mateo County’s first Poet Laureate, we have been impressed by her ideas and plans to elevate interest in poetry and the literary arts,” noted Supervisor Warren Slocum.  “Caroline is an exceptional poet with so much to offer this community.  She will bring poetry and the spoken word to all in San Mateo County.  We are extremely excited to give her a huge welcome on Tuesday night as she begins her tenure in this post.”

    The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors created the honorary post of Poet Laureate in April 2013. The San Mateo County Poet Laureate Advisory Committee was formed and co-chaired by San Mateo County Supervisors Warren Slocum and Carole Groom.  The Committee held seven meetings and received 15 nominations, culminating in the choice of Caroline Goodwin as Poet Laureate.

    Caroline Goodwin began her two-year post as Poet Laureate on January 1, 2014.  Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, Goodwin, a poet, writer and professor, moved to San Mateo County in 1999 to attend Stanford as a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry. She is a professor at the California College of the Arts and teaches in both the MFA Writing and undergraduate Writing and Literature programs; she also teaches workshops through the Stanford Writer's Studio. Goodwin earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. She is an avid poet with a variety of published poems as well as her recent collection of poems, Trapline.

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