The following is a press release issued by the Mendocino County Poet Laureate Program:
This June Devreaux Baker was acknowledged as the first Poet Laureate of Mendocino County. On Saturday, August 24th, 2024 people will have their first opportunity to hear her do a featured reading since receiving this honor. This event will be held at The Muse at 30 East San Francisco Avenue in Willits starting at 7:00PM. After an intermission Devreaux’s reading will be followed by an open reading. Admission to this event is free, but donations will be greatly appreciated. The event is presented by LocalLights.
Devreaux Baker has published five books of poetry and received the PEN Oakland Award for her book of poetry, Red Willow People. Her poetry has been published in numerous magazines and journals including The Crab Orchard Review, ZYZZYVA, Persimmon Tree, and Poetry in Flight/Poesia En Velo. She has received the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Poetry Fellowship in Taos, New Mexico, the Hawthornden Castle Poetry Fellowship in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the MacDowell Poetry Fellowship in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Her poetry awards include: the 2022 Fischer International Poetry Prize, the 2019 Barbara Mandigo Kelly International Peace Poetry Prize, the 2017 Joe Gouveia Outermost International Poetry Prize, the 2016 U.S. Poets in Mexico Award, the 2012 Hawaii Council on Humanities International Poetry Prize, and the 2010 Women’s Global Leadership Poetry Award. She has taught in this county with the California Poets in the Schools program and produced The Voyager’s Radio Program of Original Student Writing for KZYX with a California Arts Council Grant.
One of the projects Devreaux Baker will pursue as Mendocino County’s first Poet Laureate is publishing an anthology of Mendocino County Women Poets, Spirit of Place, Volume II to follow the Mendocino Women Poets Anthology: Wood, Water, Air and Fire which was published in 1999 and which she also helped edit.
For more information about the August 24th reading phone: (707) 459-7054
For interviews, to schedule readings, to keep abreast of Devreaux Baker’s public projects, or more information on the Mendocino County Poet Laureate Program go to: http://mendocinopoetlaureate.mymcn.org. Or if you do not have access to the internet you can send snail mail to: Mendocino County Poet Laureate Program, P.O. Box 67, Willits, CA, 95490.
