Poet Laureate of San Antonio Laurie Ann Guerrero has added another title to her name: Literary Arts Director/Writer-in-Residence at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. The Center cultivates, promotes, and preserves traditional and contemporary Chicano, Latino, and Native American arts and culture through multidisciplinary programming, and is one of the largest community-based organizations in the US. Gurrero’s appointment is the first step towards reviving their literary arts program.

Guerrero has a long history of working within communities to empower women and youth through writing.“Exploring oneself, one’s community, one’s nation through the act of writing prods one to mindfulness and compassion,” Guerrero said. “It’s the kind of empowerment needed for change-making.”

Guerrero is the author of the award-winning A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying (University of Notre Dame Press, 2013) and most recently A Crown for Gumecindo (Aztlan Libre Press 2015).