2016-17 POET LAUREATE OF TEXAS
LAURIE ANN
GUERRERO
2014-16 POET LAUREATE OF San Antonio
Laurie Ann Guerrero, born and raised in the Southside of San Antonio, is the author of four collections: Babies under the Skin (Panhandler 2008), A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying (University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), A Crown for Gumecindo, a collaboration with visual artist, Maceo Montoya (Aztlan Libre Press, 2015), and I Have Eaten the Rattlesnake: New & Selected (TCU Press, 2021).
Poets & Writers Magazine named Guerrero one of 10 top debut poets in 2014. Her work has received various awards including the 2007 Panhandler Chapbook Award, the 2012 Andres Montoya Poetry Prize from the Institute of Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, the 2016 Helen C. Smith Award for poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters, a 2014 International Latino Book Award, and has been listed as must-read works of Chicano literature. Other honors include grants from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio and the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation.
In 2014, Guerrero was appointed by former mayor of San Antonio, Julian Castro, Poet Laureate of the city of San Antonio, the seventh largest city in the nation. In May of 2015, Guerrero was appointed the 2016 Poet Laureate of the State of Texas. Guerrero holds a B.A. in English Language & Literature from Smith College and an MFA in poetry from Drew University. She is an Associate Professor and the Writer-in-Residence at Texas A&M University-San Antonio where she teaches writing and gender studies. She is currently at work on her fifth collection, a mix of traditional and visual poems & essays.
I HAVE EATEN THE RATTLESNAKE:
NEW & SELECTED
(TCU Press 2021)
POEMS BY LAURIE ANN GUERRERO
photo by Liv Garcés
REDWORK: QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT
Artist Statement (part 2)
Thread —red— divisible by 6 strands, unraveled for the needle, then sewn: tool for and product of magic contained within the (unvalued) body and the (unvalued) body of work. Body as its own institution, world unto itself: both creator and destroyer, both perpetrator and victim. Vessel of both dream and lung. Its ability to act, fortify itself in situations meant to destroy it, heal, perpetuate life. A carnival of response: fever, triggers, expulsion. But also, compassion, and the making of milk, and insulin, and empathy. Where both the flesh’s orgasm and the soul’s grief are experienced simultaneously.
first published in So We Can Know, edited by Aracelis Girmay (Haymarket 2023)
REDWORK, a manuscript of traditional and visual poems and lyric essays by Laurie Ann Guerrero received designation as runner up in the 2025 Lexi Rudnitzky Poetry Editor's Choice Award from Persea Books. Congratulations to Benjamin Gucciardi whose book, The Beautiful Relations, will be published by Persea in 2026.