Juan Felipe Herrera interview | Tiferet Talk with Gayle Brandeis

Tiferet Journal, and our Tiferet Talk Interviews host Gayle Brandeis are most honored and grateful to have the current U.S. Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera, as our esteemed guest.

Juan Felipe Herrera is the author of 28 books of poetry, YA novels, and collections for children including: “Half the World in Light: New and Selected Poems" (2008), winner of National Book Critics Circle Award and the International Latino Book Award. His other honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, two Latino Hall of Fame Poetry Awards, and a PEN / Beyond Margins Award. Elected a Chancellor for the Academy of American Poets in 2011, Herrera served as the Poet Laureate of California from 2012-2015. In 2016, he was awarded the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement at the 36th L.A. Times Book Prizes. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington appointed Juan Felipe Herrera as the Library’s 21st Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry on June 10, 2015.

Mr. Felipe Herrera poetry collections include, 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971-2007, Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems (2008), and Border-Crosser with a Lamborghini Dream (1999).  He has also written several children’s books such as, "The Upside Down Boy," "Calling the Doves" and "Super Cilantro Girl" that have been adapted into a play by the LightBox Theatre Company. “Calling the Doves” won the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award in 1997.

To find out more about our guest, current U.S. Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera, please visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Felipe_Herrera