\; \;
Participants will explore ess ential writing techniques\, such as\, the use sensory imagery and figurati ve language\, modulation of the poetic line\, and musicality. Come \;s harpen your poetic skills. \;Participants \;will \;be ato subm it a poem to be judged by Mr. Blanco and Ms. McDermott. The top two winner s will receive monetary awards of $250 for 1st place and $100 for 2nd plac e during the Festival on Sunday March 17th. 1st place winner will also be given the distinction of The Coral Springs Festival of the Arts Poet Laure ate.
\nRICHARD BLANCO: Selected by President Obama as the fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet in U.S. history\, Richard Blanco was the youngest\, the first Latinx\, immigrant\, and gay person to serve in that role. In 2023\, Blanco was awarded the National Humanities Medal b y President Biden from the National Endowment for the Humanities. \;B orn in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami in a working-clas s family\, Blanco&rsquo\;s personal negotiation of cultural identity and t he universal themes of place and belonging characterize Blanco&rsquo\;s ma ny collections of poetry\, including his most recent\, \;Homeland of M y Body\, which reassess traditional notions of home as strictly a geograph ical\, tangible place that merely exist outside us\, but rather\, within u s. He has also authored the memoirs \;FOR ALL OF US\, ONE TODAY: AN IN AUGURAL POET&rsquo\;S JOURNEY \;and \;THE PRINCE OF LOS COCUYOS: A MIAMI CHILDHOOD. \; \;Blanco has received numerous awards\, inclu ding the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize\, the PEN American Beyond Margins Awa rd\, the Patterson Prize\, and a Lambda Prize for memoir. He was Woodrow W ilson Fellow and has received numerous honorary degrees. \;Currently\ , he serves as Education Ambassador for The Academy of American Poets and is an Associate Professor at Florida International University. \;In A pril 2022\, Blanco was appointed the first-ever Poet Laureate of Miami-Dad e County.
\nLAURA MCDERMOTT MATHERIC: \;A nativ e Floridian\, who studied creative writing\, business\, and education as a n undergraduate at Florida State University and received her Masters of Fi ne Arts in poetry from Florida International University. She is co-founder of the Orange Island Arts Foundation\, has worked with many nonprofit org anizations including the Miami Book Fair International and the Palm Beach Poetry Festival\, and currently serves as president of the Women&rsquo\;s Club of Coconut Creek. Laura began her teaching career at Broward College in 2007 and has been a tenured Professor of English since 2010. She serves as the Dual Enrollment Faculty Coordinator for Broward County.
\nhttps ://broward.libnet.info/event/10175156 URL;VALUE=URI:https://broward.libnet.info/event/10175156 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR