Manuel González Named New Mexico’s New Poet Laureate
Celebrated poet and cultural advocate Manuel González has been named the third New Mexico State Poet Laureate, a recognition that affirms his profound contributions to the literary arts and his enduring impact on New Mexico’s communities. Appointed by New Mexico Arts and the New Mexico State Library, divisions of the Department of Cultural Affairs, González will begin his three-year term effective immediately.
González’s appointment marks the continuation of a powerful legacy rooted in poetry as a vehicle for healing, empowerment, and cultural memory. A former Albuquerque Poet Laureate (2016–2018), González is widely respected not only for his artistry on the page and stage, but also for his unwavering commitment to community and justice.
“I’m honored and humbled to be named the next New Mexico State Poet Laureate. Poetry has been medicine in my life, helping me heal, remember, and reconnect with my family, my community, and my ancestors,” says González. “As laureate, I want to carry that medicine across our state: to schools, libraries, pueblos, and plazas. I hope to create spaces where all voices, especially underrepresented voices, can rise, be heard, and be celebrated. This is about poetry as healing, as storytelling, and as a way to keep our collective spirit alive.”
For more than two decades, González has worked at the intersections of poetry, education, and social change. His leadership has reached detention centers, classrooms, and community spaces throughout New Mexico. As a teacher at the Native American Community Academy, he uses trauma-informed, culturally grounded curricula to empower Indigenous and Chicano youth. He mentors young poets through Brave New Voices and co-founded Low Writing at El Chante: Casa de Cultura, a beloved community workshop that brings intergenerational groups together to write, heal, and build solidarity.
“Manuel González is not only a poet of great skill, he is a steward of New Mexico’s living culture,” said Debra Garcia y Griego, Cabinet Secretary of the Department of Cultural Affairs. “His work reveals the soul of our communities, and his leadership as Poet Laureate will inspire New Mexicans of all ages to find their voice and share their stories.”
As State Poet Laureate, González will lead statewide poetry initiatives, create educational outreach programs, and serve as an ambassador for New Mexico’s rich literary traditions. Through public readings, workshops, and creative projects, he will support literacy while championing poetry as a living, breathing force and a means of connection, resilience, and joy.
About New Mexico Arts
New Mexico Arts, the state’s federally recognized arts agency and a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, administers the One Percent for Public Art program, awards grants to nonprofit organizations for arts and cultural programs in their communities, and provides technical assistance and educational opportunities for organizations, artists, and arts educators throughout the state. Learn more at www.nmarts.org.
About New Mexico State Library
The New Mexico State Library, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, provides services that support public libraries, as well as direct library services to rural populations, state agencies, the visually impaired and physically disabled, and students and citizens conducting research. For more information about New Mexico State Library visit nmstatelibrary.org.
MEDIA CONTACT
Brandon Brown
505-412-3559
brandon.brown@state.nm.us
Invite the Poet Laureate!
NM PBS Colores:
González, Manuel
Contact: NM State Library Poetry Center at poetry.center@state.nm.us
Other Poet Laureates Around New Mexico
Levi Romero, Inaugural New Mexico Poet Laureate, 2020-2023
New Mexico’s first poet laureate, Levi Romero blends street sense with a love for acequias, history, and culture. Romero’s spirited, panoramic poetry is rooted in his querencia, the uniquely New Mexican love for home and place. Romero is from the Embudo Valley of New Mexico, and he earned a BA and an MA in architecture at the University of New Mexico. A bilingual poet whose language is immersed in the regional manito dialect of northern New Mexico, Romero is the co-author of Sagrado: A Photopoetics Across the Chicano Homeland (2013), and author of A Poetry of Remembrance: New and Rejected Works (2008), In the Gathering of Silence (1996), and other publications. His work has been published throughout the U.S., Mexico, Spain, and Cuba. Romero was named the centennial poet for New Mexico for 2012, an honorary post. A winner of numerous awards, including the 2009 New Mexico Women's Press Excellence in Communications Award and the 1996 PBS Bill Moyers Language of Life Award in Poetry. A research scholar, he has recently taught creative writing, Chicana and Chicano studies, and cultural landscape studies at the University of New Mexico.
Anna C. Martinez, Albuquerque's Sixth Poet Laureate, 2022-2024
Anna C. Martinez is a civil rights attorney, legislative analyst, poet, mother, and grandmother. She was born in Los Angeles to a closet singer seamstress and an artist activist at the height of the civil rights movement. Martinez was then raised in her parents’ hometown of Española, NM, when her family returned to reconnect with their roots. Martinez was first published in 2014 in anthologies La Palabra: the Word is Woman with Albuquerque Poet Laureate Emeritus Jessica Helen Lopez, and Lowriting: Shots, Rides and Stories from the Chicano Soul with artists such as Lalo Alcaraz, and Gustavo Arellano. Her first book of poetry Pura Puta, A Poetic Memoir, was recently published and released nationally by Zachary Hively and Casa Urraca Press.
Laura Tohe, The Navajo Nation's Second Poet Laureate, 2015-Current
Laura Tohe is an Arizona-based poet and the current Navajo Nation Poet Laureate. She is of the Sleep Rock People clan and born for the Bitter Water People clan. Tohe is the daughter of a Navajo Code Talker. She’s authored three poetry collections, numerous librettos, an anthology of Native women’s writing, and an oral history on the Navajo Code Talkers. Tohe’s awards include the 2020 Academy of American Poetry Fellowship and the 2019 American Indian Festival of Writers Award. She is a professor emerita with distinction at Arizona State University.
Darryl Lorenzo Wellington, Santa Fe's Sixth Poet Laureate, 2021-2023
An uprooted Southerner who is now a New Mexican, Darryl Wellington has been a professional journalist for the over 20 years. His articles, fiction and poetry appear in The Nation, The Atlantic, Dissent, The Washington Post, Boston Review, Yemassee magazine, Drum Voices, Matter Monthly, Pedestal magazine, ABZ magazine, Santa Fe Literary Review, Radius magazine, Blood Tree Literature magazine, Turtle Island Quarterly, Yellow Medicine Review, and other places. His writing is anthologized in MFA vs. NYC (FSG, 2014) and Santa Fe Noir (Akashic Books, 2020). He is also a performance artist. His previous chapbook, Life's Prisoners, received the 2017 Turtle Island Quarterly poetry prize.
Joshua Concha, Taos' Third Poet Laureate, 2022-2023
Joshua Concha is an Indigenous multi-media artist and writer who has been a tribal resident of the Taos Pueblo for twenty-five years. Concha has worked in a wide range of media (including film and digital storytelling, music, stone, and metal sculpture, silversmithing, and watercolor). His poem, “Rust” was chosen by the previous Poet Laureate, Catherine Strisik, as one of the fifteen poems installed in outdoor venues in Taos. His poems were also selected for “Poetry in Public Places” (2018 & 2019) and have been published in The Notebook: A Progressive Journal About Women and Girls with Rural and Small Town Roots and 200 New Mexico Poems: Celebrating the Centennial and Beyond.
Allison Waterman, Silver City and Grant County's Fifth Poet Laureate, 2021-2023
Allison Waterman is an avid reader, writer, and researcher who has been published many times, having her poetry, short stories and newspaper columns celebrated locally and nationwide. She was a member of Silver City Slam and participates in Poetry Bread events. She cherishes her three sons and two brothers and finds joy in the everyday happenings of life, particularly in the mountains and hot springs of Southern New Mexico. Allison has lived in Silver City on and off since 1995. She is a WNMU graduate student and runs the Writing Center on campus, which fills her with purpose and enthusiasm.
We Are Thankful
We are thankful for the faith and prayers
Our ancestors left us.
We are thankful for the early winter snow
Received after the long drought of summer.
We are thankful for remedios, te de cota, manzanilla, osha,
And other natural remedies that help cure our ailments.
We are thankful for the warmth of the sun
On our faces in the morning.
We are thankful for the evening breeze
That soothes our long day into night.
We are thankful for the moonlight,
How it lights our dream path toward morning.
We are thankful for our family, children, grandchildren, friends,
And for the strangers who enter into our lives with love and compassion.
We are thankful for our health, our homes, our jobs, our community.
We are thankful for the hope that envelops us in the darkest hours.
— Levi Romero, former poet laureate of New Mexico, November 2020
The New York Times asked poets laureate from across the country what the people in their states had to be thankful for during the Covid pandemic.
