Laurie Ann Guerrero, 40th Annual ODU Literary Festival

Poet Laureate of Texas, Laurie Ann Guerrero, was born and raised in the Southside of San Antonio and received the Academy of American Poets Prize from Smith College, among others. Winner of the 2012 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, her first full-length collection, A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying, was released by University of Notre Dame Press in 2013. Her latest collection, A Crown for Gumecindo, was released by Aztlan Libre Press in the spring of 2015 and received the 2016 Helen C. Smith Award for poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters. Guerrero holds degrees from Smith College and Drew University