Juan Felipe Herrera has been named Poet Laureate, the first Latino writer to receive the honor since its inception in 1936. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said in the announcement that Herrera’s poems “champion voices, traditions and histories, as well as a cultural perspective, which is a vital part of our larger American identity.” Herrera told the Washington Post: “I’m looking forward to a whole new world — and a new me. The times now seem to be evolving with voices of color. All voices are important, and yet it seems that people of color have a lot to say, particularly if you look through the poetry of young people — a lot of questions and a lot of concerns about immigration and security issues, you name it, big questions. All this is swirling in the air.”
Samantha Frontera has joined Triumph Books as publicist. Previously she was a publicist at Exclusive PR and Exact Publicity.
Distribution
Lerner Publisher Services will distribute titles from Quarto Library to school and public libraries in the US and Canada as of August 1. QL is a new imprint of library-bound titles.