Sehba Sarwar and Lester Graves Lennon (Photos – Altadena Library)
Join Sehba Sarwar and Lester Graves Lennon as they host their first event, a reading by former Altadena Poets Laureate in honor of the history of this program.
By News Desk
The reading will take place on August 21 from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm at Altadena Main Library. Poets Teresa Mei Chuc, Linda Dove, Hazel Clayton Harrison, Thelma T. Reyna, and Carla Rachel Sameth will read at the event, with a short introduction from youth poet Morgan Gaskell.
Teresa Mei Chuc
Altadena Poet Laureate, Editor-in-Chief (2018-2020), Teresa Mei Chuc is the author of three books of poetry: Invisible Light (Many Voices Press, 2018), Keeper of the Winds (FootHills Publishing, 2014), and Red Thread (Fithian Press, 2012). She is co-editor of the forthcoming anthology, Convergence: Poetry on Environmental Impacts of War (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2025), and her poetry is forthcoming in Attached to the Living World: A New Ecopoetry Anthology (Trinity University Press, 2025). Teresa is a public middle and high school English teacher in Los Angeles. She sits on the Beyond Baroque Board of Trustees and on the Board of Directors for VCP SoCal Poets.
Linda Dove
Linda Dove holds a Ph.D. in Renaissance literature and teaches college writing. She is also an award-winning poet of five books: In Defense of Objects (2009), O Dear Deer, (2011), This Too (2017; reprinted 2024), Fearn (2019), and Switchfish (2023), as well as the scholarly collection of essays, Women, Writing, and the Reproduction of Culture in Tudor and Stuart Britain (2000). Her poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, the Robert H. Winner Award from the Poetry Society of America, Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction. In 2012-2014, she was the Altadena Poet Laureate. She now lives in east Los Angeles, where she serves as the faculty editor of MORIA Literary Magazine at Woodbury University.
Hazel Clayton Harrison
Hazel Clayton Harrison served as a 2018-2020 co-poet laureate for the Altadena Library District, where she organized community events and co-edited the Altadena Literary Review. Her poetry and prose have been published in numerous anthologies, including River Crossings Voices of the Diaspora, When the Virus Came Calling, and Altadena Poetry Review 2024. She is a Pushcart prize nominee and the author of The Story of Christmas Tree Lane, Crossing the River Ohio, and Down Freedom Road.
Thelma T. Reyna
Thelma T. Reyna is an author, editor, and book publisher, the founder and owner of Golden Foothills Press, based in Pasadena, California. Her poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction have collectively earned 22 national and international book awards from 2010-2022. She has written six books—a short story collection, two poetry chapbooks, two full-length poetry collections, and a memoir in poetry; has edited four anthologies of poetry and prose, collectively comprising the works of over 250 authors from California and across the U.S. Dr. Reyna served as Poet Laureate in Altadena in 2014-2016. She was a Pushcart Prize Nominee in Poetry in 2017 and holds a Ph.D. from UCLA.
Carla Rachel Sameth
Carla Rachel Sameth was the 2022-2024 Co-Poet Laureate for Altadena and a 2023 Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets. Her books include the memoir, One Day on the Gold Line, the chapbook, What Is Left, and the poetry collection, Secondary Inspections. Her writing on blended/unblended, queer, multiracial, and single parent families appears in a variety of publications and has been selected three times as Notable Essays of the Year in Best American Essays. A Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, a Pasadena Rose Poet, a West Hollywood Pride Poet, and a former PEN Teaching Artist, she teaches creative writing to high school and college students, incarcerated youth, and other diverse communities.
Morgan Gaskell
Morgan Gaskell (she/they) is a recent graduate of Pasadena High School and will be attending UC Davis in the fall as a Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology major. Morgan has loved reading and writing poetry since their teacher introduced them to the art form in third grade. A proud biracial LGBTQ+ nature nerd, Morgan’s poetry often focuses on identity, social justice, and the organisms and geologic features we share space with.
Altadena Poets Laureate Reading August 21, 2024 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm Location Altadena Main Library 600 E Mariposa St. Altadena, CA 91001
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