The second annual Poetry Night at The Barnacle, Miami’s premier event during National Poetry Month, will feature works by Miami-Dade students and fifth inaugural poet of the United States, Richard Blanco
A Poetry Event Focused on Emerging Student Writers
Poetry Night at The Barnacle features selected poetry written and read by students from Miami-Dade high schools. Student poems submitted will also be posted throughout the park. First-, second- and third-place bookstore gift-card prizes donated by Books & Books Literary Foundation, will be awarded, as well as beautiful award plaques donated by Awards TrophyWorld. And Milam’s is donating delicious food platters of which all attendees may partake after the readings.
“Poetry Night at The Barnacle is an important step forward in the promotion of young literary talent in South Florida. This burgeoning metropolis has yet to produce a major literary publication or press. And when it does, the poetry and literary scene in greater Miami will likely look back at Poetry Night as a triggering point.”
---Ricardo Pau-Llosa, featured guest poet at 2024 Poetry Night; author of Cuba, 100th title in Carnegie Mellon University Press Poetry Series and nominee for The Pulitzer Prize
“Events like Poetry Night connect our community through the power of words. I encourage everyone to attend and take part in this fantastic lineup of celebrated and emerging poets alike.”
---Daniella Levine Cava, Miami-Dade County Mayor
“This is a wonderful event to support young writers and get poetry out in front of the people in interesting ways.”
---Richard Blanco, fifth inaugural poet of the United States and Miami-Dade's first poet laureate
Miami-Dade high schools that plan to participate in Poetry Night include Belen Jesuit Preparatory Academy, Carrollton Upper School, Christopher Columbus High, Coral Gables Senior High, Coral Reef High, Gulliver Prep Upper School, Miami Beach Senior High, Miami Palmetto Senior High, Miami Senior High, Palmer Trinity Upper School, Ransom Everglades Upper School, Riviera Preparatory School, Westminster Christian School, and Young Women’s Preparatory Academy.
Richard Blanco and Jaswinder Bolina to Be Featured Readers
Richard Blanco, fifth inaugural poet of the United States and Inaugural Poet Laureate of Miami-Dade County, has received numerous honors for his writings and performances, including the National Humanities Medal, Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellowship, a Florida Artist Fellowship, and a Bread Loaf Fellowship, as well as honorary doctorates from Macalester College, Colby College, and the University of Rhode Island. He is the first-ever education ambassador for the Academy of American Poets. His collections of poetry include Homeland of My Body: New & Selected Poems (2023), City of a Hundred Fires (1998), which won the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize, Directions to the Beach of the Dead (2005), winner of the PEN/American Beyond Margins Award, Looking for the Gulf Motel (2012), winner of the Thom Gunn Award, the Maine Literary Award, and the Paterson Prize, One Today (2013), How to Love a Country (2019), and Boston Strong (2013), which he performed at the TD Boston Garden Benefit Concert and at a Red Sox game at Fenway Park after the Boston Marathon bombings. Blanco was raised in Miami and earned his MFA in creative writing from FIU. He has taught at Georgetown University, American University, Writer’s Center, Central Connecticut State University, and Wesleyan University. He is currently Distinguished Visiting Professor at FIU.
Jaswinder Bolina’s most recent book, English as a Second Language and Other Poems (Copper Canyon Press 2023) was recently awarded the 2025 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. He is author of three previous collections of poetry, The 44th of July (2019), Phantom Camera (2013), and Carrier Wave (2007), and of the digital chapbook The Tallest Building in America (2014). His debut collection of essays Of Color (2020) is available from McSweeney's. He teaches on the faculty of the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Miami where he also serves as chair of the Department of English.
Director of Event: Marc Stone, The Pushcart Prize (2014) – Best of the Small Presses series nominee for poetry; Winner, R.M. Kinder Award for Realistic Fiction (2020), Pleaides magazine; National Short Story Award, Hackney Literary Awards (2015); poetry published in Faultline, Fourteen Hills, Gargoyle, Main Street Rag, et. al.; poetry book, Diminishment (Main Street Rag Publishing Company, 2012). Board member of The Barnacle Society.
