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San Antonio’s Octavio Quintanilla, a former poet laureate for the Alamo City, was recently named poet laureate for all of Texas for the year 2025.
The appointment began on May 26. Given that the legislature only meets on odd-numbered years, this year was almost half over before he was appointed poet laureate. That means that his one year term will end next June.
“I got a call, like a week and a half ago, that I was going to be the 2025 poet laureate,” Quintanilla said. “And I kind of been thinking about what can I do as poet laureate?”
The state position is largely a ceremonial one.
“As a Texas poet laureate, it's an honorary title, and we're not necessarily required to do anything — which is really interesting and also, in a way, liberating, because most of the poet laureates that I know have always worked on some type of project on their own,” he said.
He’s already identified a project he started a half-decade ago that he hopes to amp up exposure for during his time as the state’s poet laureate.
“It's a festival that I started during my time as San Antonio poet laureate. And we hold it every year since 2020 at Our Lady of the Lake University,” Quintanilla said. “So I think I want to amplify that, put more resources into it now that I have this platform."
He said this is a tough era for poets, but even so, that means there’s plenty to write about.
“What's so poetic about deporting good people? You know what's so poetic about separating parents from children? What's so poetic about state surveillance and violence? There's nothing poetic about that. But at the same time, our times require imagination,” he said.
He cited author Salman Rushdie as a source of inspiration during times like these.
"Salman Rushdie said, 'a poem doesn't stop a bullet. A poet doesn't stop war, but they are necessary to remind us that we are human and that when we close our eyes, most of us want the same things,' ” Quintanilla said. “We want safety for a family. We want to accomplish whatever dreams we have. And we want to live as peacefully as we can.”
Quintanilla said it’s important to document the times, and he said few do it better than poets.
