Gemini Ink, URBAN-15, and University of Houston/Unsung Masters announce a book launch event of “Rosemary Catacalos: On the Life and Work of an American Master”.

This celebration will include readings by contributors to the book – including Naomi Shiab Nye, ire’ne Lara Silva, and Jim LaVilla-Havelin. Refreshments and books for purchase will be available.

The seventeenth volume in the Unsung Masters Series, this book brings together a brilliant selection of poems by Rosemary Catacalos, alongside essays, memoirs, appreciations and more by scholars, friends and admirers of the poet. Catacalos, who died in 2022, was the first Latinx Poet Laureate of Texas. Introduction by Naomi Shihab Nye.

Contributors include Michael Anania, Anel I. Flores, Carmen Tafolla, ire’ne Lara Silva, Reginald Gibbons, Arthur Sze, Anis Shivani, Maha Ahmed, Cary Clack, Betsy Schultz, Bett Butler, Joël Dilley, Graciela Sanchez, Mike Greenberg, and Jim LaVilla-Havelin.

About Rosemary Catacalos:
• Born in 1944 – passed in 2022
• 1986-1989: director of the Literature Program at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center – expanded the Annual Texas Small Press Book Fair into the San Antonio Inter-American Book Fair
• 2003-2012: Executive Director, Gemini Ink, Literary Arts Center
• 2013: Named the first Latina Poet Laureate for the State of Texas