NEWS: Emma Trelles is named one of 22 Poet Laureate Fellows by the Academy of American Poets. The award is given to honor poets of literary merit appointed to serve in civic positions across the country and to enable them to undertake meaningful, impactful, and innovative projects that engage their fellow residents with poetry, helping to address issues important to their communities, as well as to create new work.
Trelles will further develop the Mission Poetry Series to include additional honoraria for poets and four seasonal community poetry classes in conjunction with the Santa Barbara Public Library. The workshops will be taught by Mission Poetry Series poets at the library’s central and auxiliary branches and be free and open to the public. One poem written by each class participant will be selected to be published and publicly displayed in an outdoor poetry walk at the library’s branches and local schools. Trelles will also continue to fund and develop the Gunpowder Press Alta California Chapbook Prize in 2022–23. Open to all Latinx poets throughout California, the prize amplifies and honors the voices of Latinx writers and their communities through publication in bilingual editions, a $250 honoraria, ten copies of their chapbook, and an invitation to read at the Mission Poetry Series.
August 2, 2022
READING: Emma Trelles + Los Angeles Poet Laureate Lynne Thompson
Hosted by Jeanette Clough + Phil Taggart @ 7 pm.
Ventura, CA, June 24, 2022
READING: Poesia Para La Gente: Poets in Honor of Arte Para La Gente--The Collected Works of Margaret Garcia. Hosted by Marsha de la O and featuring Crystal AC Salas, Emma Trelles, Melinda Palacio, Luzmaria Espinosa, + CRN Contreras. (Painting: Night on Figueroa Street, 2022, Oil on wood panel, 48.25” x 60” inches, by Margaret Garcia).
Ventura, CA, May 2022
COMMUNITY: Join the Santa Barbara Library on the Go Van at Shoreline Park and learn how to write an acrostic poem about the Channel Islands with Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Emma Trelles.
Santa Barbara, CA, April 2022
READING: An Evening with the Poets Laureate of Santa Barbara. Featuring Emma Trelles, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Enid Osborne, Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, Chryss Yost, David Starkey, Paul Willis, + Perie Longo. Hosted by George Yatchisin.
Chaucer's Books
Santa Barbara, CA, April 2022
BOOK DISCUSSION: Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Emma Trelles leads a discussion of the Santa Barbara Reads selection, An American Sunrise, by Joy Harjo--poet, musician, author, and 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. Hosted virtually by the Santa Barbara Public Library.
December 2021
READING: 27th Annual Sadako Peace Day/Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Featuring poets Perie Longo, Emma Trelles, Sojourner Kinaide Rolle, David Starkey, and Father Larry Gosselin + musicians Hal Maynard, Sandy Jones, and Bob Niyosui Sedivi. Featured in the Santa Barbara News Press
Westmont College
Santa Barbra, CA, August 2021
BOOK DISCUSSION: Emma Trelles leads a discussion of Tortillera (Texas A&M University Press), by Caridad Moro-Gronlier. Sponsored by Letras Latinas, the literary program at the institute of Latino Studies at Notre Dame and hosted virtually by the Santa Barbara Public Library.
August 2021
INTERVIEW: The Poetry Show on Radio Boise
July 2, 2021
Emma Trelles in conversation with Daphne Stanford on The Poetry Show, one of Radio Boise's flagship Arts & Issues programs, airing every Sunday at 4 pm PT.
READING: The South Florida Poetry Journal presents Poets from the Grabbed anthology (Beacon Press).
June 18, 2021 at 7 PM ET / 4 PM PT via Zoom. Featuring Jessica Cuello, Nicole Callihan, Cynthia Neely, Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Caridad Moro-Gronlier, + Emma Trelles
NEWS: Emma Trelles featured in the Santa Barbara Independent.
June 3, 2021
NEWS: Emma Trelles featured in the Santa Barbara News Press.
(Author photo by Regina Reese).
April 29, 2021
READING: Book launch for I Always Carry My Bones, by Felicia Zamora
April 29, 2021 at 7 pm ET via Zoom
Also featuring Chet'la Sebree, Emma Trelles, Lee Herrick, + Ricardo Maldonado
READING: The 7th Annual Spirits in the (Virtual)Air-Potent Potable Poetry
April 21, 2021 at 7 pm via Zoom
Featuring Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Susan Chiavelli, Robert Krut, Amy Michelson, Diana Raab, David Starkey, Emma Trelles, Chryss Yost, + poet/host George Yatchisin
MICRO-VIDEO FEATURE: Emma Trelles + visual artist Beatriz Monteavaro discuss collaborating on For the Love of Khan: Poems for the Future, Inspicio Arts, Florida International University, April 18, 2021
READING: Jingletown, A Community Reading Series
April 17, 2021 at 2 pm PST via Zoom
Featuring Dr. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Francisco Aragón, + Emma Trelles
Hosted by Harold Tzn + Adela Najarro
INTERVIEW: Schooled Radio
April 13, 2021 in partnership with KCSB
Emma Trelles talks to Schooled Radio, a public affairs show featuring Santa Barbara County teachers, students, and administrators on the topic of education in the broadest possible sense, from preschool to grad school and beyond. Created and hosted by George Yatchisin and Chryss Yost.
NEWS: Emma Trelles appointed the 9th Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara April 13, 2021
Read the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture announcement here and watch Mayor Cathy Murillo conduct the poet laureate induction ceremony here beginning at 4:05 minutes.
READING: The Santa Barbara Poetry Series
April 13, 2021
A virtual celebration of newly appointed Santa Barbara poet laureate Emma Trelles (2021-2023) + emeritus poet laureate Laure-Anne Bosselaar
Hosted virtually by George Yatchisin in partnership with the Santa Barbara Public Library. Watch it here.
READING: The Erotica Reading, A Fundraiser for the Ventura County Poetry Project. February 14, 2021, at 2 p.m. PDT (virtual)
Featuring Emma Trelles, Lynne Thompson, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Mariano Zaro, Marsha de la O, George Yatchisin, Enid Osborn, Mary Brown, Gudrun Bortman, Nancy-Jean Pément, Dian Sousa, Florence Weinberger, David Oliveira, and many other poets.
READING: The Poetry Buffet reading series in New Orleans
Saturday, January 14, 2021, at 12 pm PST / 2 pm CST
Featured poets: Clemonce Heard, Zvonko Karanovic, Patrice Melnick, Biljana Obradovic, Emma Trelles + Music by Joey Laborde. Via Zoom.
READING: The Wild and Precious Life series presents its 34th reading with Sara Henning, Seema Reza, Emma Trelles, + Dare Williams. Archived here.
November 24, 2020
CONFERENCE: The first National Latinx Writers Gathering
"Sembrando y Soñando,” October 16-18, 2020
One hundred and thirty-one Latinx writers in all genres come together to emphasize community-building, connection, and experiential collaboration. Emma Trelles joins poets Jahan Khajavi and Francisco Aragón for a presentation on Letras Latinas, the literary program of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, a conference sponsor, along with the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Artful Life.
NEWS: Emma Trelles' poem, "How We Lived," is anthologized in Grabbed: Poets & Writers on Sexual Assault, Empowerment, & Healing
(Beacon Press, October 2020).
Edited by Richard Blanco, Caridad Moro, Nikki Moustaki, and Elisa Albo. With a foreword by Joyce Maynard, an Afterword by Anita Hill, and writing by Ellen Bass, Rita Dove, Marge Piercy, Maggie Smith, Denise Duhamel, Maureen Seaton, Miriam Bird Greenberg, Paul Tran, Sapphire, Virgil Suarez, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Jericho Brown, Jenny Molberg, Alexandra Lytton Regalado, Eileen Myles, Catherine Esposito Prescott, Jen Karetnick, and more.
READING: The Poetry Coalition presents One Poem: A Protest Reading in Support of Black Lives.
August 18, 2020
Poets reading include: Prisca Afantchao, Sojourner Ahebee, Kazim Ali, Kimberly Blaeser, Jericho Brown, Meera Dasgupta, Kwame Dawes, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Safia Elhillo, Martín Espada, Sesshu Foster, Kimberly Jae, Raina J. León, Mwatabu Okantah, Alberto Ríos, Terisa Siagatonu, Matthew Thompson, Emma Trelles, Nikki Wallschlaeger, Monica Youn, and avery r. young.
Broadcasted live via Crowdcast and now archived at YouTube (closed captioning available).
The Poetry Coalition is a national alliance of more than 25 organizations dedicated to working together to promote the value poets bring to our culture and the important contribution poetry makes in the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds. Members are nonprofit organizations whose primary mission is to promote poets and poetry, and/or multi-genre literary organizations that serve poets with disabilities and of specific racial, ethnic, or gender identities, backgrounds, or communities.
NEWS: For Summer: Poems by Latina/o/xs
June-Aug 2020
Emma Trelles co-curates a suite of poems by Latinx authors at the Best American Poetry blog in collaboration with Francisco Aragón + Letras Latinas, the literary arm of the Institute for Latino Studies at Notre Dame. Featured poets: John Murillo, Yesenia Montilla, Maryam Ivette, Parhizkar, Edwin Torres, Sheila Maldonado, Joshua Escobar, Raina J. León, Roberto Carlos Garcia, Heidi Andrea Restrepo Rhodes, + Grisel Y.. Acosta.
READING: Poems to Get Us To the Other Side
Spring 2020
Presented by the Black Ladies Brunch Collective, featuring Saida Agostini, Jennifer Chang, Terri Cross Davis, Sadia Hassan, Sheila Maldonado, Katy Richey, + Emma Trelles. Archived here on Zoom.
READING: Spirits in the Air
Santa Barbara, CA, April 2020
Organized by George Yatchisin, with Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Susan Chiavelli, Diana Raab, Linda Saccoccio, David Starkey, Emma Trelles + Chryss Yost.
NEWS: Emma Trelles awarded a fellowship from CantoMundo.
March 2020
CantoMundo, in partnership with the University of Arizona Poetry Center, is a national poetry organization that cultivates a community of Latinx poets through workshops, symposia, and public readings. Founded in 2009, CantoMundo hosts an annual poetry workshop for Latinx poets that provides a space for the creation, documentation, and critical analysis of Latinx poetry.
NEWS: Emma Trelles is a finalist for the CINTAS Foundation Fellowship in Creative Writing.
October 2019
The CINTAS Foundation awards fellowships to creative artists of Cuban citizenship or Cuban lineage & was established in 1957 with funds from the estate of the late Oscar B. Cintas, a former Cuban ambassador to the United States and a prominent industrialist and patron of the arts. Cintas fellowships acknowledge creative accomplishments and encourage the development of creative artists in architecture and design, literature, music composition and visual arts.
READING: Tiny Poets at Tiny Libraries
Santa Barbara, CA, October 2019
Organized by David Starkey, with Ron Alexander Gudrun Bortman, Gabriella Klein, Enid Osborn, Christine Penko, Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, Emma Trelles, Chryss Yost, + more.
READING: Poetry at the Carnegie Museum: The Jackson Wheeler Series, featuring Mary Brown + Emma Trelles.
Oxnard, CA, May 2019
READING: Santa Barbara Poetry Series presents Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Emma Trelles, + Taylor Tejeda.
Santa Barbara, CA, April 2019
READING: Nouns + Verbs, a poetry reading featuring Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, Ariel Francisco, Alexandry Lytton Regalado, Emma Trelles, + Campbell McGrath.
Turn! Turn! Turn!
Portland, OR, March 2019
CONFERENCE: Association of Writers & Writing Programs
Revisiting the Glass Cage, with Aleida Rodriguez, Francisco Aragón, Dan Vera, + Emma Trelles.
Portland, OR, March 2019
On the 20th anniversary of Aleida Rodriguez’s “The Glass Cage,” four award-winning Latinx poets and editors revisit this landmark essay about thematic limits placed on Latinx writers by publishing and literary institutional gatekeepers.
READING & ARTIST IN RESIDENCE: The Writer's Room at The Betsy Hotel, co-sponsored by SWWIM.
Miami Beach, FL, March 2019
INTERVIEW: Lyric Essentials -- Emma Trelles Reads and Discusses Three Poems by Ada Limón. Sundress Publications, with Anna Black.
July 2018
READING + SYMPOSIUM: Together We'll be a Song, A Celebration of Andrés Montoya, featuring Juan Felipe Herrera, Francisco Aragón, Marisol Baca, Sara Borjas, David Campos, Daniel Chacón, Kenneth Robert Chacón, Sarah A. Chavez, Anthony Cody, Rigoberto González, Cynthia Guardado, Juan Luis Guzmán, Tim Z. Hernandez, Lee Herrick, Michael Luis Medrano, Maceo Montoya, Paul Martinez Pompa, Joseph Rios, Emma Trelles, Felicia Zamora, + others.
Fresno State University, Fresno, CA, April 2018
NEWS: Emma Trelles curates a selection of poems for "Where My Dreaming and My Loving Live: Poetry & the Body," on behalf of Letras Latinas-Notre Dame's Institute for Latino Studies and part of the second annual offering of the Poetry Coalition, more than 20 nationwide organizations dedicated to working together to promote the value poets bring to our culture and communities. Featured poets: Aracelis Girmay, Ellen Bass, Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, Barbara Jane Reyes, Achy Obejas, Jennifer Elise Foerster, Sandra McPherson, Iliana Rocha, Lory Bedikian, + Pat Mora.
Best American Poetry blog, March 2018
CONFERENCE: Letras Latinas Scholars: Emma Trelles + Roy Guzmán
Desert Writers, Rising Stars Conference.
Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing / Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ, February 2018
READING: Tuesday at the Library, featuring Linda Saccoccio, Bruce Willard, + Emma Trelles
Santa Barbara Public Library-Central
January 2018
Curator at the Mission Poetry Series, a community-based reading series now in its 14th season, featuring local, regional, and national authors and partnered with the Santa Barbara Public Library. 2014-present
SELECTED ARCHIVES
Tropicalia a recommended read by The Rumpus. (October 2017); Featured author at The Last Bookstore, hosted by Red Hen Press, Los Angeles (October 2017); Reading at Bearing Witness: In response to photographs by Nell Campbell, Channing Peake Gallery-Santa Barbara County Arts Commission (October 2017); Featured author at Live from the Core, poetry + performance, Core Winery, Orcutt, CA (July 2017); Co-editor of "Because We Come from Everything: Poetry & Migration," with Letras Latinas-Institute for Latino Studies at Notre Dame and part of the first public offering of the newly formed national Poetry Coalition (March 2017); Featured author at Picture Nature: Poems Inspired by Art & the Environment, Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College (November 2016); Reading at Pintura Palabra at the Reading Room at Bryant Park, NYC (August 2016); Reading "Florida Poem" at Poets House, NYC (August 2016); Featured author at the EP Foster Library in the Topping Room, Ventura, CA (June 2016); Reading at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (Summer 2016); Founding member and panelist at the inaugural Latinx Caucus, Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), Los Angeles, CA (March/April 2016); Panelist at Pintura/Palabra: Writers Respond to Art, AWP Conference, Minneapolis, MN (April 2015); Featured author at A Melodic Union: Two Latina Poets, Ojai Art Center, Ojai, CA (August 2015); Reading at the Miramar Magazine launch at the EP Foster Library (February 2015); Reading at Poets Respond to Near & Far: Plein Air in County Parks, Channing Peake Gallery- Santa Barbara County Arts Commission, Santa Barbara, CA (February 2015); Featured author at the Literature Symposium, College of Creative Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA (January 2015); Reading at Sweat Broadsides Collaborative, Miami Book Fair International, Miami, FL (November 2014); Author interview at Words on a Wire (October 2014); Panelist at Published! From Poetry Manuscript to First Book, AWP Conference, Seattle, Washington (February 2014); Reading at The Best American Poetry Anthology book launch, The Betsy Hotel-Arts & Culture Initiatives, Miami Beach, FL (November 2013); Featured author at The Mission Poetry Series, Santa Barbara, CA (September 2013); Featured author at the Fifth Annual Writers MiniCon, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL (April 2013); Tropicalia a finalist for Foreword/Indies poetry book of the year (2012); Work featured at Poetry Monday (November 2012); A conversation at the Boxcar Poetry Review (Fall 2012); Featured author and oral history interview, The Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN (April 2012); Panel chair, News that Stays News: The Best American Poetry Blog and the Future of Digital Publishing, AWP Conference, Chicago, IL (March 2012); Reading + panel at Cantos Latinos, Milwaukee Public Library, Milwaukee, WI (March 2012); A Morning with Two American Poets, Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL (February 2012); Featured author, Miami Book Fair, Miami, FL (November 2011); Guest author at Writing Across the Hyphen (undergraduate creative writing course), University of Miami, Miami, FL (October 2011); Featured author at US Speak Reading Series, University of Miami, Miami, FL, (October 2011); Panelist at Latino/a Poets Roundtable at the Poetry Society of America (October 2011); Featured author at the inaugural O, Miami Poetry Festival, Miami, FL (April 2011); Featured author, Tropicalia book launch and signing, Books and Books, Coral Gables, FL (April 2011); Author interview at The Nervous Breakdown (April 2011); Guest author at Advanced Poetry Workshop (graduate course), Florida International University, Miami, FL (March 2011); Featured author, All Together Now, Museum of Art - Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, FL (February 2011); Featured author at 100 Creatives-Miami New Times (February 2011); Winner of the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize, from the Institute of Latino Studies at Notre Dame (April 2010); Featured author at Knight Arts Foundation (December 2010); Featured author and roundtable, A Literary Interlude with Three American Poets, Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL (February 2010); Featured author at Samuel Pepys Reading Series, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL (November 2009); Guest author at Advanced Poetry Writing (undergraduate course), Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL (November 2009); Featured author at Palabra Pura Series, Guild Literary Complex, Chicago, Il (June 2009).
