TONIGHT we are joined by a very special visit from this city’s sixth poet laureate; La Mission’s own Alejandro Murguia! Alejandro will be reading from his new collection of short stories The Other Barrio(2025,Arte Publico Press) Fronteriza poeta Maria Esquinca will open the night reading from their nuevo libro When Heaven Sinks.

Alejandro Murguía is a professor in Latina Latino Studies and the Sixth San Francisco Poet Laureate(2013-2017). He is the author of Southern Front(2009)and This War Called Love(2002)(both winners of the American Book Award)and the poetry collection Stray Poems(2014). His non-fiction book The Medicine of Memory highlights the Mission District in the 1970s during the Nicaraguan Solidarity movement. He is a founding member and the first director of The Mission Cultural Center. He was a founder of The Roque Dalton Cultural Brigade, and co-editor of Volcán: Poetry From Central America.

María Esquinca is a Xicana educator, poet and journalist. A fronteriza, she was born in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and grew up in El Paso, Texas. She currently teaches newcomers who are recent immigrants at San Francisco International High School. Her debut collection, “Where Heaven Sinks” was the 2024 Andres Montoya Poetry Prize winner, and was selected by Juan Felipe Herrera.