Gloria Muñoz Named St. Petersburg’s Poet Laureate

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Mayor Ken Welch named Gloria Muñoz as St. Petersburg’s next poet laureate at the Oct. 13 city council meeting.

She will serve as a prominent fixture in the city's cultural and literary arts communities, promoting poetry and literature among residents and visitors, the city said in a news release.

"Gloria's beautifully written words have long reverberated through the hearts and souls of our community," Welch said. "As our Poet Laureate, I look forward to many more of our residents benefitting from the enrichment her carefully crafted art brings."

As the City's official poet, Muñoz will present original poems at city events and youth activities to inspire emerging generations of literary artists and poets. She’ll serve a four-year term in the role.

“I am honored and thrilled to be the Poet Laureate of such a vibrant literary city,” she told Patch. “In this position I hope to help create educational, creative, and socially relevant programming. I will aim to build community and support accessible and inclusive poetry programming throughout our city. I also would like to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration with artists in other fields as much as possible.”

Muñoz earned a bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA from the University of South Florida. Her past experiences include teaching college-level creative writing and composition in the United States, co-directing outreach programs with nonprofits serving low-income first-generation college students and their families, and teaching playwriting at an NGO in India.

She is the author of “Danzirly / Dawn's Early,” which was awarded the Academy of American Poets 2019 Ambroggio Prize and the Gold Medal Florida Book Award. She was also part of the inaugural Tin House YA workshop and has presented her writing, research and advocacy work at conferences, colleges, public schools and book festivals across the U.S. and Latin America.

Muñoz is also a founding member of Arts for a Cause, an artist collective that works on transdisciplinary social art projects and a co-founder of Pitch Her Productions, a nonprofit film production company dedicated to promoting women in film.