Florida WritersCon 2024 Presents Richard BlancoNational Humanities Medal Recipient. President Obama’s Inaugural Poet 2013. Lambda Literary Award for Memoir.We’re thrilled to share that the keynote speaker this year is poet Richard Blanco! Richard’s keynote address will touch on how he moved from working as civil engineer to becoming an award-winning and nationally recognized poet. 
About Richard BlancoSelected by President Obama as the fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet in U.S. history, Richard Blanco was the youngest, the first Latinx, immigrant, and gay person to serve in that role. In 2023, Blanco was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami in a working-class family, Blanco’s personal negotiation of cultural identity and the universal themes of place and belonging characterize Blanco’s many collections of poetry, including his most recent, Homeland of My Body. He has also authored the memoirs For All Of Us: One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey and The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood. Currently, he serves as Education Ambassador for The Academy of American Poets and is an Associate Professor at Florida International University. In April 2022, Blanco was appointed the first-ever Poet Laureate of Miami-Dade County. You can learn more about Richard Blanco at richard-blanco.com Praise for Richard Blanco
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