Melinda Palacio Named Santa Barbara’s New Poet Laureate

“Santa Barbara is the city that made me a poet,” said Melinda Palacio. Though she studied Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley and got her master’s degree in Literature from UC Santa Cruz, Palacio said, “It wasn’t until I started taking poetry workshops with Perie Longo and Barry Spacks that I started to really take writing of poetry more seriously. And I discovered that I had poems tucked away in different notebooks, but I didn’t think that I would eventually be here three books in and named Poet Laureate.”

Following in the footsteps of Spacks — the late poet who was Santa Barbara’s first Poet Laureate in 2005-2007 — and Longo — the city’s second Poet Laureate who served 2007-2009 — is particularly meaningful to Palacio, who was officially named Santa Barbara’s tenth Poet Laureate by the City Council on Tuesday, April 18. She also cites Sojourner Kincaid Rolle (Poet Laureate from 2015-2017) as a close friend and mentor. “Sojourner has always been a supporter. Her words of advice to me were something along the lines of relax and enjoy my term. She has such confidence in me,” said Palacio. 

“Perie Longo gave me a poetic license,” Palacio said, smiling at the memory. “She gave them to everybody in the class, but still, I took that and really believed in it.”