Poetry becomes more approachable when it reflects everyday language, humor, and lived experience. San Diego’s Poet Laureate, Paola Capó-García, emphasizes that humor belongs in poems, calling it a “visceral feeling,” and notes that it is not always treated as part of poetry in classrooms or conversations. She wants people to talk about a poem the way they talk about a song, including the impact of a last line that lands.
Capó-García describes how graduate study, mentorship, and workshops shape her writing voice. From 2011 to 2013, she earns an M.A. in English at UC Davis. At a poetry reading at a friend’s house, she hears Anna Joy Springer read and decides she wants a terminal degree, an MFA. Planning a move to Southern California, she applies to one program, studies at UC San Diego, and graduates with her MFA in 2015. She credits workshops, feedback, and the community around her with helping her find her voice and complete her thesis.
She also describes building poems through experimentation. Springer prints Capó-García’s full manuscript, cuts it into many small pieces with scissors, and spreads the lines out on the office floor. As they sort through what stands out, two phrases click into a title that makes them laugh: “Clap for me that’s not me.” Capó-García links her writing to family stories and identity, sharing that she grows up in San Juan after being born in Washington, D.C. and living in Maryland until about age three.
As poet laureate, she focuses on widening access through community events, including readings and workshops, and she explores multidisciplinary work that combines poetry with visual art, zine-making, music, and experimental short films. She also advocates freshening up poetry curriculum and moving beyond a narrow canon so more students can hear themselves in poems and see arts and humanities training as a foundation for communication skills.
Watch: Paola Capó-García: Poet Laureate on Humor, Intimacy, and Voice in Poetry.
For more programs like this, check out Mi Camino: Latinx/Chicanx Speaker Series.