THE PRICE CENTER & GARDEN
2026 Hays Youth Poet Laureate Harper Claes will read original work alongside Texas Poet Laureates Carrie Fountain and ir’ene lara silva on Saturday, April 4 at 6 p.m. at the Price Center.
The event – organized by the literary nonprofit Infrarrealista Review and underwritten by the Burdine Johnson Foundation – is free and open to the community.
Harper Claes was awarded the 2026 Hays Youth Poet Laureate honor, winning $1,000 and a first book publication. 2019 Poet Laureate of Texas Carrie Fountain served as this year’s judge and selected the manuscript “moments made into monuments (in my mind)” “Harper Claes’ poems are so human and humane. They are bursting with image and specificity, feeling and purpose. Claes understands that a single, small voice can speak for and to an entire community,” said Fountain, who currently serves as the Texas State University Wittliff Collections Literary Curator.
The Hays Youth Poet Laureate is part of a larger initiative – founded by literary nonprofit organization, Infrarrealista Review – to encourage teens and adults alike to pay attention to and appreciate poetry.
In 2023 Infrarrealista Review (founded by two Texas State MFA in Creative Writing graduates, Cloud Delfina Cardona and Juania Sueños) decided to invest in planting the poetic seed that they hoped would eventually yield young talent.
“We believe that talent exists already all over our county, and our goal is to elevate these young poets and help them hone in their craft,” Sueños said. “I was once a young teen interested in writing, but thought there was no future in it, and we didn’t read poetry in my high school. I had no idea there were living poets whose entire profession was to write.
“Poetry is taken for granted and we’re told, even as young people, that it’s a waste of time. Through the HYPL programming we wanted to undo this,” Sueños said.
Author of “Burns, Burns, Burns,” SG Huerta led the 13 poetry workshops this year, and offered support with putting together applications, including a cover letter, a statement of purpose, a bio, and a poetry manuscript of at least 15 pages. The winning poet is involved in the entire publication process – they’ll meet with the Plancha Press Editors for revisions regularly, and work with a professional cover design artist.
Last year, Adelie Donovan, a Hays County High School student, was named the Hays Youth Poet Laureate for her manuscript “Epitaph for my Fireflies,” which was selected by Naomi Shihab Nye for publication.
