Catch some terrific poetry from local and state award-winners during the Hays Youth Poet Laureate Celebration at the Price Center this Saturday, including a reading from the newly crowned 2026 Hays Youth Poet Laureate Harper Claes.
2019 Poet Laureate of Texas Carrie Fountain, Literary Curator at the Wittliff Collections, 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,” Fountain said. “They are bursting with image and specificity, feeling and purpose.” Fountain will also be reading at the event as will fellow Texas Poet Laureate ir’ene lara silva. The free event, which starts at 6 p.m at the Price Center, is organized by the literary nonprofit Infrarrealista Review and underwritten by the Burdine Johnson Foundation.
