Altadena Poets Laureate: Two-year Term Interrupted by Fire
Michael Sedano
Among certain rude tipos it’s been heard, “organizing poets is like herding cats.” The phrase comes to mind with Sehba Sarwar at the lucite lectern watching her incredibly organized agenda start descending into chaos at Saturday’s Poetry & Cookies celebration inside Altadena Library District’s Bob Lucas Memorial Library & Literacy Center
It is good trouble.
Saturday’s SRO gathering filling this community space celebrates the two-year culmination of the term of Altadena Co-Poets Laureate. People come for cookies and books at this annual event, which appear in generous portion. And for the past twenty years people read their own poetry to everyone.
So gente are itching to get onto the open mic list and Sarwar senses her predicament. She’s planned two sets of six open mic readers and ya stuvo. Folks are restless over that change in Poetry & Cookies.
Altadena Laureates take on particular roles. Sehba Sarwar, Altadena Poet Laureate for Community Events, organizes events including readings and workshops over the two-year term. Lester Graves Lennon serves as Altadena Poet Laureate Editor-in- Chief of Altadena Poetry Review: Anthology 2026, published by local press Golden Foothills Press.
Sarwar adopts an experimental attitude to this annual celebration, designing an elegant program featuring ten readers published in the anthology, a noted guest reader, spotlighted readings, and a limited number of open mic readers. Not everyone. And that’s the good trouble.
Sarwar accommodates more than the plan, so a lot of gente get up there and share stories of the fire and emptiness and not-thereness, as well as a few ass-kicking proclamations, and some funny ones. William Archila reads in Spanish then English. Brenda Vaca reads from Somos Xicanas, Riot of Roses Publishing’s all-Xicana multi-genre collection. Hazel Clayton Harrison reads about the indomitability of spirit we all wish we have today in Altadena. Adhalia R, a high school student, reads as a peer with published, seasoned writers for the first time. No one didn’t have a good time but not everyone who could have read read.
The book itself has not yet arrived. The printer targets a date just beyond Poetry & Cookies so there’s a distribution plan already in operation. Distribution is always the bugaboo of independent press. It’s key there’s a plan.
Every published poet gets a copy to acknowledge their selection. Golden Foothills Press offers tiered discounts for additional copies and classroom sets. Golden Foothills Press plans a “driveway distribution day” at Thelma Reyna’s residence. Thereafter, Bob Lucas librarians will have a supply of books for published poets to pick up at their convenience.
Readers in general can order the $20 book directly from Golden Foothills Press (link), or via ISBN 978-1-7372481-3-2 from indie booksellers. Editor-in-Chief Lester Graves Lennon selected 180 poems from 158 poets to encompass the spirit of “1 town rising from ashes with solidarity and hope.” Altadena Poetry Review: Anthology 2026 is an impressive collection.
Working under tight deadlines since the open call for poetry submissions in December, publisher Thelma T. Reyna, herself an Altadena Laureate Emerita, marshals the process as Lennon selects and organizes the contents. Reyna engages Michael Sedano to photograph Altadena’s devastation and new development, fire and rebuilding, for the book’s cover. As the book comes together, Sarwar provides author bios and other data to Reyna, ensuring the completeness of book content.
Now poets and public wait to get their eyes on this important and engaging "After the Fires" collection. Lennon’s work has been exceptional. Moreover, the book’s 180 poems inspire, inform, whelm and overwhelm with deep emotion. Golden Foothills Press shared a galley proof with La Bloga and I anxiously await the printer's shipment. I have a prose poem in the book.
Altadena’s new Laureates take over from here. New Editor-in-Chief Shahe Mankerian doesn’t attend owing to inescapable conflict. Poetry & Cookie’s happy audience meets and welcomes Rhonda Mitchell as Altadena Poet Laureate for Community Events.
Here is a portrait gallery of Poetry & Cookies’ readers. La Bloga welcomes poets to comment below offering their name and website and see their portrait updated with identification.
Poetry & Cookies: Readers & Readers
Nikki Winslow, Director of Altadena Library District, works closely with Laureates to host readings and workshops and offer generous staff, media, and facilities support for the Laureate program, now in its twentieth year under the library's aegis.
 |
| Rhonda Mitchell, Altadena Poet Laureate for Community Events |
 |
| Sehba Sarwar in her farewell reading. |
 |
| Lester Graves Lennon in his farewell reading. |
 |
| Susan Rogers |
 |
| Mani Suri |
 |
| Christopher Cressey |
 |
| Beth Paulsen |
 |
| Darren J. De Leon |
 |
| Brenda Vaca |
 |
| Laureate Emerita Hazel Clayton Harrison |
 |
| Sharyl Collin |
 |
| Olga García Echeverría |
 |
| Jessica Abughattas |
 |
| Anna Broome |
 |
| Lynne Bronstein |
 |
| William Archila |
 |
Viet Thanh Nguyen and Simone.
Nguyen's fire book is titled "Simone." |
 |
| Laureate Emerita Teresa Mei Chuc |
 |
| Laureate Emerita Thelma T. Reyna |
 |
| Laureate Emerita Carla Sameth |
 |
| Laureate Emerita Elline Lipkin |
 |
| Felita Kealing |
 |
| Adhalia R |
 |
| Editor-in-Chief Lester Graves Lennon holds the fruits of his labor |
