LA Times Profiles Juan Felipe Herrera Prior to Robert Kirsch Award Ceremony

On April 9, The Los Angeles Times will present Juan Felipe Herrera, Poet Laureate of the United States, with the 2015 Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. In anticipation of the ceremony, Alex Espinosa talks with Herrera about his literary journey.

When he was young, Juan Felipe Herrera wanted to be a public speaker. "I dreamed of standing in front of an audience and giving these long speeches," he explains by phone. But then he discovered poetry, and the color of the world changed. "People talk about seeing things through rose-colored glasses, but I started seeing things through poetry-colored glasses."

On April 9, Herrera will be awarded the L.A. Times Book Prize's 2015 Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. "You've written poetry, prose, children's books, young adult books and even plays," I ask him. "Is there something you haven't achieved that I don't know about? Did you climb Mt. Everest?"

"N'ombre," he says. "I didn't, but I did recently climb Mt. Chilaquiles."

We laugh. I had caught Herrera just as he was waking up from a nap. There's a slight rasp in his voice, and when I apologize for interrupting his rest he laughs again. "No worries, man. It's good to hear you, hermanito." He wants to know what I've been up to since we saw each other in January at Cal State L.A.'s Center for Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, what I'm writing, if I'm still commuting between L.A. and Fresno. I tell him I'm good and remind him that we're supposed to talk about his role as our country's poet laureate and about his Kirsch award.

Continue at the Los Angeles Times.