Claudia Castro Luna is Seattle’s new civic poet

Seattle has a new civic poet. Claudia Castro Luna has been appointed to the newly created position, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray office has announced.

Luna will serve a two-year term, from August 2015 to August 2017. She’ll appear at five community performances and workshops throughout the city and receive a $10,000 stipend.

Luna was born in El Salvador and came to the U.S. as a  teenager fleeing civil war. She has a master of arts in urban planning, a teaching degree and a master of fine arts in poetry.  She’s a K-12 certified teacher.

Her poems have appeared in several journals, including “Milvia Street” and  “The Womanist.” She writes and teaches in Seattle, where she gardens and raises chickens with her husband and their three children.

Twenty-one people applied for the the position. The Civic Poet position is a successor to Seattle’s poet populist program, which was created by  Seattle City Councilman Nick Licata in 1999.