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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 appearĀ 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 Ā teenager fleeing civil war. She has a master of arts in urban planning, a teaching degree and a master of fine arts in poetry. Ā She’s a K-12 certified teacher.

Her poems have appeared in several journals, including “Milvia Street” and Ā “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 Ā Seattle City Councilman Nick Licata in 1999.