News Release | Community, Alumni
Texas Poet Laureate 2025 Octavio Quintanilla, a Weslaco High and UTPA alumnus, will visit UTRGV Edinburg on June 18 to lead a visual poetry workshop and present a public reading and Q&A. Now a professor at Our Lady of the Lake University, Quintanilla is an award-winning poet and artist whose bilingual works explore identity, language, and culture. (Courtesy graphic)
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Around Campus, Media Advisory, Announcements, Events and Exhibits, Community, Alumni, Education & Training, Arts
By Amanda A. Taylor-Uchoa
RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – JUNE 17, 2025 – UTRGV will welcome the 2025 Texas Poet Laureate, Octavio Quintanilla, for a special afternoon of poetry, creativity and conversation on Wednesday, June 18.
An alumnus of the University of Texas Pan American, UTRGV’s legacy institution, and Weslaco High School, Quintanilla is an award-winning poet, visual artist and professor at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio. His recent works include The Book of Wounded Sparrows, longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award, and Las Horas Imposibles / The Impossible Hours, winner of the 2025 Ambroggio Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets.
The events, which are free and open to the public, will feature a hands-on visual poetry workshop followed by an evening reading and Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to bring notebooks or loose paper along with writing materials for the workshop. Zoom registration links will be sent via email in advance for virtual attendees.
“We’re very happy that Octavio Quintanilla, a legacy institution alumnus, has been named Texas Poet Laureate 2025,” said Emmy Pérez, professor and chair of the UTRGV Department of Creative Writing and Texas Poet Laureate 2020. “Octavio’s poetry and frontextos (visual poetry) are important during these times and always. He writes in both English and Spanish, reflecting the languages of our communities. Most importantly, these events are meant to inspire students and community members while celebrating Octavio’s incredible achievements.”
For more information or to request Zoom access, please contact the UTRGV Department of Writing and Language Studies at emmy.perez@utrgv.edu.
ABOUT UTRGV
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 as the first major public university of the 21st century in Texas. This transformative initiative provided the opportunity to expand educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley, including a new School of Medicine and a School of Podiatry, and made it possible for residents of the region to benefit from the Permanent University Fund – a public endowment contributing support to the University of Texas System and other institutions.
UTRGV has campuses and off-campus research and teaching sites throughout the Rio Grande Valley including Brownsville (formerly The University of Texas at Brownsville campus), Edinburg (formerly The University of Texas-Pan American campus), Harlingen, Weslaco, McAllen, Port Isabel, Rio Grande City and South Padre Island. UTRGV, a comprehensive academic institution, enrolled its first class in the fall of 2015; the School of Medicine welcomed its first class in the summer of 2016, and the School of Podiatric Medicine in the fall of 2022.