By admin 
Joseph Rios sums up Fresno by quoting a poem, which seems right for a guy who is himself an award-winning writer and the city’s former poet laureate. The quote, from Sesshu Foster’s “Postcard Fresno,” is the tag line and central theme for an essay Rios had published this week at Zócalo Public Square.
Read more Spotlight on past Fresno poet laureate. What he says about the ‘capital of poets’
“Here I am in the capital of poets, here I am in Fresno.”
Zócalo Public Square is a literary-minded non-profit journalism outlet, that, as the name suggests, seeks to engage the public conversation. The Los Angles-based organization does this “in partnership with cultural institutions, public agencies, and community organizations to develop, curate, and produce high-quality public programs, editorial work, and multi-year series.”
Rios’ essay is Zócalo is paying attention to the Central Valley. Its publication coincided with a forum Zócalo hosted Thursday night at Arte Américas. That conversation focused on a region underoing change; a place “with steady population growth, reformed labor union legislation, the promise of California High-Speed Rail, and burgeoning arts and culture scenes,” according to Zócalo’s press on the event.
For Rios, the art and culture aren’t so much burgeoning as hidden in plain sight.
He paints the region as drive-by locale, a place people know of but hardly know. He makes metaphors of the oleander bushes growing along the highway and finds meaning in the climb over the Grapevine and into (or out of) Los Angeles. He quotes the mayor of Huron; “Fresno isn’t in the middle of nowhere. It’s in the middle of everywhere, carnal.”
Rios also lays out Fresno’s literary tradition; in Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” and Kerouac’s “Dharma Bums,” but also José Montoya’s “20 Years of Joda” and the short stories of Tomás Rivera. That’s not discounting the native sons and daughters name-dropped throughout the essay: William Saroyan and Philip Levine (Pulitzer Prize winners, both), journalist/author Mark Arax and poets Brynn Saito and Sara Borjas.
“Fresno’s literary landscape is not just the work of a singular person or poet,” Rios writes, “but a culmination of generations of survival and the preservation of language and culture. And yet, we do not simply exist in the past. Some of our most celebrated writers are still alive, still working.”
Fresno poet laureates
Rios grew up in the Central Valley. His mother was from Clovis; his father from Calwa. Rios attended Fresno City College for five years before transferring to UC Berkeley and eventually ending up in Los Angeles, where he wrote and released his first book of poetry, “Shadowboxing: Poems and Impersonations,” in 2017.
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Rios was Fresno’s sixth Poet Laureate, appointed in 2023 and serving until last year, when the position was filled by Aideed Medina. Rios was proceeded by:
- Megan Anderson Bohigian
- Marisol Baca
- Bryan Median
- Lee Herrick
- James Tyner
Fresnans as state, national poet laureates
Of course, Fresno has a line of writers who have served both the state and nation as poet laureates.
Herrick became the first to serve two terms as California’s Poet Laureate when he was reappointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year. Herrick followed Fresno’s Juan Felipe Herrera, a MacArthur “genius,” who served as the state poet laureate from 2012-2014, before being named as national poet laureate in 2015. And Herrera was following in the path of the late Philip Levine, who was the U.S. Poet Laureate in 2011-2012.
Rios’ essay seems to tie these poets and the city’s very literary landscape, to its location.
“There is freedom in being from a place people drive by,” Rios wrote in his essay.
“You’d be amazed at the work you create when you think no one is paying attention.”
This story was originally published June 13, 2026 at 5:30 AM with the headline “Spotlight on past Fresno poet laureate. What he says about the ‘capital of poets’.”
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