Biography

Dr. Antonio López is San Mateo County’s 2025-2027 Poet Laureate. López is a poetician at the intersections of the arts, policy, and social change. He is the son of immigrants from Michoacán, México who moved to East Palo Alto in the 1980s. The first in his family to graduate from college, he holds degrees from Duke University, Rutgers- Newark, and the University of Oxford as a 2018 Marshall Scholar. His poetry and essays have appeared in numerous publications, anthologies and podcasts including Poetry Foundation, Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology, The Slowdown, Poetry Daily, among others. His first book of poetry, Gentefication, was selected by Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Gregory Pardlo for the 2019 Levis Prize in Poetry published by Four Way Books. His second book, The Right to Remain Violets, is forthcoming from the University of Arizona Press. Antonio served his hometown as a councilmember and mayor for the City of East Palo Alto from 2020 to 2024. From 2021- 2023, he worked as field representative for the California State Senate. He serves on the board of several nonprofits, including El Concilio of San Mateo County, Mannakin Dance Theater, the Catalino Tapia Scholarship Fund, among others. He earned his PhD in the Modern Thought and Literature program at Stanford University. Antonio also serves as the Director for Research and Advocacy for the coast side organization Ayudando Latinos a Soñar (ALAS).