Mateo Quispe Poet Laureate 2024-2026 
Mateo Quispe (Red River Métis and Little Shell Chippewa, unenrolled) is a Two-Spirit poet, performer, activist, scholar, and interdisciplinary storyteller with Quechua heritage. Born in Federal Way, they called Auburn home for twenty years and attended Evergreen Heights Elementary, Mt. Baker Middle School, and Auburn Riverside High School. They completed their A.A. through the Running Start program at Green River College before transferring to the University of Washington Seattle. They graduated in 2026 with a Bachelor’s in the Comparative History of Ideas, a major that studies movements of thought, history, philosophy, and sociology.
Prior to becoming Auburn’s Poet Laureate, Quispe served as Seattle’s 2023-2024 Seattle Youth Poet Laureate, which culminated in the publication of a poetry chapbook, Dear Spanish, (2024) Poetry Northwest Editions. During that year, they were a librettist in the Seattle Opera Creation Lab and collaborated with composer Mina Pariseau to develop Blood Dawn of the Inti Sun, a twenty-minute Indigenous chamber opera based on the Andean Legend of the Ayar Brothers. Blood Dawn premiered at Tagney Jones Hall in Seattle and later toured the Puget Sound, including at the Postmark Center for the Arts as part of Auburn’s 2025 National Poetry Month Celebration that featured Latine poets and storytellers.
Quispe credits former Auburn Poet Laureate Susan Landgraf as their first writing mentor. At fifteen, they attended a Teen Writers Group she ran at the Auburn Public Library. Through the Writers Group, Quispe first learned to edit their work and started becoming interested in poetry. It was also where they learned what a poet laureate was and that Auburn had one. In the spirit of community and reciprocity, Quispe became Auburn’s Poet Laureate to promote poetry throughout the city and Muckleshoot reservation with the guiding principle that “poetry helps navigate the waters of life.”
In 2025, Quispe received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship for their poetry and the Canoe Poetry Nooks Project, which installs a series of Indigenous-focused poetry libraries in bookcases shaped like Coast Salish canoes in public spaces around Auburn and the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation: Postmark Center for the Arts, Muckleshoot Community Center, Auburn Senior Center, Muckleshoot Elders’ Complex, the Holman Library at Green River College, Muckleshoot Tribal School, and Muckleshoot cultural programming. The bookcases and ceremonial paddles were designed and created in collaboration with Muckleshoot carvers Tyson Simmons and Keith Stevenson. Each paddle and bookcase is inscribed with the phrase “poetry helps navigate the waters of life” in both English and Southern Lushootseed.
Outside of the Academy of American Poets, Quispe has received fellowships and done residencies at from the Seattle Public Library, Collections of Transience, EchoX, The Fine Arts Work Center, The Future Perfect Project, Jack Straw, and UrbanWordNYC. In 2024 they were the recipient of the Alphabet Alliance of Color’s Dwone Anderson Young Youth Leadership Award for QT-BIPOC youth activists.
Mateo Quispe Bio (PDF)
Selected Poems by Mateo Quispe:
Past Poets Laureate
About the City of Auburn Poet Laureate Position
The City of Auburn Poet Laureate position was established by City Ordinance 6383 in 2011 to recognize and honor a citizen poet of exceptional talent and accomplishment. The term of service for Auburn’s Poet Laureate is three years. The award is honorific; there is no financial compensation for the position. The Auburn Arts Commission forwards recommendations of qualified applicants to the Mayor for final selection and appointment.
The Auburn Poet Laureate is encouraged to promote the appreciation of poetry and literary life in Auburn through events and opportunities that invite the public to engage with poetry and literature. The Poet Laureate is also invited to participate in various City of Auburn public openings and events throughout the three year term.
For more information on the Auburn Poet Laureate program contact us at [email protected].
For information on other City of Auburn Arts opportunities visit our Call to Artists page.