Lawrence, KS

Huascar Medina has lived artfully in Kansas for more than 20 years. As the Seventh Poet Laureate of Kansas, Medina works with the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission reimagining and developing innovative programming for the poet laureateship. Medina has taken a grassroots approach to supporting the creative community in Kansas with a focus on emerging artists, organizations, and programs.

Medina proudly works with organizations Art as Mentorship in Kansas City, Missouri, and Artist INC in Topeka, Kansas. He is a member of the ArtsConnect board and Kansas Book Festival advisory council. Medina takes pride in providing a platform for Kansas writers by reviewing and spotlighting their work as the literary editor for seveneightfive magazine and as the host and creator of Kansas is Lit, an online radio show at 785Live.com. Also, Medina is a staff editor at South Broadway Press in Denver, Colorado; a founding member of the Kansas Arts Writing Cohort; and an op-ed writer at Kansas Reflector.

In his most recent book of poetry, Un Mango Grows in Kansas, a 2021 Kansas Notable Book, Medina explores the boundaries between identity and location as a second-generation immigrant living in the United States. His poems have most notably appeared in the New York Times, Latino Book Review, Flint Hills Review, KANSAS! Magazine and Green Mountains Review.