RICHARD BLANCO was selected by President Barack Obama as the fifth presidential inaugural poet in U.S. history – making him the youngest and first Latinx, immigrant, and gay person to serve in the role – and more recently was awarded a National Humanities Medal. He serves as Education Ambassador for The Academy of American Poets and is an associate professor at Florida International University. A Woodrow Wilson Fellow who has received numerous honorary doctorates, Blanco was born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami. Cultural identity characterizes his many collections of award-winning poetry, including his most recent, Homeland of My Body: New and Selected Poems (Beacon Press).