FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Information
Kelly Wiehe
Cultural Affairs Officer
City Manager’s Office
520-540-7508
Gia Del Pino
Communications Manager
Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona
520-624-0595, ext. 4
Melissa Goodrich
Digital Strategy & Marketing Coordinator
University of Arizona Poetry Center
City of Tucson Names Logan Phillips as 2026-2029 Tucson Poet Laureate
TUCSON, AZ — The City of Tucson, in partnership with the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona and the University of Arizona Poetry Center, has appointed Logan Phillips as the 2026-2029 Tucson Poet Laureate. This three-year honorary post, which began March 1, 2026, includes a $15,000 honorarium and recognizes Phillips’s blend of literary achievement and community engagement. A local poet, educator, and cultural worker, Phillips is the author of the recently published RECKON (2026) and Sonoran Strange (2015) and has taught at all educational levels while touring widely as a bilingual performer and DJ. Cofounder and former Codirector of Spoken Futures, Inc. and the Tucson Youth Poetry Slam, he brings a borderlands perspective shaped by his upbringing in the Arizona-Sonora region and years working in and around Mexico City.
As Poet Laureate, Phillips proposes the ¡Somos Uno! Open Mic Series, a set of multilingual open mics with writing workshops in small businesses, libraries, and underused spaces to support citywide cultural initiatives and document Tucson’s evolving story. This series would be part of the City of Tucson’s ¡Somos Uno! A Cultural Heritage Strategy for Tucson, a 2023 initiative to steward the City’s rich cultural heritage, jointly led by the Office of Mayor Regina Romero and the Office of the City Manager.
He frames poetry as an important tool for building connection and resilience amid current social and environmental challenges and describes laureateship as an honor in the city where he is raising his children. Selected by a seven-person panel of literary community members, Phillips was chosen for his experience, artistic strength, and leadership.
The Poet Laureate program celebrates literary excellence and deepens the connection between art and civic life. The Laureate’s responsibilities include leading a community poetry project, composing a commemorative poem inspired by Tucson, participating in civic events, supporting cultural initiatives, and documenting public programming. The Laureate will also give an inaugural reading at the Tucson Festival of Books on March 15 at 4:00 p.m. in the Student Union Kiva, appearing alongside Arizona’s newly appointed Poet Laureate, Laura Tohe, who was named to the post this year by Governor Katie Hobbs.
“It’s an honor of a lifetime to be appointed Poet Laureate of this city that I love deeply, a place that has both inspired my own writing and given me the opportunity to contribute to its cultural fabric through education and organizing over the last two decades,” said Logan Phillips. “While I’m deeply grateful for this recognition, I’m even moreso looking forward to serving the community in tangible, meaningful ways during my term. I’ll be working to create a new poetry and storytelling series that will hold exciting events across the city, bringing folks together across cultures, generations, and literary tendencies.”
“I am so excited to introduce Tucson’s newest Poet Laureate: Logan Phillips!” said Regina Romero, Mayor of Tucson. “This has been a meaningful and carefully crafted process to continue the amazing vision of TC Tolbert. Logan knows and personifies Tucson. We’re kind and caring people, and that’s what he is. His words reflect the Sonoran Desert. It’s important to continue our poet laureate tradition with someone who understands our city, and I’m so happy he’s going to be a voice for Tucsonans.”
“We look forward to seeing the poetics of our communal experiences come to life through Logan’s vision,” said Adriana Gallego, CEO of the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona.
“The University of Arizona Poetry Center couldn’t be more excited to partner with Logan as the Mayor’s choice to be Tucson’s newest Poet Laureate a nd create a broad public life for poetry in this incredible community,” said Tyler Meier, Executive Director of The University of Arizona Poetry Center.
“I’ve been deeply honored to serve as Tucson’s 4th Poet Laureate from 2017-2025 and grateful for the many opportunities to share and invite poetry across Tucson,” said TC Tolbert. “It has been especially meaningful, as the first transgender city poet laureate in the nation, to serve over 1000 LGBTQ+ community members through public programming. Tucson has always been at the forefront of literary arts and social justice work, and I’m looking forward to seeing Logan Phillips take on this new role and bring his vital energy to encourage and connect us in this time.”
2026-2029 Tucson Poet Laureate – Logan Phillips’s Bio
2017-2020 Tucson Poet Laureate – TC Tolbert’s Bio
More about the Tucson Poet Laureate program
About the City of Tucson Arts & Culture Initiatives
The City of Tucson celebrates and invests in the rich artistic, cultural, and heritage traditions that shape our vibrant desert community. Rooted in centuries of diverse cultural expression, Tucson supports programs and partnerships that uplift local artists, strengthen cultural spaces, expand creative opportunities, and foster belonging for all residents. Through the groundbreaking ¡SOMOS UNO! Cultural Heritage Strategy, the City affirms that our many voices and traditions are one shared foundation for a creative future. For more information about the City’s cultural affairs work, visit https://tucsonaz.gov/culturalaffairs.
The Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and funding agency with a mission to advance the artistic expression, civic participation, and equitable economic growth of our diverse communities. Through forward-thinking, accountable leadership, the Arts Foundation works to affect systemic change that fosters an accessible, diverse, inclusive, and equitable local arts community.
As the designated local arts agency, the Arts Foundation provides arts and cultural development across Southern Arizona for individual working artists, artist collectives, ensembles, and nonprofit organizations through grant programs, professional development opportunities and public art program management for the City of Tucson.
The work of the Arts Foundation is made possible through generous support from the City of Tucson, Pima County, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Arizona Commission on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and individual donors. Our service area includes all counties and native sovereign nations South of the Gila River, including 372 miles along the US-Mexico international border in the South and along the 590-mile stretch of the Gila River, which flows west from the New Mexico border to the Colorado River.
The Poetry Center is a leading literary institution and a living archive of poetry. One of the finest and largest print/digital collections of contemporary poetry in America with more than 120,000 cataloged items. The Poetry Center is a permanent landmark home for poetry in the American Southwest, and has welcomed over one thousand poets to Tucson to read since its founding in 1960. The Center’s education programs annually serve Arizona school children, college students, and community members. Through the premiere audiovisual archive, Voca, The Poetry Center provides free access to poetry to the greater literary community in Tucson and beyond. The Poetry Center is committed to the future of poetry, poetics, literary arts, and the ever-growing community that we serve and cherish. Learn more at poetry.arizona.edu.
