Originally from Galveston, TX, Lupe Mendez is a Writer, Editor, Educator, and Artivist…
He is the author several books poetry and multi-genre works, including WHY I AM LIKE TEQUILA (Willow Books, 2019), winner of the 2019 John A. Robertson Award for Best First Book of Poetry, PRAYER HOLDING NIGHT: NEW & SELECTED WORKS (Texas Christian University Press, 2025) and WE EXIST IN THE WHISPER: HUELGA SCHOOL WORKS (Arte Publico Press, 2026). He is the founder of Tintero Projects which works with emerging Latinx writers and other writers of color within the Texas Gulf Coast Region, with Houston as its hub.
Lupe earned his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Texas @ El Paso and currently serves as Poetry Editor for the Texas Observer and Huizache: the Magazine of a New America and Associate Editor for the Acentos Review. He has been awarded residencies and fellowships from CantoMundo, Macondo, the National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures, the Poetry Foundation + Crescendo Literary Poetry Incubator, the Betsy Hotel Writer’s Room and was one of twenty-five recipients of the inaugural Houston BIPOC Arts Network Fund (Houston BANF) Artist Award for 2023. . Lupe is a 20+ year veteran in education having served classrooms across K through College in public, private and charter school settings. Mendez is Texas Poet Laureate Emeritus (Texas Poet Laureate2022 - 2023).
In April of 2020, Mendez along with 7 other Texas artists was selected to represent the state as Texas Official Artists - Lupe served as the 2022 Texas Poet Laureate, being only one of two poets from Galveston, TX and the first person of color from Galveston to have ever been appointed to this position . The title of Texas Poet Laureate is the state’s highest accolade for excellence in the arts.
Lupe's work reflects his roots in Texas ( including Galveston Island, Houston, and the Rio Grande Valley) and the Mexican state of Jalisco (specifically, Atotonilco El Alto, San Jose del Valle, San Juan de los Lagos, Guadalajara, Los Cuates, La Pareja). Mendez is the son of a formally undocumented Mexicano and an RGV Tejana and his work remarks on issues from the political to the emotional in a way that intends to connect with both the novice reader to the pro poetic writer.
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