Featured in the Sunday Boston Globe, November 26, 2023

For Oliver de La Paz, community is built on sonnets and verse

Worcester’s poet laureate, whose ‘Diaspora Sonnets’ was longlisted for the National Book Award, directs his life and work toward the service of others

By Cheryl Clark Vermeulen Globe correspondent,Updated November 20, 2023, 2:25 p.m.

Oliver de la Paz and I met when we and other Boston writers volunteered for the 2019 Writers for Migrant Justice movement. An efficient organizer, he moved swiftly through every task with the most affable demeanor. While there wasn’t time then to learn his backstory, I wanted to know more about this well-published poet who cared for migrant justice and worked so hard and amicably.

More recently, in a corner booth at a tapas restaurant in Worcester, we filled ourselves, and talked about his latest book, his formative experiences, and his vision for poetry communities. Not only did his welcoming and cheerful presence shine through again, but so did all the ways that he is a poet who deeply values service.