The Global Warming Poetry Competition Judges

Devorah Major
Devorah Major served as the 3rd Poet Laureate in San Francisco from 2002-2005. She has toured her work nationally and internationally. devorah major won the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence for street smarts ( poetry - Curbstone Press - 1997) and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association First Novelist award for An Open Weave (Seal Press-1996). She has a second novel published, Brown Glass Windows (Curbstone Press 2002) and a third book of poetry where river meets ocean (City Lights 2003), and fourth book with more than tongue (Creative Arts Books, Inc 2003). In May of 2005 City Lights released an anthology of poems, The Other Side of the Postcard, that she edited. Ms major collaborated with composer Guillermo Galindo to create Trade Routes, a symphony with spoken word and chorus, that premiered under Maestro Michael Morgan and the Oakland East Bay Symphony. Her poems, short stories, and essays are available in a number of magazines and anthologies. She has performed her work with and without jazz musicians across the United States, in England, Wales, Italy, Bosnia, and Paris. She has taught poetry and creative writing as community artist-in-residence and/or college lecturer for over twenty years.

Michael Datcher
Michael Datcher did his undergraduate work at UC Berkeley and his graduate studies at UCLA. He is the author of The New York Times Bestseller RAISING FENCES: A Black Man’s Love Story, which was a TODAY SHOW Book Club pick. The film rights were optioned by actor Will Smith’s Overbrook Productions. Datcher is the Co-editor of TOUGH LOVE: The Life & Death of Tupac Shakur. His essays on politics, race and culture have been published in the Washington Post, LA Times, Vibe, The Source, Ladies Home Journal and the Baltimore Sun, among many others. Datcher has curated programs and or presented his work at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, The Getty Museum and the Hammer Museum, among others. He has presented work and/or lectured at the University of Illinois, University of Kentucky, UCLA and UC Berkeley, among others. He is the editor of the international journal of literary nonfiction THE TRUTH ABOUT THE FACT. Datcher is a professor of English at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Jorge Tetl Argueta
Jorge Tetl Argueta is a celebrated Salvadoran poet and writer whose bi-lingual children’s books have received numerous awards. His poetry has appeared in anthologies and textbooks. He won the America’s Book Award, among other awards for his first collection of poems for children, A Movie in My Pillow. He was the Gold Medal Award winner in the 2005 National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA) for Moony Luna/Luna, Lunita Lunera. His other works for children include Xochitl and the Flowers, 2003 America’s Award Commended Title, Trees are Hanging from the Sky, Zipitio, Talking with Mother Earth, The Little Hen in the City and The Fiesta of the Tortillas. A native Salvadoran and Pipil Nahua Indian, Jorge spent much of his childhood in rural El Salvador. He feels that everybody is capable of writing, especially young children who are natural poets. Jorge’s workshops have been hosted in such diverse venues as schools, libraries, museums, juvenile halls, universities, colleges, shelters, television, radio, hospitals, art programs, and child care provider conferences.

Julie Mack
Julie Mack is the Executive Director of the Sundance Preserve, Robert Redford’s environmental organization. She has worked on clean air, energy and climate issues for over three decades. Julie, her husband and three children live in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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