City of Costa Mesa
Home MenuPoet Laureate Program
MISSION
To support local artists and to create an opportunity for them to showcase their talents, while contributing to a creative ecosystem in Costa Mesa. The Poet Laureate promotes the literary arts, while also increasing appreciation for the reading and writing of poetry and self-expression.
WELCOME COSTA MESA'S POET LAUREATE
Danielle Hanson strives to create and facilitate wonder. She is author of The Night Is What It Eats (forthcoming, Elixir Press Prize), Fraying Edge of Sky (Codhill Press Poetry Prize), and Ambushing Water (Finalist, Georgia Author of the Year), and editor of Objects in This Mirror (Press 53) and a book of literary criticism. Her poetry was the basis for a puppet show at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. She is Marketing Director for Sundress Publications and serves on their Editorial Board and as Managing Editor for their imprint Doubleback Books.
Previously, she has been Poet-in-Residence at Arts Beacon in Atlanta, where she curated a poet/artist collaboration show Alloy. She has also served as Writer-in-Residence for Georgia Writers, Poetry Editor for Doubleback Books, Poetry Editor for Hayden’s Ferry Review, and taught poetry workshops at high schools and public libraries. Her work has appeared in over 100 journals. She teaches poetry at the University of California, Irvine.
Danielle has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Poetry from Arizona State University, a Master’s in Mathematics from ASU and a Bachelor’s in Humanities and Mathematics from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
UPCOMING POET LAUREATE EVENTS
Event dates and details for City hosted events and for all other arts and culture activities around Costa Mesa can also be found on our Arts and Culture Calendar.
Download the flyer for all 2026 events
Poetry Workshop
DATE: March 7, 2026
LOCATION: Costa Mesa Donald Dungan Library (1855 Park Ave.) in the Adams Room
TIME: 1:00pm to 3:00pm
Join us for a poetry workshop! Learn how to write a poem with Danielle Hanson. All materials and poems will be provided. All ages.
Community Ode Activity
DATE: April 4, 2026
LOCATION: Lions Park Event Lawn (1855 Park Ave.)
TIME: 11:00am to 3:00pm
Participate in creating an ode as a community at Costa Mesa's Springfest event! -with Poet Laureate, Danielle Hanson. All materials will be provided. All ages.
Read the community poem here: Ode to Lions Park
Book Launch with Danielle Hanson
DATE: April 24, 2026
LOCATION: Costa Mesa Donald Dungan Library (1855 Park Ave.) in the Adams Room
TIME: 6:00pm to 7:00pm
Come and celebrate a book launch for Danielle Hanson's new book of poetry The Night Is What It Eats. The Night Is What It Eats explores several interlacing themes: saints complaining about their Heaven, body parts disassembled and put to use in a surrealistic bending of reality, elegies to animals loved and unloved, magical realist poems and odes to nature and natural forces. It is the world we live in, but dismantled and reassembled. Parts of the whole are set free, like St Lucia’s eyes, to see the world on their own.
Stay for a reading and get your copy signed by Costa Mesa's Poet Laureate.
Poetry Workshop
DATE: May 5, 2026
LOCATION: Costa Mesa Senior Center (695 W. 19th Ave.)
TIME: 10:00am to 12:00pm
Join us for a poetry workshop! Learn how to write a poem with Danielle Hanson. All materials and poems will be provided. All ages.
Poetry Workshop for Teens
DATE: May 5, 2026
LOCATION: Teen Center at the Downtown Recreation Center (1860 Anaheim Ave.)
TIME: 3:30pm to 5:30pm
Join us for a teen centered poetry workshop! Learn how to write a poem with Danielle Hanson. All materials and poems will be provided. Teens ages.
Virtual Poetry Workshop
DATE: October 24, 2026
LOCATION: Zoom (registration and Zoom link will be posted closer to the date)
TIME: 10:00am to 12:00pm
Join us for a poetry workshop via Zoom! Learn how to write a poem with Danielle Hanson.
PAST POET LAUREATE EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES
Poetry in the Parks
DATE: August 25, 2025
LOCATIONS: Costa Mesa Senior Center, Canyon Park, Fairview Park, Balearic Park, and Bark Park
TIME: During park and facility hours
An interactive poetry scavenger hunt through five Costa Mesa parks. Scan the QR code at each park kiosk and experience a unique poetry and park inspired activity. All ages.
Poetry-Oke!
DATE: September 13, 2025
LOCATION: Norma Hertzog Community Center (1845 Park Ave.)
TIME: 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Join us at ARTventure 2025 for Poetry-Oke! Just like karaoke, but with poetry. Danielle Hanson will bring the poems, you read them at the mic! All ages.
Poetry Broadside Activity
DATE: October 11, 2025
LOCATION: Lions Park Event Lawn (1845 Park Ave.)
TIME: 2:00pm to 6:00pm
Join us for Scarecrow Fest 2025! Create wall art from a poem. All materials and poems will be provided. All ages.
Poetry Broadside Activity
DATE: December 16, 2025
LOCATION: Costa Mesa City Hall (77 Fair Dr.)
TIME: 5:00pm to 8:00pm
Join us for Snoopy House 2025! Create wall art from a poem. All materials and poems will be provided. All ages.
IN THE PRESS
Costa Mesa introduces City’s first Poet Laureate – City of Costa Mesa News
Costa Mesa names UC Irvine poetry instructor inaugural poet laureate - Los Angeles Times
Poetry plays a role in the renovation of Costa Mesa's Brentwood Park - Los Angeles Times
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS & TIMELINE
Application Timelines
The online application will reopen in early 2027.
Poet Laureate Program Guidelines (downloadable application included)