MMUF Fellow Tongo Eisen-Martin Selected as San Francisco's Poet Laureate

MMUF fellow Tongo Eisen-Martin, an alumnus of Columbia University's MMUF program, has been selected as the next poet laureate of the city of San Francisco. Tongo, who also earned a master's degree in African American studies from Columbia, is the author of Heaven is All Goodbyes, from the Pocket Poet Series published by City Lights Books, which won an American Book Award and the California Book Award for Poetry in 2018. Born and raised in San Francisco, Tongo will lead community-based poetry programs and events as the city's poet laureate. He says, "I want to push even further into places where poetry has not yet permeated."