Thank you so much for joining us at this years festival. Join us for the Merritt Dialogues on the 8 July. 

Neida Chavez Solórzano

Neida Chavez Solórzano (she/her/ella) is a 4th-year Latino Studies major at San Francisco State University. She is a first-generation Guatemalan American, born and raised in the Bay Area. In Spring 2026, she served as a research assistant for Professor Hernández-Linares and explored both academic and community interpretations of La Siguanaba. As part of her internship, she also organized and read at the inaugural poetry series, Cantos de Kunakas (Ear Tree Songs) on May 2 at the Precita Eyes Mural Center.

Where to find me at the festival

Dan Alter

Dan Alter’s poems, reviews and translations have been published in journals including Field, Fourteen Hills, and Zyzzyva; his first collection My Little Book of Exiles won the 2022 Cowan Poetry Prize. A volume of translations Take a Breath, You’re Getting Excited, from the Hebrew of Yakir Ben-Moshe, was published by Ben Yehuda Press in September 2024, and Hills Full of Holes, a second collection of poems, by Fernwood Press in March 2025. He lives with his wife and daughter in Berkeley. He works at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley.

2025 Writers’ Workshops

Speaker A Compass in the Wilderness: Poetry in the Age of Environmental Crisis