Lee Herrick (born 1970) is an American poet, writer, and professor who was appointed to be Poet Laureate of the State of California, the first Asian American to hold the position, by governor Gavin Newsom in 2022.
[1][2] Herrick is ethnic Korean and was born in 1970 in Daejeon, South Korea.
[3] Herrick grew up in Danville and Modesto, California, where he became interested in literature.
Herrick lives in Fresno, teaching at Fresno City College and with the Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts program of study at the University of Nevada, Reno.
[4] In 2015 he co-founded LitHop, an annual literary arts festival in the city.