D.L. Lang is an internationally published poet whose work has appeared in over 50 anthologies worldwide. She was proclaimed Poet Laureate of Vallejo, California on October 10, 2017 and served through 2019, hosting the Poetry in Notion poetry circle, National Poetry Month events, and other poetry shows at the Solano County Library. Lang edited the anthology Verses, Voices, & Visions of Vallejo as a fundraiser for the Vallejo Peace Project. She served as a judge of poetry for the Solano County Library’s Teen Writing Contest and judged performance for the Solano County Fair, Solano County Poetry Out Loud and Vallejo Poetry Slam. In 2018 she attended the historic poet laureate gathering in Tujunga.
Lang has won numerous ribbons for poetry and creative writing at the Solano, Marin, San Mateo, and Alameda County Fairs. Lang was one of ten winners of the Curbside Haiku contest in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and her haiku was displayed around downtown Tulsa and is archived at the Woody Guthrie Center. She won 3rd place in the City Limits Publishing Protest Poetry contest in 2020. She has received proclamations from the California State Senate, California Arts Council, and Vallejo City Council for her poetic contributions and service as poet laureate.
Lang has performed hundreds of times at literary events, political demonstrations, art galleries, county fairs and festivals. Highlights include performing at the 2023 Woody Guthrie Folk Festival at the History Center in Okemah as one of the Woody Guthrie Poets being accompanied by David Amram and standing on a replica of Woody’s front porch. She has performed at the Flyway Festival, Laborfest, Unity Day, Culver City Book Festival, Bay Area Book Festival, Alameda County Fair, Solano County Fair, and San Mateo County Fair. She has been a featured poet at many bookstores, libraries, and poetry shows around the Bay Area, including Alibi Bookshop, Book Passage, and Revolution Books.
Using her poetry as a tool for political action Lang has often used her voice to speak out at demonstrations for social justice including abortion rights with RiseUp4AbortionRights, and workers’ rights with LaborFest. As poet laureate she spoke at local demonstrations for Families Belong Together, Vallejo United Against Hatred and Anti-Semitism, International Peace Day, performed in a multi-city Poets Laureate for Social Justice Tour, and gave the convocation at the 2019 Vallejo Women’s March. She is a member of the Revolutionary Poets Brigade.
KPFA, KPOO, KZCT, and KALW have broadcast Lang’s work. Lang has also made regular live on air appearances on Art Beat Poetry Hour since March 2018. She is a regular performer at Poetry by the Bay since April 2015, and wrote the foreword to founder Kyrah Ayers’ debut poetry collection, My Light. She also wrote a blurb for Dee Allen’s Rusty Gallows. Fred Ross-Perry, Greg Perkins, and Jon Carrube have all transformed her words into songs. She gave a talk to teenagers about writing poetry for causes for the Solano County Office of Education’s Art is Power program.
Alongside Erika Snyder in 2018 she co-founded Vallejo Poetry Society which provides resources to local poets. Her paperbacks can be purchased at Revolution Books Berkeley, Vallejo’s Alibi Bookshop, and Bookshop Benicia.
Lang was born in Germany and has German, Scots-Irish, English, and Choctaw heritage. She is a convert to Reform Judaism. She loves birdwatching, nature walks, and music. She holds undergraduate degrees from Northern Oklahoma College and the University of Oklahoma. She identifies as pan and demi, and has been married to her husband Tim since 2006.
Read reviews of her work from Kirkus.
Contact D.L. Lang at [email protected]