Nick Dante (he/him) is a poet, arts educator, and avid traveler born and raised in the sunny San Gabriel Valley. Inspired by place-consciousness, alternative culture, deep ecology, language, and human behavior, Dante has collaborated with writers, musicians, song writers, actors, production designers, and visual artists on multiple creative projects. His poetry, essays, and book reviews have been published in a variety of literary journals and anthologies.

Growing up among the foothill communities of southern California, Dante was strongly motivated by community learning, personal narratives, local history, natural history, and artistic expression. For him, creating something is the ultimate act of resistance in a culture that tends to see its citizens as consumers and commodities. Writing is a way of thinking publicly, of being seen, heard, and felt by an audience. And so, he is an adamant believer in the power of writing and the arts as a vehicle for collective transformation. However, he also believes that to have an enduring impact, writing and art must transcend functioning solely as a means of personal catharsis. For Dante, the power of writing is that it can be a direct path to cultivating the understanding and empathy needed to re-forge the world into a more connected and caring place.

In 2019 Dante accepted a position as a teaching artist/conservatory teacher in the Creative Writing and Integrated Arts Conservatories at the California School of the Arts in the San Gabriel Valley, followed by a position teaching creative writing in the English Department at Chapman University in 2022. Teaching creative writing and literature classes to emerging artists and creatives has been one of the best experiences of his life.

photo credit: The amazing Sophia Gonzalez

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