By Brian Dunlap

Poet and L.Á. native Amanda Gorman will be President Elect Joe Biden’s Inaugural poet Wednesday. She made history by being named the first ever Youth Poet Laureate of Los Ángeles, then became the first-ever Youth Poet Laureate of the United States.

At just 22 Gorman has a history of writing for official occasions. She’s written for a Boston Pops 4th of July celebration to the inauguration of Harvard President Larry Bacow at her alma mater.

“I have kind of stumbled upon this genre. It’s been something I find a lot of emotional reward in, writing something I can make people feel touched by, even if it’s just for a night,” says Gorman in a Times Magazine story published Friday.

Gorman published her first poetry collection, The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough, as a teenager and will publish the first of two children’s books Change Signs, later this year. Her work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the  African diaspora.

Growing up in L.Á. with a teacher for a mother and two siblings, Gorman attended New Roads, a private school in Santa Monica. She described herself when she was younger as a “weird child” who enjoyed reading and writing, and was encouraged by her mother. She’s calling her Inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb.”