Joaquín Zihuatanejo, a featured artist at the Missouri Literary Festival, is a spoken word artist, award-winning teacher, HBO Def Poet, 2008 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion, and 2009 World Cup of Poetry Slam Champion.

Joaquín taught Slam Poetry Workshop at the Missouri Literary Festival in 2009 in Springfield, MO, at the Drury University Diversity Center.

The Missouri Literary Festival is a fund-raiser for non-profit Springfield Area Arts Council and other Springfield educational funds.