The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Program in Creative Writing at Fresno State will present three events in its fall 2015 Reading Series with the Fresno Poets’ Association. The lineup features two award-winning immersion journalists, two critically acclaimed feminist artists and the popular annual reading from Fresno State creative writing faculty.
Each of the events will start at 7 p.m. in the Alice Peters Auditorium (Peters Business building, Room 191) inside the University Business Center. Admission and parking are free in suggested lots P5 and P6.
Friday, Sept. 4 – Fresno State MFA faculty
Readers will include:
• Steven Church, the founding editor of The Normal School literary magazine, whose latest essay collection is “Ultrasonic”
• Corrinne Clegg Hales, coordinator of the Philip Levine Prize in Poetry, whose latest poetry collection is “To Make it Right”
• John Hales, whose essays “Seeing, and Believing” and “Too Late for the Summer of Love” were published in 2014
• Randa Jarrar, a Lannan Foundation fellow whose new short-story collection “Him, Me, Muhammad Ali” is due out in 2016
• Tim Skeen, coordinator of the MFA Program, whose 2014 collection “Risk” won the White Pine Press Poetry Prize
Faculty Alex Espinoza is on leave in academic year 2015-16 and will not read.
Friday, Sept. 25 – Kerry Howley and Jen Percy
A professor of nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa, Kerry Howley’s book-length essay “Thrown” was a New York Times Notable Book in 2014.
A Pushcart Prize and NEA grant winner, Jen Percy’s 2014 nonfiction book “Demon Camp” was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great new Writers pick.
Friday, Oct. 9 – Myriam Gurba and Wendy C. Ortiz
A contributor to the traveling feminist art and performance collective Sister Spit, Myriam Gurba’s latest short-story collection is “Painting Their Portraits in Winter.”
As co-founder and host since 2004 of the Rhapsodomancy Reading Series in Los Angeles, Wendy C. Ortiz’s latest memoir is “Hollywood Notebook.”
The Fresno Poets’ Association is a decades-old community organization that hosts poetry and prose readings in conjunction with the Master of Fine Arts Program and the College of Arts and Humanities at Fresno State. Additional support for the fall 2015 Reading Series comes from Poets & Writers, the James Irvine Foundation, the Hearst Foundations, The Normal School literary magazine and the Chicano Writers and Artists Association. For information on Fresno Poets’ Association membership, or for more about the readings, call 559.278.1569.
