Additional Ways to Support
If you'd like more information on how to support the Creative Writing Program at UC Santa Cruz, please contact:
Sarah Caldwell, Assistant Director of Development
(831) 459-1536
If you'd like to donate today, please click here for donating.
Your support is sincerely and very much appreciated.
The Living Writers Series
As a UCSC graduate, many year resident of Santa Cruz, and a writer currently engaged in helping the Literature Department establish an endowment for the Living Writers Series at UCSC, it is my privilege to write you on behalf of this significant opportunity to permanently enrich the life of the community and the university.
The Living Writers Series has been the most active venue for bringing professional poets and writers to UCSC since 1995. Founded by Micah Perks and Karen Yamashita, co-directors of the program, the Living Writers Series brings 10-15 writers to the campus for readings and discussions each year, attended by over 200 students and faculty members, all open to the public. In past years the Series has hosted Bay Area writers like Tobias Wolff, Maxine Hong Kingston, Peter Orner, and Juliana Spahr, California writers such as Susan Straight, Karen Joy Fowler and Aimee Bender, alumni writers like Beth Lisick and Michael Scherer, and other renowned writers such as Chang Rae Lee, Cole Swenson, John Crowley, Jack Womack, Andrew Sean Greer, Ana Menendez, and many others.
The Living Writers Series has contributed to the development of an active, engaged literary culture among students at UCSC. The Living Writers Series in this way is similar to the Lane Lecture Series at Stanford University, endowed by Bill and Jean Lane, bringing together the community of the university with the community outside it.
The Living Writers Series at UCSC is run by acclaimed writers Micah Perks and Karen Yamashita, dynamic and beloved professors who have managed by reputation alone to attract this diverse and distinctive lineup of writers every year since its inception. Co-Director Micah Perks is a 2008 recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literary Fellowship Grant, and is Provost of Kresge College. She.is the author of a novel, We Are Gathered Here (1997) and a memoir, Pagan Time (2001 and 2010). Co-Director Karen Tei Yamashita is a winner of the American Book Award and was a Finalist for the 2010 National Book Award. Her works include novels I Hotel(2010), Circle K Cycles (2001), Tropic of Orange (1997),Brazil-Maru (1992), and Through the Arc of the Rain Forest (1990).
If you are interested in getting involved with the Living Writers Series at UCSC, helping to make it an even stronger presence in the community, as well as a permanent resource on campus, we invite you to contact us, and we hope that in the meantime you will join us for future events.
Friends of the Living Writers Series
Join the Friends of the Living Writers Series and become part of a rich tradition in the arts and humanities in Santa Cruz.
Friends will receive News of the Living Writers Series, its participants and events. Membership dues support the Living Writers Series as it continues to bring writers of distinction to Santa Cruz. Please join us today. The support of Friends is more important than ever.
Benefits
Benefits at various support levels include priority seating at all Living Writers Series events; signed copies of author books; invitations to author receptions throughout the year. Further information about Naming Privileges and event sponsorships available upon request.
Sincerely yours,
Elizabeth McKenzieFriends of the Living Writers Series
Kresge College
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, California 95064
