Living Writers Series Fall 2019
Living Writers Fall, 2019
Thursdays, 7:10 PM, Humanities Lecture Hall
October 3 R. Zamora Linmark
R. Zamora Linmark is the author of The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart, his first novel for young adults from Delacorte/Random House. He has also published two novels, Rolling the R’s (Kaya Press) which he’d adapted for the stage, and Leche (Coffee House Press), as well as four poetry collections, most recently, Pop Vérité, all from Hanging Loose Press. He divides his time between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Baguio, Philippines.
October 10 Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is a poet, essayist, translator, and immigration advocate. He is the author of Cenzontle (BOA editions, 2018), chosen by Brenda Shaughnessy as the winner of the 2017 A. Poulin Jr. prize and winner of the 2018 Northern California Book Award. Cenzontle maps a parallel between the landscape of the border and the landscape of sexuality through surreal and deeply imagistic poems. Castillo’s first chapbook, Dulce (Northwestern University Press, 2018), was chosen by Chris Abani, Ed Roberson, and Matthew Shenoda as the winner of the Drinking Gourd Poetry Prize. His memoir, Children of the Land is forthcoming from Harper Collins in 2020 and explores the ideas of separation from deportation, trauma, and mobility between borders.
November 7 Morton Marcus Reading, Gary Soto (7 PM, Music Recital Hall)
Gary Soto has published more than forty books for children, young adults and adults, including Too Many Tamales, Chato’s Kitchen, Baseball in April, Buried Onions and The Elements of San Joaquin. He author of In and Out of Shadows, a musical about undocumented youth and, most recently, The Afterlife, a one-act play about teen murder and teen suicide. His poem “Oranges” is the most anthologized poem in contemporary literature. His books have sold four million copies nationally and have been translated into French, Japanese, Italian, Korean, and Spanish. He lives in Berkeley, California.
November 14 After Ursula: Karen Joy Fowler, Molly Gloss, Nisi Shawl and Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer. He is the author of more than twenty books, including the international bestselling Mars trilogy, and more recently Red Moon, New York 2140, Aurora, Shaman, Green Earth, and 2312. He was sent to the Antarctic by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers’ Program in 1995, and returned in their Antarctic media program in 2016. In 2008 he was named a “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine. He works with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute, the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, and UC San Diego’s Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination. His work has been translated into 25 languages, and won a dozen awards in five countries, including the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy awards. In 2016 asteroid 72432 was named “Kimrobinson.”
Karen Joy Fowler is the author of six novels, including Sarah Canary and The Jane Austen Book Club, and three short story collections, including What I Didn’t See. Her most recent novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, was published by Putnam in May 2013 and won the Pen Faulkner award that year. She currently lives in Santa Cruz.
Molly Gloss is the author of several novels including The Jump-Off Creek, The Dazzle of Day, Wild Life, The Hearts of Horses and Falling From Horses, as well as the story collection Unforeseen. She writes both realistic fiction and science fiction, and her novels have received, among other honors, a PEN West Fiction Prize, an Oregon Book Award, two Pacific Northwest Booksellers Awards, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and a Whiting Writers Award.
Nisi Shawl wrote the 2016 Nebula finalist Everfair and the 2008 Tiptree Award-winning collection Filter House. In 2005 she co-wrote Writing the Other: A Practical Approach, a standard text on inclusive representation in the imaginative genres. Her stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Asimov’s SF Magazine, and many other publications. She edited the anthology New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color; and co-edited Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany; Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler. Shawl is a Carl Brandon Society founder and a Clarion West board member. She lives in Seattle near an enticingly large lake.
November 21 Sophia Shalmiyev and Peg Alford Pursell
Sophia Shalmiyev is an immigrant from the Soviet Union and the author of Mother Winter (2019, S&S), which Kirkus Reviews describes as “a rich tapestry of autobiography and meditations on feminism, motherhood, art, and culture, this book is as intellectually satisfying as it is artistically profound. A sharply intelligent, lyrically provocative memoir." Shalmiyev has an MFA from Portland State University and a second master's degree in creative arts therapy from the School of Visual Arts. She lives in Portland with her two children. Her latest work can be found at Lit Hub and Guernica.
Peg Alford Pursell is the author of A GIRL GOES INTO THE FOREST, (Dzanc Books, July 2019), and ofSHOW HER A FLOWER, A BIRD, A SHADOW, the 2017 Indies Book of the Year for Literary Fiction. Her work has been published in many journals and anthologies, including Permafrost, Joyland, and the Los Angeles Review. Most recently, her microfiction, flash fiction, and hybrid prose have been nominated for Best Small Microfictions and Pushcart Prizes. She is the founder and director of WTAW Press, a nonprofit publisher of literary books, and of Why There Are Words, the national literary reading series. She is a member of the SF Writers Grotto. www.pegalfordpursell.com
December 5 Student Reading
This event is co-sponsored by Porter Hitchcock Poetry Fund, The Humanities Institute, Bad Animal Bookstore, Laurie Sain Endowment and the Literature Department
