44th UCR Writers Week Festival
February 13 and 16-19, 2021
ONLINE. Free and open to the public
Captioned & ASL translated
February 20 Post-festival ticketed celebration with our Lifetime Achievement Award partner LA Review of Books. Learn more
Register here or on any session time below.
Rita Dove, Joy Harjo and Juan Felipe Herrera
2021 LA Review of Books (LARB) – UCR Department of Creative Writing
Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees, US Poet Laureates
Mike Davis
D. Charles Whitney Reader
Karen Tei Yamashita
Stephen Minot Lecture
44th UCR Writers Week Featured Writers
Millicent Borges Accardi, Kazim Ali, Francisco Aragón, Joseph Cassara, Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, Camille T. Dungy, Carolyn Dunn, Steve Erickson, Kelli Jo Ford, Reyna Grande, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Nalo Hopkinson, LeAnne Howe, John Jennings, Stephen Graham Jones, Laila Lalami, Brandy Nālani McDougall, Shin Yu Pai, Craig Santos Perez, Tommy Pico, Elizabeth Powell, Kamala Puligandla, Alison C. Rollins, Jane Smiley, Michael Torres, Melissa Valentine, Allison Benis White.
The 44th Writers Week 2021 is made possible by support from Ken Rocker, Inland Empire Magazine, Thea Temple / Jack and Jacob Myers Literary Fund, Riverside Latino Network, African Student Programs, Middle Eastern Student Center, UCR Department of English, UCR Department of Ethnic Studies, UCR Department of Music, UCR Department of Theatre, Film, and Digital Production, Center for Ideas and Society, California Center for Native Nations, Dr. Michael Alexander, Associate Professor and Maimonides Chair of Jewish Studies, Dr. Melissa Wilcox, Professor and Holstein Endowed Chair, Pr. Alex Espinoza, Associate Professor, Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair of Creative Writing and English, Distinguished Professor, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Dr. Clifford Trafzer, Distinguished Professor of History and Rupert and Jeanette Henry Costo Chair in American Indian Affairs, UCR ARTS, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Dean’s Office, our generous sponsors through #UCRGivingTues, our generous sponsors through #UCRGivingTues donors, Native American Student Programs Office (NASP), Joshua Gonzales, Director, the Ratcliffe Family Creative Writing Endowment Fund and Los Angeles Review of Books.
#UCRGivingTues* donors include: Mark O. Bailie, Melissa A. Bartholomew, Katherine Benouar, Kathleen DeAtley, Clyde D. Derrick III, Terri L. Dunlap, Pr. Alex Espinoza, Diana Fontaine, Katherine K. Fugate, Jeffrey J. Girod, Kimberly V. Gomez-Fraser, Pr. Allison Hedge Coke, Travis B. Hedge Coke, Dr. Laila Lalami, Malinn C. Loeung, Michael Lundell, Jennifer Merrett, Heather M. Morales, LaSharon A. McLean Perez, Cati Porter, Rachel L. Pulido, Assistant Vice Chancellor Emily M. Rankin and Eveleen D. Samayoa.
Book purchases
A hyperlink is now available for all attendees to purchase books from our own campus B & N bookstore here.
Cellar Door Books is our recommended local independent store. Be sure to stop by their page.
Information: writersweek@ucr.edu
- FB UCR Writers Week
- FB UCR Writers Resist
- IG @ucrwritersweek
- Twitter @ucrwritersweek
- Twitter @ucrwritersresist
Saturday, February 13th | Pre-festival Events
Francisco Aragón
Director, Letras Latinas,
University of Notre Dame
Special Presentation for Puente Project
After Rubén (Red Hen Press, 2020)
Photo Credit: Craig Mailloux
Stephen Graham Jones
Special Presentation for Native American Student Programs (NASP)
The Only Good Indians
(Simon and Schuster, 2020)
UCR Palm Desert Low-Residency MFA
Photo Credit: Gary Isaacs
LeAnne Howe
Special Presentation On Documentary Film, “Searching for Sequoyah” for Native American Student Programs (NASP)
LeAnne Howe, Searching for Sequoyah
Savage Conversations (Coffee House Press, 2019)
Session 3: Rescheduled for May 5th, 2021 @ 10:00AM PDT
Photo Credit: Unknown
Tuesday, February 16th
Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
Even as We Breathe
(University Press of Kentucky, 2020)
Photo Credit: Terri Clark of Terri Clark Photography
Alison C. Rollins
Librarian / Poet
Library of Small Catastrophes
(Copper Canyon, 2019)
Photo Credit: Maya Ayanna Darasaw
Stephanie Elizondo Griest
All the Agents and Saints (UNC Press, paperback, 2020)
Photo Credit Alexander Devora
Elizabeth Powell
'Atomizer' (LSU Press, 2020)
Concerning the Holy Ghost’s Interpretation of J. Crew Catalogues
(Leaky Boot Press, 2019)
Photo Credit: Marion Ettlinger
Karen Tei Yamashita
Stephen Minot Lecture
Sansei & Sensibility
(Coffee House Press, 2020)
UC Santa Cruz
Photo Credit: Howard Boltz
Nalo Hopkinson
House of Whispers Vol 3: Watching the Watchers
(Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" Universe DC Comics, 2020)
UC Riverside
Photo Credit: DC Entertainment
Wednesday, February 17th
Steve Erickson
Conversations with Steve Erickson
(University Press of Mississippi, 2021)
UC Riverside
Photo Credit: Lori Precious
Kazim Ali
Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water
(Milkweed Editions, 2021)
UC San Diego
The Field Office
Photo Credit: Jesse Sutton-Hough
Jane Smiley
Taking the Reins
(Knopf for Young Readers, 2020)
& Perestroika in Paris (Knopf for Young Readers, 2020)
Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau
UC Riverside
Photo Credit: Jane Smiley
LeAnne Howe
Savage Conversations
Famine Pots: The Choctaw Irish Gift Exchange 1847-Present, Michigan State University Press (2020)
When The Light of The World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry (2020)
Searching for Sequoyah (forthcoming documentary film)
University of Georgia
Photo Credit: Unknown
Camille T. Dungy
Poetry Editor, Orion Magazine
Guidebook to Relative Strangers (Norton, paperback, 2018)
Orion Magazine
Blue Flower Arts
Photo Credit: Beowulf Sheehan
Carolyn Dunn
Three Plays by Carolyn Dunn – The Frybread Queen, Soledad, and Three Sisters
(No Passport Press’ Dreaming the Americas Series, 2021)
Cal State LA
Chasing Tailfeathers by Director, Writer, Performer Carolyn Dunn
Act I, Scene 1
Cast: Kimberly Guerrero, Kalani Queypo, Carolyn Dunn, Kyrié Owen
The play takes place in Indian Country, along the pow wow trail, somewhere in Native America.
Photo Credit: Nashoba Dunn Anderson
Thursday, February 18th
MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts
Reading Program Candidates
Kamala Puligandla
Communications and Marketing Director at Women's Center for Creative Work
Zigzags (Not A Cult, 2020)
You Can Vibe Me On My FemmePhone (Co-Conspirator Press, 2021)
Photo Credit: Laura Kaur
Melissa Valentine
The Names of All the Flowers: A Memoir
(The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2020)
Photo Credit: Ira James
Tommy Pico
Poetry Editor Catapult Magazine
FX show Reservation Dogs writer
Photo Credit: Niqui Carter
Laila Lalami
Contributing Editor, The Nation
Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America (Knopf, 2020)
UC Riverside
Barnes & Nobles
The New York Times Magazine
Photo Credit: Jesse Dittmar
Mike Davis
D. Charles Whitney Reader
Contributing Editor, The Nation
Set the Night on Fire: LA in the Sixties
(Verso, 2020)
The Nation
UC Riverside
Photo Credit: Cassandra Davis
John Jennings
After the Rain
(Abrams Comic Arts – Megascope, 2021)
UC Riverside
Photo Credit: Tarji Smedley
Friday, February 19th
Writers Resist Reading
Writers Resist Riverside: in collaboration with Pen America
Session 1: 1:00pm PST
Craig Santos Perez
Editor, Essayist, Poet
New Oceania Literary Series Editor
Habitat Threshold
(Omnidawn Publishing, 2020)
Photo Credit: Hannah Ensor
Brandy Nālani McDougall
Editor, Critical Essayist, Poet
Finding Meaning: Kaona and Contemporary Hawaiian Literature (University of Arizona Press, 2016)
The Salt Wind (Kuleana 'Ōiwi Press)
Photo Credit: Craig Santos Perez
Closing event of the UCR-hosted festival – Lifetime Achievement Award Ceremony
2021 LA Review of Books (LARB) – UCR Department of Creative Writing
Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees, US Poet Laureates
Rita Dove
2021 LA Review of Books (LARB) – UCR Department of Creative Writing Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees, US Poet Laureate, Poet Laureate of the Virginia Commonwealth
Collected Poems 1974-2004
(W.W. Norton, 2016)
The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry
(Penguin, 2011)
University of Virginia
Library of Congress
Photo Credit: Fred Viebahn
Joy Harjo
2021 LA Review of Books (LARB) – UCR Department of Creative Writing Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree, US Poet Laureate
An American Sunrise (Norton, 2019)
When the Light of the World was Subdued (Norton, 2020)
Blue Flower Arts
Library of Congress
Photo Credit: Matika Wilbur
Juan Felipe Herrera
2021 LA Review of Books (LARB) – UCR Department of Creative Writing Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree, US Poet Laureate, California Poet Laureate
Every Day We Get More Illegal
(City Lights, 2020)
187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross The Border: Undocuments 1971-2007
(City Lights, 2007)
UCR Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing
Blue Flower Arts
Library of Congress
Photo Credit: Carlos Puma
Saturday, February 20th
Post-festival ticketed celebration with our Lifetime Achievement Award partner LA Review of Books Learn more
2021 LA Review of Books (LARB) – UCR Department of Creative Writing
Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees, US Poet Laureates
Rita Dove
2021 LA Review of Books (LARB) – UCR Department of Creative Writing Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees, US Poet Laureate, Poet Laureate of the Virginia Commonwealth
Collected Poems 1974-2004
(W.W. Norton, 2016)
The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry
(Penguin, 2011)
University of Virginia
Library of Congress
Photo Credit: Fred Viebahn
Joy Harjo
2021 LA Review of Books (LARB) – UCR Department of Creative Writing Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree, US Poet Laureate
An American Sunrise (Norton, 2019)
When the Light of the World was Subdued (Norton, 2020)
Blue Flower Arts
Library of Congress
Photo Credit: Matika Wilbur
Juan Felipe Herrera
2021 LA Review of Books (LARB) – UCR Department of Creative Writing Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree, US Poet Laureate, California Poet Laureate
Every Day We Get More Illegal
(City Lights, 2020)
187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross The Border: Undocuments 1971-2007
(City Lights, 2007)
UCR Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing
Blue Flower Arts
Library of Congress
Photo Credit: Carlos Puma
44th UCR Writers Week Festival credits
- Brittany Fraser, Technical Producer & Festival Coordinator – Staff
- Albert Fetter & Julie Salgado, Production Crew
- Audio/video engineering by Christiaan Clark, Ethan Castro, CJ Reedy, Maxine Garcia, Andrew Ha, Cameren Diaz, Chloe Santos, David Truong, Kirsten Lambinicio, Jessica Fairfield, and Santiago Tavarez
- Department of Music Experimental Acoustics Research Studio (EARS)
- Abbie Reese, Promotional Trailers
- Abbie Reese, Assistant Director – Writers Lab – MFA Candidate Volunteers
- Production Assistance from the Writers Lab – Abbie Reese, Crystal Salas, Soleil Garneau, Lily Hart, Emily Doyle, Sara Fowler, Sarah Helms, Samantha Fernandez, Rudy Avelar, Gennyvera Pacheco
- Performing Arts Administration: Financial & Administrative Officer, Marilyn Madrigal; Creative Writing Assistance, Benicia Mangram; Financial Analyst, Sarah Cleary; Financial Assistant, Toya Adams; Contract Administrator, April Blackburn; Public Relations - Program Promotions Manager, Graphic Design, Kathy DeAtley; Zaid Yousef, Department of Art, Graphic Design
- Jessica Weber, UCR UComm, PR
- Jeff Girod, CHASS Marketing & Communications
- Nanda Dyssou, Coriolis Company, PR
- Bryan Bradford, MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts, Coordinator
- Session Facilitators/Interviewers/Organizers: Abbie Reese, Crystal Salas, Soleil Garneau, Lily Hart, Emily Doyle, Sara Fowler, Sarah Helms, Samantha Fernandez, Rudy Avelar, Gennyvera Pacheco, Ali Saadat, Jamal J Myrick, Abigail Uribe, Joaquin Tarango, Rachell Enriquez, Sheree Winslow, Jasmine Smith, Leonardo Vilchis-Zarate, Jennifer Espinoza, Alejandra Castillo Chavez
- UCR MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts, Faculty, Staff & Students
- Captioning by REV
- ASL Translation by Sorenson
- ASL Interpreters: Marcella Alldredge, Connie Jo Hutchinson, Christina Kelley, Kaborski Ledbetter, Caryl Williams Love
- Webpages & IT Platforms CHASS IT James Lin, Matthew Chu, Kelvin Mac, and UComm IT
- Development Assistance, Clyde Derrick III & Lydia Jones
- Inverse – Digital Production Strategy
- Lifetime Achievement Award Tributes by Francisco Aragón, David St. John, Jamal J. Myrick, Arthur Sze, Alison C. Rollins
- CHASS Interim Dean Juliet McMullin
- Literary Festival Partner Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB) – Boris Dralyuk, Editor-in-Chief, Irene Yoon, Executive Director
- LARB Publisher, Distinguished Professor & Creative Writing Department Chair, Tom Lutz
- Writers Week Director, Distinguished Professor, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke