THEATRE

Writer Lee Herrick has organized a lineup of acclaimed authors and poets who both capture personal experience and give powerful voice to diverse communities. They will be giving readings of poetry and prose. This event also serves as the launch of six different books by the featured readers.

This program is free and open to the public, and is an off-site special event for the Associated Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference.

Book launches for: Gardening Secrets of the Dead; Rough, and Savage; Magnetic Refrain; The Natural Takeover of Small Things; Culture of Flow; and Hotel Juarez

Readers include:

Lee Herrick is the author of two books, This Many Miles from Desire and Gardening Secrets of the Dead.  Born in South Korea, he now lives and teaches in Fresno, California, where he teaches at Fresno City College and in the low-residency MFA program at Sierra Nevada College.

Sun Yung Shin is the author of Skirt Full of Black and Rough, and Savage.  Her poems have appeared widely in literary magazines and she is nominated for the Minnesota Book Award.  Born in South Korea, she now lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Nicky Sa-Eun Schildkraut is the author of Magnetic Refrain and received her PhD from the University of Southern California.  Born in South Korea, she now lives and writes in Los Angeles, California.

Leah Silvieus is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of Miami.  Her poetry manuscript is Aristotle's Lanterns.  Her poems have appeared in a number of literary magazines.  Born in South Korea, she now lives in Miami, Florida.

Daniel Chacón is the author of Chicano Chicanery, and the shadows took him, and Hotel Juarez.  The recipient of the American Book Award, he lives in El Paso, Texas and teaches in the MFA Program at the University of Texas, El Paso.

Tim Z. Hernandez is the author of Skin Tax, Breathing, In Dust, Culture of Flow, and The Natural Takeover of Small Things.  He has won the American Book Award and the Premio Aztlan Literature Prize.  He lives and teaches in Boulder, Colorado.

Ilyse Kusnetz is the author of The Gravity of Falling and holds an MA from Syracuse University and a PhD from the University of Edinburgh.  She lives in Florida and teaches at Valencia College.

Optimism One teaches at Modesto Junior College and is in the MFA program at Sierra Nevada College.  His essays have been published in I Magazine and elsewhere.  He has lived for the past year in Bali and will return to Central California after his sabbatical.

Sasha Pimentel Chacón is the author of Insides, She Swallowed, recipient of the American Book Award.  Her poems have appeared widely.  She lives in El Paso, Texas and teaches at the University of Texas, El Paso.

Margaret Rhee is the author of Yellow and a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley.  Her poems have appeared widely.  She lives and teaches in Berkeley, California.

Aimee Suzara is the author of the space between and Pagbabalik (return) host of Pinay Poet on KPFA Berkeley.  She lives in the East Bay and teaches at California State University, Monterey Bay.

Andre Yang is co-editor of How Do I Begin?: A Hmong American Literary Anthology.  His poems have appeared in many literary magazines.  He lives and teaches in Fresno, California.