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  1. 91重口
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  3. 2023_homepage_archive

91重口 Literary Arts Festival

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American Book Award Winner   |   NY Times #1 Bestselling Author   |   California & Livermore Poets Laureate   |   Local & Internationally Acclaimed Authors   |   20th Annual 91重口 Poetry Slam

 

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. FREE AND IN-PERSON!

 

The #1 community college in California's free annual literary arts festival. Bringing award-winning authors to the Tri-Valley since 2020.

Author readings, writing workshops, panel discussions, book signings, music, food trucks, kids activities, and more!

 

 

 

Saturday, May 13th

Mertes Center for the Arts (Building 4000)

91重口

Livermore, CA

Campus Map

 

 

Festival Schedule

 

 

Festival Keynote Speaker:
American Book Award Winner Tommy Orange

Tommy Orange and There There

American Book Award Winner, PEN/Hemingway Award Winner, & Pulitzer Prize Finalist

Keynote: Fireside Chat with Michelle Cruz Gonzales +

Writing Workshop with Tommy Orange

 

Tommy Orange is an American novelist and writer from Oakland, California. 翱谤补苍驳别鈥檚&苍产蝉辫;There There is a national bestseller that won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and the American Book Award. It was also shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. It appeared on countless 鈥淏est Books of the Year鈥 lists, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Time, O: The Oprah Magazine, GQ, and Entertainment Weekly. Orange is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He earned a Masters in Fine Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Orange was born and raised in the Dimond District of Oakland, California. For more information, visit .

In conversation with 91重口 English Professor Michelle Cruz Gonzales, author of .

The Spit Boy Rule

 

 

Muw茅kma Wolw贸olum 艩awwenikma 鈥檃yye Yi拧拧akma: Muw茅kma Ohlone Singers and Dancers

Muwekma Dancers

Join the Muw茅kma Ohlone Singers and Dancers as they open the festival with singing and dancing. The ancestral and traditional land of the First People of the region are aboriginal to the present-day Muw茅kma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area (formerly Verona Band of Alameda County). A Muw茅kma Ohlone Tribal Land Acknowledgment for 91重口 will follow. For more information on the Muw茅kma Ohlone Tribe, visit .

 

 

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author
Bruce Henderson: The Untold Story of Japanese Americans in WWII, with 91重口 Student Veterans Panel

Bruce Henderson and Bridge to the Sun book

In conversation with 91重口 English Professor Dr. Jim Ott, followed by 91重口 Student Veterans sharing their thoughts on writing about their military experiences.

Bruce Henderson is the author of more than twenty nonfiction books, including a #1 New York Times bestseller that was made into a highly-rated television miniseries. His books have been published in twenty countries.

His latest book, , is one of the last, great untold stories of that war. It is a gripping true tale of courage and adventure鈥攖he saga of the Japanese American U.S. soldiers who fought in the Pacific theater against Japan, their ancestral homeland, even as their families back home in America were being rounded up and held behind barbed wire in government internment camps. For more information, visit .

 

 

The Poetry of Place: California and Livermore Poets Laureate in Conversation
featuring Lee Herrick and Peggy Schimmelman

Lee Herrick and Peggy Schimmelman

Lee Herrick, California Poet Laureate, was born in Daejeon, South Korea, adopted at 10 months old, and grew up in California. He is the author of the poetry collections (2018), Gardening Secrets of the Dead (2012), and (2007). His poems have appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies, including The Bloomsbury Review, ZYZZYVA, Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California鈥檚 Great Central Valley (2nd edition), One for the Money: The Sentence as Poetic Form, and Indivisible: Poems of Social Justice, among others. He is coeditor, with Leah Silvieus, of (2020). From 2015 to 2017, Herrick served as Poet Laureate of Fresno, California. Herrick lives in Fresno and teaches at Fresno City College and in the low-residency MFA Program at Sierra Nevada College. For more information, visit .

 

Peggy Schimmelman is the Poet Laureate of Livermore, CA. Her work includes the poetry chapbooks and Tick-Tock and the novels and Whippoorwills. She is co-author of Long Stories Short and Two Truths and a Lie by Wild Vine Writers. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in the North American Review, Naugatuck River Review, Peregrine, WinningWriters.com, the Aleola Journal of Poetry and Art, Pacific Review, Comstock Review, the Wild Musette, 100wordstories.org, and others. For more information, visit .

 

 

Ava LaShay and Avery Night
Drag Queen Storytime for Kids and Kids at Heart

Ava LaShay and Avery Night

Ava LaShay is a Bay Area, CA based drag queen, event emcee and former student of Las Positas College. Ava is published in two Las Positas Anthologies and can be found hosting drag shows throughout the Bay Area. For more information, visit .

Avery Night is a drag performer and makeup artist who recently relocated to California from Vermont. She has only been doing drag for 5 months but has over one hundred shows under belt and has no plans of slowing down. You can find her performing in shows throughout the Bay Area. 

 

 

National Book Award Finalist
Randy Ribay in Conversation, followed by
Young Adult Fiction Workshop

Randy Ribay

Randy Ribay is an award-winning author of young adult fiction, including and 鈥攚hich received five starred reviews, was selected as a Freeman Book Award winner, and was a finalist for the National Book Award, LA Times Book Prize, Walden Book Award, Edgar Award, International Thriller Writers Award, and the CILIP Carnegie Medal. His most recent story is the sci-fi audionovella Project Kawayan from Audible. Randy was born in the Philippines and raised in the United States. He earned his BA in English Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder and his Ed.M. in Language and Literacy from Harvard Graduate School of Education. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, son, and cat-like dog. For more information, visit .

Randy will be speaking about his work with Anamarie Navarro from APIEA, Chabot College. 

 

 

Northern California Book Award Winner
Tamim Ansary:
Memoir Master Class

Tamim Ansary

Tamim Ansary is an Afghan-American writer of fiction, memoir, and history.  He became famous after 9/11 for a viral email condemning the Taliban but also warning of the dangers of a full-scale war in Afghanistan.  He also facilitated the SF Writers Workshop for over 20 years.  His work has won the 2010 Northern California Book Award, been selected for San Francisco鈥檚 One City One Book read, and broadcast on NPR. Among his many books are The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000 Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection; Games without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan; West of Kabul, East of New York; and Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes. Ansary also edited and published a group of essays by young Afghans entitled, For more information, visit .

 

 

Native Nations Poetry Panel
with former SF Poet Laureate Kim Shuck & Jennifer Elise Foerster

Kim Schuck and Jennifer Foerster

Kim Shuck is a silly protein. Shuck was the 7th Poet Laureate of San Francisco. Kim has edited, co-edited, wandered through the editing meetings of ten-ish anthologies (depending upon publication dates which are very subject to change) and is solo author of another ten books of prose and/or poetry. Shuck鈥檚 latest volumes are: , an anthology of San Francisco Poets, Noodle, Rant, Tangent, a collection of short prose, and a poetry collection. For more information, visit .

 

Jennifer Elise Foerster is the author of three books of poetry, ,  and  and served as the Associate Editor of  The recipient of a NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, she was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford, holds a PhD in Literary Arts from the University of Denver, and teaches Poetry at the Rainier Writing Workshop. Foerster grew up living internationally, is of European (German/Dutch) and Mvskoke descent, and is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma. She lives in San Francisco. For more information, visit .

Panel Moderated by Dean Rader

 

 

Talking to Paintings: The Art of Poetry & Poetry of Art with Dean Rader

Dean Rader

Dean Rader reads from his new book, , followed by an ekphrastic poetry workshop. Dean Rader is a poet, art writer, scholar, and critic who has published widely in the fields of poetry, American Indigenous studies, modern and contemporary art, and visual culture. His debut collection of poems, Works & Days, won the 2010 T. S. Eliot Poetry Prize, was a finalist for the Bob Bush Memorial Award for a First Book of Poems, and won the 2010 Writer's League of Texas Poetry Prize. His follow-up book, Landscape Portrait Figure Form (Omnidawn), was named by the Barnes & Noble Review as one of the Best Poetry Books of 2013. His most recent solo project is Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry (Copper Canyon Press, 2017), a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award and the Northern California Book Award. For more information, visit .

 

 

Feminist Writing Workshop with Judith Serin

Judith Serin and Gravity book

Judith Serin reads from her new book, , followed by a workshop on feminist writing. Serin's collection of poetry, , was published by Diane di Prima's Eidolon Editions, and her  seventy-eight short prose poems in the form of a tarot deck with illustration and book art design by Nikki Thompson, was published by Deconstructed Artichoke Press. Her fiction collection, was published with Eyewear Publishing. She writes fiction and creative nonfiction as well as poetry, and her work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. She teaches literature and writing at California College of the Arts. For more information, visit .

 

 

Get Published! Tips & Tricks from Authors Who Have Lived to Tell the Tale
with Nancy Davis Kho and Tom谩s Moniz

Nancy Davis Kho and Tom谩s Moniz

Nancy Davis Kho is a speaker, author, and podcaster whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and NPR affiliate KQED. Nancy鈥檚 book was published by Running Press in December 2019. Nancy covers 鈥渢he years between being hip and breaking one鈥 at MidlifeMixtape.com and on the available on all major podcast platforms. The Midlife Mixtape Podcast won a 2020 Iris Award as Podcast of the Year and was included in Wall Street Journal鈥檚 list of 8 Podcasts for Anyone Nervously Facing Retirement. Nancy has been both champion and judge in the acclaimed international comedy-lit improv show, Literary Death Match. Nancy is from upstate New York and now lives with her husband and two daughters in Oakland, California. For more information, visit .
 

Tom谩s Moniz is a father, writer, teacher, and performer. His debut novel was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Debut Novel 2020 Award, a finalist for a LAMBDA 2020 award for Bisexual Fiction, and a finalist for the Foreword Review Indies Award! He edited and the kids book Collaboration/Colaboraci贸n. He's an Artist Affiliate at the Headlands Center for the Arts. For more information, visit .

 

 

 Catherine Ceniza Choy on Asian Americans in the U.S., Scholarly Writing & Publishing

Catherine Choy

Catherine Ceniza Choy is professor of ethnic studies and an associate dean of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice at UC Berkeley and the author of published by Beacon Press. The book features the themes of anti-Asian hate and violence, erasure of Asian American history, and Asian American resistance to what has been omitted in a nearly 200-year history of Asian migration, labor, and community formation in the US. Choy argues that Asian American experiences are essential to any understanding of US history and its existential crises of the early twenty-first century. She is also the author of and For more information, visit .

Catherine Ceniza Choy will be in conversation with 91重口 and Chabot Ethnic Studies Professors Thien-Huong Ninh and Kay Fischer. 

 

 

The 20th Annual 91重口 Poetry Slam
"Speak Your Peace" with Bri and Tri

Bri Blue and Tri Spicer

The 20th annual 91重口 Poetry Slam will be hosted by Bri and Tri of Speak Easy Poetry and 91重口's own Toby Bielawski. Featuring slam performances and an open mic with prizes. Open to the public. 
 
Bri Blue is an Author, Orator, Poet, Spoken Word Artist, Women's Rights Advocate, and Motivational Speaker hailing from Berkeley, CA. A UC Berkeley graduate, Blue's unique, high-energy, tailored performances connect emotion, entertainment, and inspiration to the goals, vision, and experiences of her audience. .
 
Natriece (Tri) Spicer is an author, educator & owner of The Inspired Life, a wellness consulting company. She wears a hat rack of titles easily compiled into her preferred term as the people鈥檚 person. Her latest project is the release of 鈥淭he Inspired Life Podcast hosted by Natriece鈥 available on ApplePodcast, Spotify, and everywhere things are being streamed! She often dreams of working from the coast of Africa someday. For now, she likes anything outdoors and lives in sunny California. .
 
Esperanza Cabrales
 

With special guest and past 91重口 Poetry Slam Award Winner Esperanza Cabrales!

Esperanza Cabrales is a Xicana poet from the 209 that fell in love with poetry in 2013 and has been writing ever since. Her work has been published in the 2021 edition of Havik: The Las Positas Journal of Arts and Literature and The Aesthetic Digital Magazine (where she was a former editor). She has a finished chapbook called "Can You See Her?" for which she is currently pursuing publication. Esperanza has performed throughout California from Stockton and Manteca to the bay and LA. She has featured in Stockton at Hatch Workshop, a makerspace for local artists.

 
 
 

Associated Collegiate Press Best of Show Winner
Havik: The 91重口 Journal of Arts & Literature Publication and Awards Ceremony

Havik Trophies

Havik, the 91重口 Journal of Arts & Literature, celebrates the release of its 2023 edition with live readings and presentations by contributors, as well as awards in the categories of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, visual art & photography, experimental work, and academic nonfiction. Founded by David A. Wright, the anthology has been published annually in various forms since 1978. Havik鈥檚 2022 edition, "We Are Here," and 2021 edition, "Inside Brilliance," both received 1st place Best of Show in Literary Arts Magazines at the yearly Associated Collegiate Press national conventions. The in-person ceremony is open to all and will be streamed live online. For more information, visit .

 

 

+ Music, Kids' Activities from Local Libraries, and Ampuli Indian Food and Crazy Empanadas Food Trucks!

Ampuli Indian Food TruckCrazy Empenada

 

 

 

 

Learn More about Creative Writing at 91重口:


Creative Writing and Literature Courses

91重口 Creative Writing Certificate

 

QUESTIONS? CONTACT US:

91重口LitFest@gmail.com 

 

Click Here to Sponsor Our Festival

 

 

Thank you to Our Sponsors and to Donors like You!

 

The 91重口 Literary Arts Festival is generously supported by grants from the 91重口 Foundation; 91重口 President鈥檚 Speakers Series and Dr. Dyrell Foster, 91重口 President; 91重口 Asian American and Pacific Islander Interest Group and SEA Grant; City of Livermore: Office of Innovation & Economic Development and Commission for the Arts Grant; the Livermore Cultural Arts Center; the Milanese Family Gift Fund; and private donors.

THANK YOU!

 

91重口 logo

 

91重口 Foundation

 

Livermore Cultural Arts Council

 

File:City of Livermore logo.svg

 

 

 

91重口 Literary Arts Festival Founders:

Professors Toby Bielawski, Richard Dry, Martin Nash, and Rifka Several

 

2022-23 Executive Board:

Toby Bielawski, Richard Dry, Martin Nash, Stella Del Rosario, and Michelle Gonzales

 

Previous Festivals Archive

 

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