UC Riverside MFA Reading at Skylight Books
Fri, March 2, 7:30pm

Mike Davis--quintessential LA writer, urban theorist, and MacArthur winner-- on UC Riverside's Creative Writing Program: "What's striking... is the sheer quality of writing coming out of the Inland Empire, especially the writing program at UC Riverside.

He said the Riverside program is turning out some of the best young writers in the country. "This is the future now," Davis said. "This is where young voices are apt to be most interesting." (LA Times 12-6-06)

Faculty and alumni have certainly been putting the program in the collective literary consciousness. Professors Susan Straight (Highwire Moon and A Million Nightingales) and Chris Abani (GraceLand and the Virgin of Flames) are nationally recognized authors, and alumni Alex Espinoza's debut novel from Random House, Stillwater Saints, was recently featured in Poets and Writers and selected to Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers series.

This Friday, four students from the program will read from new works. Come listen to the crisp prose of Joshua Hardina, the haunting imagery of Kate Durbin, the poetic word-play of Gabriela Jauregui, and the intimate honesty of Ky-Phong Tran.

Skylight Books is an independent bookstore located at 1818 N. Vermont in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, 90027. For more info on the reading or directions, please go to http://www.skylightbooks.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp?s=storeevents&eventId=340246

For more info on UC Riverside's Creative Writing Department, please visit: http://www.creativewriting.ucr.edu/