UPCOMING and PAST EVENTS
Stay abreast of upcoming literary performances sponsored by the CREATIVE WRITING
PROGRAM or other fine programs in the Grossmont College ENGLISH DEPARTMENT,
and look back on this past year's calendar of readings and special events.
CURRENT
FALL 2011
POET JAMES MEETZE
Thursday SEPTEMBER 15
7:00 p.m., Hyde Art Gallery (Building 25)
Poet and songwriter James Meetze received the Poet Laureate Award from the
University of California in 2001. Meetze's chapbooks--Serenades (Cy Press 2003),
Instrument (Sea Lamb Press 2004), and It's Overhead (Fashionably Pressed 2007)--
paved the way for the release of his first poetry collection, I Have Designed This For
You (Editions Assemblage) in 2007, and in 2010 his second collection, Dayglo
(Ahsahta Press), was bestowed the prestigious 2010 Sawtooth Poetry Prize. Meetze,
who is currently a Lecturer in the Creative Writing Program at California State
University, San Marcos, co-founded the now defunct poetry movement, New Brutalism,
and helped to launch Tougher Disguises in 2002, a small press whose roster of
experimental poets includes Peter Gizzi and Clark Coolidge, among others. James
Meetze is also front-man for the alternative rock band, Dreamtiger, which released its
EP, Glisten, in 2008.
Visit James Meetze's on Facebook: www.facebook.com/james.meetze
Follow Dreamtiger on Twitter: twitter.com/dreamtiger
Other Links and Resources:
excerpt from "Condominium" [poetry]
CELEBRATION OF BANNED BOOKS READING
Thursday SEPTEMBER 29
7:00 p.m., Room 150 (Bldg. 34)
Join Joe Medina of the Grossmont College English Department for an evening of
school and scandal with a CELEBRATION OF BANNED BOOKS, in honor of National
Banned Books Week. Topics change annually in this thought-provoking and
sometimes audacious event. Topics from past years have included Sandra Cisneros,
Susan Patron, Langston Hughes, James Joyce, Sherman Alexie, Erica Jong, J.K.
Rowling, Lenny Bruce, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Dorothy Allison, banned children's
literature, controversial fan fiction and slash, censored anime and manga, and many
others. The 2011 reading will include students, community members and faculty.
This activity fulfills requirements for Professional Flex hours. For further information,
contact Joe Medina at 619-644-7507, or e-mail him at joe.medina@gcccd.edu, or visit
his Banned Books page on-line: www.grossmont.edu/joemedina/banned_books.asp
FICTION WRITER CRIS MAZZA
Wednesday OCTOBER 12
12:30 p.m., Room 220 (Building 26)
Widely anthologized Southern California native Cris Mazza has published nine novels,
a collection of essays, and four collections of short fiction. Her writing is heralded as an
example of post-feminist, formalist or contemporary experimental fiction. She is
responsible, along with Jeffrey DeShell, for coining the now commonly used term,
"chick lit."
Mazza won the PEN / Nelson Algren Award for her novel How to Leave a Country. In
addition, she was recipient to an &NOW Award in 2009 for her story “Trickle-Down
Timeline” (published in The &NOW Awards: The Best Innovative Writing in 2009) and
has participated in the biennial &NOW Festival. Currently, she directs the Program for
Writers at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Visit Cris Mazza's official website: www.cris-mazza.com.
An Interview With Cris Mazz (Chiasmus Press)
"I Write As a Charlatan" (Madhatter's Review)
3rd Annual
LESTER BANGS MEMORIAL READING
Featuring JUSTIN HUDNALL
Wednesday OCTOBER 19
7:00 p.m., , Room 220 (Building 26)
Faculty and alumni writers from the Creative Writing Program read their original works
of poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction, while paying tribute to Grossmont College
alumnus Lester A. Bangs, who has come into recognition as “America’s Greatest Rock
Critic.” Considered one of the most influential voices in rock criticism, music critic
Bangs is credited for coining the term "punk," and his subversive spirit and creativity
continue to influence generations of writers.
Visit The Grossmont College Lester Bangs Archive.
Justin Hudnall, So Say We All website
Justin Hudnall, Huffington Post
CELEBRATION OF THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS
Monday OCTOBER 24 through Wednesday NOVEMBER 2
Information about events, times and venues, available on the
GC Henrietta Lacks Resource Center.
AUTHOR LIDIA YUKNAVITCH
Monday NOVEMBER 14
7:00 p.m., Room 220 (Building 26)
In addition to her book of criticism, Allegories of Violence (Routledge 2000), Lidia
Yuknavitch has authored three collections of short fiction: Reel to Reel (FC2 2002),
Liberty's Excess (FC2 2000), and Her Other Mouths (House of Bones Press 1997). Her
writing has appeared in a variety of literary journals, including Postmodern Culture,
Fiction International, Another Chicago Magazine, Zyzzyva, Critical Matrix, Other Voices,
and has been anthologized in RePresenting Bisexualities (NYU Press 1996) and Third
Wave Agenda (University of Minnesota Press 1997).
Having served as co-editor of Northwest Edge: Deviant Fictions and as editor of Two
Girls' Review, Yuknavitch now teaches fiction writing and literature in Oregon.
Visit Lidia Yuknavitch's official website
NEW VOICES: A STUDENT READING
Tuesday DECEMBER 06
7:00 p.m., Room 220 (Building 26)
New Voices: A Student Reading, features standout students from the Grossmont
College Creative Writing Program's current semester of courses, reading their original
short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, novel excerpts, drama, and mixed media literary
works.
Read, see, hear the Spring 2011 New Voices readers on the web at New Voices On-
Line.
SPRING 2011
15th Annual Literary Arts Festival
APRIL 25 THROUGH MAY 05, 2011
FALL 2010
2nd Annual Lester Bangs
Memorial Faculty Reading
Monday, September 13, 2010
7:00 - 9:00 p.m., Hyde Art Gallery*
English and Creative Writing faculty read their original works of poetry, fiction and
creative nonfiction, while paying tribute to Grossmont College alumnus Lester A. Bangs,
who has come into recognition as “America’s Greatest Rock Critic.” Considered one of
the most influential voices in rock criticism, music critic Bangs is credited for coining the
term "punk," and his subversive spirit and creativity continue influence generations of
writers.
A Celebration of Banned Books
Thursday, September 30, 2010
7:00 - 9:00 p.m., Building 34, Room 107
Join Joe Medina of the Grossmont College English Department for an evening of
school and scandal with a CELEBRATION OF BANNED BOOKS, in honor of National
Banned Books Week. Topics change annually in this thought-provoking and
sometimes audacious event. Topics from past years have included Sandra Cisneros,
Susan Patron, Langston Hughes, James Joyce, Sherman Alexie, Erica Jong, J.K.
Rowling, Lenny Bruce, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, banned children's literature,
controversial fan fiction and slash, censored anime and manga, and many others. This
years reading will include students, community members and faculty. This activity
fulfills requirements for Professional Flex hours. For further information, contact Joe
Medina at 619-644-7507, or e-mail him at joe.medina@gcccd.edu.
Poet Ilya Kaminsky
Thursday, October 21, 2010
7:00 p.m., Room 220
Soviet born Ilya Kaminsky has won many awards for his book of poems, Dancing In
Odessa (Tupelo Press, 2004), named Best Poetry Book of the Year 2004 by ForeWord
Magazine and recipient of the Whiting Writer's Award, the prestigious American
Academy of Arts and Letters' Metcalf Award, the Dorset Prize. In 2008, Kaminsky was
awarded Lannan Foundation's Literary Fellowship, and in 2009 selections from Deaf
Republic, his latest work, received Poetry magazine's Levinson Prize. His anthology of
twentieth century poetry in translation, the Ecco Anthology Of International Poetry
(HarperCollins 2010), was published this year in March. About the Ecco Anthology,
Carolyn Forche writes, "This brilliantly assembled gathering of world voices reads as a
symphony of utterance beginning to end, an international conversation of the highest
order, regarding the questions and concerns of humankind, beyond borders and all
other such barriers, real or imagined. Abundant thanks especially to the editors and
translators of this magnificent work." Now a resident of San Diego, Kamisnky teaches
Contemporary World Poetry, Creative Writing, and Literary Translation in San Diego
State University's MFA Program in Creative Writing.
Creative Write-a-Thon
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Building 51, Room 575
8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
It's back! The popular all-day fundraising writing event for the Grossmont College
Creative Writing Program’s literary arts events returns! Raise a minimum of $50 in
pledges, and receive the following:
•
a full day of inspirational writing prompts
and literary activities in the four genres:
fiction, poetry, drama, and creative
nonfiction;
•
continental breakfast, lunch, and H20;
1 ticket per $10 raised for the coolest
raffle this side of I-5
•
an "I Rocked the Page t-shirt";
•
and at the end of the day: a laptop /
notebook full of new work and the warm
fuzzy feeling that comes with supporting
the arts!
Grand prize is a laptop computer! Pledge sheets available from an English or Creative
Writing instructor beginning Monday, October 4, 2010.
New Voices: A Student Reading
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
7:00 p.m., Room 220
The brightest and finest students of the Creative Writing Program's Fall 2010 semester
will take the stage in Room 220, reading and performing their original poetry, fiction,
creative nonfiction, and drama. Artful, evocative, and entertaining—the writers of the
Fall 2010 New Voices Reading will inspire you. Read and listen to the Spring 2010 On-
Line Chapbook to read the programme 'zine or listen to audio clips of students
performing their own works. Bellisimo!
ARCHIVES
FALL 2009 \ SPRING 2010
Monday, April 19 through 29, 2010
14th Annual Literary Arts Festival
Our Spring 2010 Literary Arts Festival showcases a diverse range of nationally
recognized authors with local roots, all in a two-week celebration of literature, readings,
and the creative writing process. Readings and performances, lectures, workshops,
writing competitions, book signings, and Master Classes in which students of the
Creative Writing Program are given the opportunity to submit their work and be selected
for an intensive workshop with a renowned author. Some of this years guest writers
include Marilyn Chin, Ella DeCastro Baron, Brandon Cesmat, Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum,
and 2010 Keynote Author, Matt de la Pena! Click the thumbnail at right and visit the
Official 2010 LAF website for all the info, fliers, classroom exercises, links to author
websites, reviews, media, and more.
Friday, March 12. 2010
DEADLINE: Grossmont College Science Writing Contest
If you have a passion for science and for writing, put the finishing touches on those
manuscripts and submit them to the 2010 Science Writing Contest. The contest is open
to students of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Colllege District as well as East County high
school students. A multi-disciplinary panel of Grossmont College instructors with
backgrounds in the sciences, literature and creative writing will pick two separate sets
of winners: high school writers and college writers. Click the thumbnail for contest
guidelines and downloadable flier.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
New Voices: A Student Reading
The Creative Writing Program's finest students of the Fall 2009 semester take the
podium. 7:00 p.m. at Griffin Gate. Click the thumbnail to visit the On-Line Chapbook
and to read the programme 'zine from the Student Reading of the Spring 2009 Literary
Arts Festival.
Monday, November 16, 2009
DEADLINE: First Female Writing Contest!
Co-sponsored by the La Mesa-El Cajon American Association of University Women
(AAUW) and the Grossmont College English Department, this first annual writing
contest is open to all young women in the Grossmont Union High School District. It is
our goal to celebrate and support young women who are breaking through barriers as a
“First Female.” Essay must be postmarked on or before Monday, November 16, 2009.
Click the thumbnail at right for contest guidelines, or download the flier HERE.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Poet Rae Armantrout
UCSD Professor of Poetry and Poetics, internationally celebrated Language Poet Rae
Armantrout reads a selection of works from her highly acclaimed books of poetry. 7:00
p.m., Griffin Gate. Click the thumbnail at left to find out more about Rae Armantrout
@ PoetryFoundation.org.
Thursday, October 01, 2009
A Celebration of Banned Books
A provocative celebration of provocative literature, hosted by Joe Medina; 7:00 - 9:00
p.m., Griffin Gate. Click the thumbnail to download this year's flier and program.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Lester Bangs Memorial Faculty Reading
In this first of what will be an annual event, English and Creative Writing faculty read
their original works of poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. The name of the event
pays homage to the life, career, and writing of Lester A. Bangs, a Grossmont College
graduate who became a world renown writer and music critic credited for coining the
term "punk"; 7:00 - 9:00 p.m., Hyde Art Gallery. Click the thumbnail to read about
Lester Bangs on Wikipedia.
