Zinzi Clemmons, visiting faculty and writer
Zinzi Clemmons

UC Davis Creative Writing Series Expands Online

The Creative Writing Program of the UC Davis Department of English is expanding its reading series with online and in-person readings by visiting writers, creative writing Master of Fine Arts candidates, lecturers in the Creative Writing Program, and projects created in collaboration with art and music students.  

The series is presented by the UC Davis Department of English, Creative Writing Master of Fine Arts Program and the UC Davis Library, with two events co-sponsored by the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.

All the fall readings take place online at 4:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Tuesday, Oct. 6

Zinzi Clemmons’ debut novel, What We Lose, was named Debut Novel of the Year for 2017 by Vogue, and received praise from The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New York Times and The New Yorker. She is a National Book Award “5 Under 35” Honoree. Clemmons is a visiting faculty member in the UC Davis Creative Writing Program. Also reading will be M.F.A. students Jennifer Soong, whose work has been published in The Washington Post, GAY MAG and Jellyfish Review, and Kelsey Ford, whose writing has appeared in Storychord, Her Royal Majesty and Bright Wall / Dark Room. Register.

Tuesday, Oct. 13

Ariana REines
Ariana Reines 

Ariana Reines is an award-winning poet, playwright and translator. Her most recent and ninth book of poetry, A Sand Book (2019), was longlisted for the National Book Award. She has created performances for the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art and others, and was included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial as a member of the literary group Semiotext(e). Her play Telephone received two Obie Awards. Reines’ visit is co-sponsored by the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. Register.

Wednesday, Nov. 4 (4 p.m.)

Claudia Rankine
Claudia Rankine

Claudia Rankine’s 2020 book, Just Us: An American Conversation, combines poetry, essays, visuals, scholarship, analysis and argument to discuss the complexity of race in the U.S. Her 2014 book, Citizen: An American Lyric, won the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, the NAACP Image Award in poetry, the PEN Open Book Award and the PEN American Center USA Literary Award. Rankine is a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow and a professor of poetry in the Yale University departments of English and African American Studies.

Rankine is presented by the Creative Writing Program, the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art and the Department of Religious Studies, with co-sponsorships by 20 other UC Davis departments, programs and centers. Register.

Tuesday, Nov. 10

The Deep End, presented by graduate student group Fig and Axle, will feature readings by first-year M.F.A. students. Register.

Tuesday, Dec. 1

Creative writing and studio art M.F.A. students will present a joint event focusing on individual and collaborative works. Register.

Events for the winter and spring quarters will include readings by short story author Jess Arndt; fiction and memoir writer Carmen Maria Machado; poets Jessica Laser, Margaret Ross and Noah Warren; creative writing faculty lecturers; and a collaboration with music students.

— Jeffrey Day, content strategist in the College of Letters and Science

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