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.
UC Davis College of Letters and Science graduate students aren’t letting the lack of a physical space stop them from celebrating and sharing their work with the public. The Arts & Humanities 2020 Graduate Exhibition, usually held at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, will instead take place on the museum website May 28–June 28.
Seven College of Letters and Science faculty members are among the professors honored by the UC Davis Academic Senate and Academic Federation for their teaching, research and public service.
Chris Ransick (M.A., English/creative writing, ’90), author of six books of poetry and fiction and Denver’s Poet Laureate from 2006 to 2010, died in early November. He last book, mummer prisoner scavenger thief, was published this year not long after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Ransick, 57, taught English and writing at Arapahoe Community College near Denver for 25 years and for 15 years taught at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop.
Debut novel captures Afghan American coming of age story.
When Jamil Jan Kochai was 12, his family traveled from their West Sacramento home to their native Afghanistan. During that 2004 trip, Kochai was attacked by the family dog, witnessed what the U.S. invasion had wrought, and soaked up stories of the distant and recent past. A decade later, he brought a short story inspired by that trip to his first graduate writing workshop at UC Davis.
The UC Davis Department of English Creative Writing Reading Series starts Nov. 18 with Jos Charles, whose poetry collection feeld was a 2019 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and longlisted for a National Book Award. The series, co-sponsored by the UC Davis Library, continues in 2020 with a wide range of writers, including poets who are also visual artists, novelists and non-fiction writers exploring immigration, race, love, pop culture and language.
This year's graduate fellows in the College of Letters and Science come from a wide range of majors and are using the fellowships to explore diverse topics. Graduate fellowships support students in humanities, arts, and cultural studies programs to engage in research or creative projects over the summer.
An expansive exhibition by UC Davis graduate students from studio art, design, music, creative writing, English, art history, theatre and cultural studies opens May 29 at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. The annual exhibition by students in the College of Letters and Science will be on display through June 16.
Christopher Markus (M.A., English, ’96) was co-writer, with Stephen McFeely (M.A. English,’96), of the just-released movie "Avengers: Endgame.” The two met at UC Davis in the creative writing program. They've written scripts for the "Captain America" films, the "Chronicles of Narnia" movie franchise, and won an Emmy for their screenplay of HBO movie, "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers."
