Message from UCR Palm Desert:
The 10th season of Arts & Letters at UCR Palm Desert begins in October and will continue through May 2018.
Arts & Letters is a free series that presents an array of literary perspectives, inviting the community to spend time with today’s most influential authors through interviews and personal readings. Most conversations are facilitated by Tod Goldberg, program director for UCR Palm Desert’s Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts.
“I grew up in the Coachella Valley and know firsthand what it’s like to seek out a literary community here. So when I became the director of the MFA program one of my long-term goals was to bring more arts and culture programming to the valley – and make it free and accessible to everyone,” said Tod Goldberg. “People are always hungry in the literary arts here, and it has been a joy to create events designed to feed that.”
Events:
6 p.m. Oct. 11, 2017: Tod Goldberg
Tod Goldberg is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen books, including the novels Gangster Nation, The House of Secrets, which he co-authored with New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer, Gangsterland, a finalist for the Hammett Prize, and Living Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He is the director of the UCR Palm Desert low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts program. Interviewed by UCR Palm Desert MFA professor and award-winning author Rob Roberge.
6 p.m. Nov. 16, 017: Liska Jacobs
Liska Jacobs’ essays and short fiction have appeared in The Rumpus, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Literary Hub, The Millions, and The Hairpin, among other publications. Catalina is her first novel. She holds an MFA from the University of California, Riverside.
Contact: Maggie Downs UCR Palm Desert Phone: (760) 834-0800 [email protected] UCR PALM DESERT
6 p.m. Jan. 18, 2018: Panio Gianopoulos
Panio Gianopoulos is the author of the story collection, How to Get Into Our House and Where We Keep the Money, and the novella, A Familiar Beast. His stories, essays, and poetry have appeared in Tin House, Northwest Review, Salon, The Rattling Wall, Chicago Quarterly Review, Big Fiction, The Brooklyn Rail, Catamaran Literary Reader, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.
6 p.m. Feb. 7, 2018: Janet Fitch
Janet Fitch’s first novel, White Oleander, a #1 bestseller and Oprah’s Book Club selection, has been translated into 24 languages and was made into a feature film. Her second novel, Paint It Black, hit bestseller lists across the country and has also been made into a film. Her latest book, The Revolution of Marina M., is a sweeping historical saga of the Russian Revolution, as seen through the eyes of one young woman.
6 p.m. April 4, 2018: Attica Locke
Attica Locke is a writer and producer for the hit TV show, Empire. Her first novel, Black Water Rising, was nominated for an Edgar Award, an NAACP Image Award, as well as a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her second book, The Cutting Season, is a national bestseller and the winner of the Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. Pleasantville was the 2016 winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. Her latest, Bluebird, Bluebird, has been called “an exhilarating, timely novel about the collision of race and justice in America.”
6 p.m. May 2, 2018: Ivy Pochoda
Ivy Pochoda is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Visitation Street, chosen as an Amazon Best Book of the Month, Amazon Best Book of 2013, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Huffington Post, Self, and House & Garden. Her first novel The Art of Disappearing, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2009. She has a BA from Harvard College in Classical Greek and an MFA from Bennington College in fiction.
For additional information: RSVP: http://palmdesert.ucr.edu/events
University of California, Riverside – Palm Desert Center: www.palmdesert.ucr.edu