MFA students perform at 2023 LitHop festival

Compiled by Jefferson Beavers, communication specialist, Department of English
Image: Juan Felipe Herrera and Lee Herrick.

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More than 100 writers will gather in Fresno’s Tower District on Saturday, Oct. 14 for LitHop 2023, the city’s free literary festival.

The lineup — which includes nearly 40 readings to choose from at nine different venues between Noon and 6 p.m. — is packed with high school and college student writers, published authors with multiple books, poets laureate, performers reading in multiple languages, and more. The headline event features U.S. Poet Laureate Emeritus Juan Felipe Herrera and current California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick. 

At least half of the writers performing at LitHop have connections to Fresno State as students, faculty, or alumni. This includes 11 current graduate students from the Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing across eight shows:

• 12 to 12:45 p.m. at Fresno Music Academy’s Doris Gallery (814 E. Olive Ave.) — Tim Simmers, as part of the panel “Writing in the Raw.”
• 12 to 12:45 p.m. at Labyrinth Art Collective (1470 N. Van Ness Ave.) — James T. Morrison, as part of the panel “Essaying the Corporeal.”
• 1 to 1:45 p.m. at Hart’s Haven Bookstore (950 N. Van Ness Ave.) — Alberto Saldaña Uribe, as part of the panel “Imbued in the Soil.”
• 1 to 1:45 p.m. at Labyrinth Art Collective (1470 N. Van Ness Ave.) — Audra Burwell and Sharon K. McClain, as part of the panel “The Anatomy of Vellum.”
• 2 to 2:45 p.m. at Fresbrew (810 E. Olive Ave.) — Juan G. Huerta and Victoria Monsivaiz, as part of the panel “Shocky Horror Writing Show.”
• 3 to 3:45 at Hart’s Haven Bookstore (950 N. Van Ness Ave.) — Samina Najmi, as part of the panel “Health and Well-Being on the Page.”
• 4 to 4:45 p.m. at Fresno Music Academy’s Doris Gallery (814 E. Olive Ave.) — Hermelinda Hernandez Monjaras, as part of the panel “Exploding ‘I’: Poets Navigating Identity and Self.”
• 4 to 4:45 p.m. at Labyrinth Art Collective (1470 N. Van Ness Ave.) — Jacob Simmons, Juan G. Huerta, Samina Najmi, and Kathryn Neves, as part of the panel “Where We’ve Been and Where We Belong.”

The full festival schedule is available. LitHop venues will operate in accordance with local, state, and national health guidelines regarding the spread of COVID-19.

A fiscally sponsored project of the Fresno Arts Council, LitHop was founded in 2016 by Lee Herrick, a past City of Fresno poet laureate who teaches at Fresno City College. This year’s lead organizer is Fresno State alumna Andrea Mele, who is the program coordinator for the Fresno Arts Council.