By Angelina Leaños, MFA Creative Writing graduate student | Image: Sandra Cisneros
Fresno State’s Department of English welcomes seven accomplished authors and scholars this spring for campus visits, including the pathbreaking artist Sandra Cisneros, winner of the Poetry Foundation’s 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.
Mid-semester visitors include: Éric Morales-Franceschini, winner of the 2022 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry; Jesse Alemán, the Scholar in Residence at the American Antiquarian Society; Cisneros, winner of fellowships and awards from the NEA, PEN America, and the MacArthur and Ford foundations; and Alexandra Chang, a National Book Foundation “5 under 35” honoree.
Late-semester visitors include: Cynthia Guardado, winner of the Concurso Binacional Fronterizo de Poesía Pellicer-Frost; Peter Balakian, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and fellowships and awards from the NEA and Guggenheim Foundation; and Navdeep Singh Dhillon, whose debut novel published by Penguin Teen appeared on more than a dozen most-anticipated lists.
Admission to all the events is free and open to the public.
Fresno Poets’ Association series
Éric Morales-Franceschini will give a reading with Q&A at 6 p.m. on February 29 on Zoom, hosted by Prof. Mai Der Vang as part of the Fresno Poets’ Association series. Pre-registration is required.
Morales-Franceschini is the author of the poetry collection “Syndrome” (Anhinga Press, 2024), winner of the 2022 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry, as selected by Juan Felipe Herrera. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Tampa, Florida, Morales-Franceschini is a former construction worker, U.S. Army veteran, and community college graduate who now holds a Ph.D. in rhetoric from UC Berkeley and is an assistant professor of English and Latin American Studies at the University of Georgia. He has received fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson and Ford foundations.
For accommodations or access information, contact Mai Der Vang at maidervang@mail.fresnostate.edu or 559.278.1569.
UCMLA conference
As part of the 15th annual Undergraduate Conference on Multiethnic Literatures of the Americas, Jesse Alemán will give an afternoon keynote lecture with Q&A at 2:30 p.m. on March 8 inside the University Business Center. Sandra Cisneros will give an evening reading with Q&A at 7 p.m. on March 8 inside the University Business Center.
Alemán is a professor of English and Presidential Teaching Fellow at the University of New Mexico. The author of more than two-dozen articles, he has published “The Woman in Battle” (University of Wisconsin, 2001), “Empire and the Literature of Sensation” (Rutgers University Press, 2007), and “The Latino Nineteenth Century” (NYU Press, 2013). He is currently completing his book manuscript, “Latinx Civil Wars.” Born and raised in Selma, Alemán earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Fresno State.
Cisneros is a poet, short-story writer, performer, and artist whose work explores the lives of the working-class. Her numerous awards include the Texas Medal of the Arts, and several honorary doctorates and national and international book awards. Her classic coming-of-age novel, “The House on Mango Street,” has sold over seven million copies, has been translated into over twenty-five languages, and is required reading in elementary schools, high schools, and universities across the nation. Her new poetry collection is “Woman Without Shame.”
For accommodations or access information, contact Melanie Hernandez at melanieh@mail.fresnostate.edu or 559.278.1569. Parking costs $5 during the day and is free after 5 p.m. in Lots P5 and P6. The conference is supported by Fresno State’s Instructionally Related Activities fund.
Hmong American Ink and Stories club
Alexandra Chang will give a reading with Q&A at 6 p.m. on March 16 in the Alice Peters Auditorium (PB 191) inside the University Business Center, hosted by the students of the Hmong American Ink and Stories club.
Chang is the author of the story collection “Tomb Sweeping: Stories” (Ecco Books, 2023) and the novel “Days of Distraction” (Ecco Books, 2020). Her writing — which has been described as playful and deeply affective works about the histories, technologies, and generational divides that shape relationships — has appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, the New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Guernica, and elsewhere. She lives in Ventura County.
For accommodations or access information, contact Phoua Lee at haisfresnostate@gmail.com or 559.278.1569. Parking is free on the weekends in Lots P5 and P6, east of the Peters Business building. The event is supported by Fresno State’s Instructionally Related Activities fund.
Chicanx Writers and Artists Association
Cynthia Guardado will give a reading with Q&A at 6:30 p.m. on April 5 in the Kremen Education building (ED 170), hosted by students of the Chicanx Writers and Artists Association.
Guardado is a poet, activist, and daughter of Salvadoran-born parents. She is the author of two collections of poetry: “Cenizas” (University of Arizona Press, 2022) and “Endeavor” (World Stage Press, 2017). Guardado translated and transcribed interviews with journalist and Cuban exile Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, which were published in “The Madrid Conversations” (New Orleans Press 2013). She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from Fresno State and she is a professor of English at Fullerton College, where she is dedicated to social change in and out of the classroom.
For accommodations or access information, contact Victoria Monsivaiz at cwaasubmissions@gmail.com or 559.278.1569. Parking is free after 5 p.m. in Lot P1, at the Shaw and Maple campus entrance. The event is supported by Fresno State’s Instructionally Related Activities fund.
Armenian Studies Program
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Peter Balakian will give a reading and talk entitled “Armenian Memory, Writing Across the Borders” at 7 p.m. on April 22 in the Alice Peters Auditorium (PB 191) inside the University Business Center. The evening, which will begin with a 6 p.m. reception, is hosted by Dr. Barlow Der Mugrdechian, with support from the College of Arts and Humanities and the Creative Writing Program.
Peter Balakian is the author of eight books of poems, four books of prose, three collaborative translations, and several edited books. “Ozone Journal” won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for poetry; the memoir “Black Dog of Fate” won the 1998 PEN/Martha Albrand Prize; and the nonfiction book “The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response” won the 2005 Raphael Lemkin Prize and was a New York Times best-seller. His collaborative translation of Grigoris Balakian’s “Armenian Golgotha: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide” was a Washington Post book of the year.
For accommodations or access information, contact Barlow Der Mugrdechian at barlowd@mail.fresnostate.edu or 559.278.2669. Parking costs $5 in Lots P5 and P6, east of the Peters Business building. The event will be live streamed on the Armenian Studies YouTube channel.
Young Writers’ Conference
As part of the 44th annual Young Writers’ Conference, Navdeep Singh Dhillon will give the keynote reading with Q&A at 9 a.m. on April 24 inside the Satellite Student Union, hosted by Prof. Brynn Saito.
Singh Dhillon is the author of “Sunny G’s Series of Rash Decisions,” a young-adult novel published by Penguin Teen about a cosplaying, crocheting Punjabi teen on a prom-night adventure through Fresno with a Hmong cosplaying love interest, as he comes to terms with grief, identity, and life after high school. Born in England, raised in Tanzania, Nigeria, Dubai, and Fresno, Navdeep is a Punjabi boy at heart, and he earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from Fresno State.
For accommodations or access information, contact Brynn Saito at bsaito@mail.fresnostate.edu or 559.278.1569. Parking costs $5 in Lots P5 and P6, east of the Peters Business building. The event, which is supported by Fresno State’s Instructionally Related Activities fund, will be livestreamed on Zoom by CMAC TV.
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Communication specialist Jefferson Beavers contributed to this report.
The College of Arts and Humanities at Fresno State 