Creative Writing Program hosts pair of fall author readings

Compiled by Jefferson Beavers, communication specialist, Department of English
Image: Taylor Brorby (left) and Brooke Champagne

Fresno State’s Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing will host two author readings this fall — one featuring the program’s faculty authors, and one with a pair of acclaimed writers from the American South. 

Admission to each event is free, and the readings are open to the public. 

Author Reading: Fresno State MFA Faculty

In an annual tradition, the Creative Writing Program faculty will gather to perform from their latest works. The Fresno State MFA Faculty reading is part of the program’s long-running Fresno Poets’ Association series.

The reading is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 30 in the Alice Peters Auditorium (PB 191), inside the University Business Center. Parking costs $5 in recommended lots P5 and P6.

Faculty authors featured will include Venita Blackburn, Steven Church, Ra Jarrar, Brynn Saito, Mai Der Vang, and Brenna Womer. Books will be for sale, and a book signing will follow.

For more information, contact Brynn Saito at bsaito@mail.fresnostate.edu or 559.278.1569.

Author Reading: Taylor Brorby and Brooke Champagne

Graduate students from The Normal School literary magazine will host an evening with authors Taylor Brorby and Brooke Champagne. The reading is supported by Fresno State’s Instructionally Related Activities fund.

The event is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 19 in the Alice Peters Auditorium (PB 191), inside the University Business Center. Parking costs $5 in recommended lots P5 and P6.

Brorby is the author of “Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land,” published in 2022 on the Liveright imprint of W. W. Norton. A MacDowell fellow and a National Book Critics Circle fellow, Brorby’s work has appeared in the New York Times, LitHub, The Huffington Post, and is widely anthologized.

Champagne is the author of “Nola Face: A Latina’s Life in the Big Easy,” published in 2024 as part of the Crux Series in Literary Nonfiction with the University of Georgia Press. An Alabama State Council literary fellow, Champagne’s work has been selected as notable in multiple editions of the Best American Essays anthologies.
For more information, contact Steven Church at stchurch@mail.fresnostate.edu or 559.278.1569.