Undocupoets co-founder headlines English Department spring literary lineup

By Jefferson Beavers, communication specialist, Department of English

* UPDATED 2/28/25, with new March 22 date for Marcelo Hernandez Castillo reading. *

* UPDATED 4/08/25, with new location for The Normal School reading. *

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Fresno State’s Department of English welcomes 10 acclaimed authors and scholars this spring for campus visits, including the poet and translator Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, the co-founder of Undocupoets, a collective that brings recognition to works written by undocumented poets and spreads awareness about the societal barriers they face as writers.

Mid-semester visitors include: Trinity Nguyen, nominee for a 2024 Goodreads Choice Award; Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Poetry; William Archila, winner of the 2023 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry; lawrence-minh bùi davis, co-founder of the anti-profit Asian American Literary Review; Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, finalist for the 2023 Northern California Book Award for Fiction; and Hernandez Castillo, winner of a 2018 Northern California Book Award.

Late-semester visitors include: Donna Barba Higuera, winner of the 2022 Newbery Medal and a 2022 Pura Belpré Medal; David A. Romero, winner of the Uptown Slam at the historic Green Mill in Chicago, the birthplace of slam poetry; Lena Mubsutina, winner of an Arab American Book Award; and Deema K. Shehabi, winner of the 2018 International Nazim Hikmet Poetry Award.

Admission to all the events is free and open to the public.

Hmong American Ink and Stories club

Trinity Nguyen will give a reading with Q&A at 6 p.m. on Feb. 21 in the Kremen Education Building (ED 172), hosted by the students of the Hmong American Ink and Stories club.

Nguyen is a Vietnamese American author and the indie bestselling author of A Bánh Mì for Two, a sweet sapphic romance about two foodies in love. She’s a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College, and she writes about messy diaspora kids and queer girls with big smiles and big hearts.

For accommodations or access information, contact Phoua Lee at haisfresnostate@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.

Palestine Speaker Series

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha will give a reading with Q&A at 7 p.m. on Feb. 21 in the Alice Peters Auditorium (PB 191) inside the University Business Center, a collaboration between the departments of English, Anthropology, and History. The event, the first in a multi-part series, is hosted by Dr. Samina Najmi.

Tuffaha is a poet, essayist, and translator. She is author of three books of poetry: Something About Living, winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Poetry and winner of the 2022 Akron Prize for Poetry; Kaan & Her Sisters, finalist for the 2024 Firecracker Award and honorable mention for the 2024 Arab American Book Award; and Water & Salt, winner of the 2018 Washington State Book Award and honorable mention for the 2018 Arab American Book Award.

For accommodations or access information, contact Samina Najmi at snajmi@mail.fresnostate.edu or 559.278.1569. Parking is free after 5 p.m. in Lots P5 and P6, east of the Peters Business Building. The event is supported by Fresno State’s Instructionally Related Activities fund.

Fresno Poets’ Association series

William Archila will give a reading with Q&A at 6 p.m. on Feb. 27 in the Fresno State Library (LIB 2206), hosted by Prof. Mai Der Vang as part of the Fresno Poets’ Association series. 

Archila won the 2023 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry for his collection S is For, selected by Douglas Kearney. He is the author of the poetry collections The Art of Exile and The Gravedigger’s Archeology. He was awarded the 2023 Jack Hazard fellowship, and he is an associate editor at Tía Chucha Press.

For accommodations or access information, contact Mai Der Vang at maidervang@mail.fresnostate.edu or 559.278.1569. Parking costs $5 in recommended Lot P1, at the Shaw and Maple campus entrance.

UCMLA conference

As part of the 16th annual Undergraduate Conference on Multiethnic Literatures of the Americas, lawrence-minh bùi davis will give an afternoon keynote lecture with Q&A at 2:30 p.m. on March 7 inside the University Business Center. Talia Lakshmi Kolluri will give an evening reading with Q&A at 7 p.m. on March 7 inside the University Business Center.

davis is a refugee diaspore, curator, and writer. A co-founder of the arts anti-profit Asian American Literary Review (2009), the Asian American Literature Festival (2017), the Center for Refugee Poetics (2018), and the Asian American Lit Fest Collective (2023), he believes in stewardship of literature as social and ethical ecosystem and building collective responsibility for what we read and write, and why.

Kolluri is a mixed South Asian American writer from Northern California. Her debut collection of short stories, What We Fed to the Manticore, was a finalist for the 2023 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and the 2023 Northern California Book Award for Fiction; and was longlisted for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the 2023 Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the 2023 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection.

For accommodations or access information, contact Samina Najmi at snajmi@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, east of the Peters Business Building. The conference is supported by Fresno State’s Instructionally Related Activities fund.

Chicanx Writers and Artists Association

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo will give a reading with Q&A at 3 p.m. on March 22 inside the Fresno State Library (LIB 2206), hosted by the students of the Chicanx Writers and Artists Association.

Hernandez Castillo is a poetry, translator, and immigration advocate. He’s the author of Children of the Land: a Memoir; Cenzontle, winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Prize; Dulce, winner of the Drinking Gourd Prize; and, most recently, he is the co-editor of the anthology Here to Stay: Poetry and Prose from the Undocumented Diaspora. He was the first undocumented student to graduate from the Helen Zell Writers Program at the University of Michigan and co-founded the Undocupoets, which eliminated citizenship requirements from all major poetry book prizes in the U.S., and for which he was recognized with the Barnes and Noble Writers for Writers award.

For accommodations or access information, contact Angelina Leaños at cwaasubmissions@gmail.com or 559.278.1569. Parking is free on weekends in Lot P30 and P31, at the Shaw and Barton campus entrance. The event is supported by Fresno State’s Instructionally Related Activities fund.

Young Writers’ Conference

As part of the 45th annual Young Writers’ Conference, Donna Barba Higuera will give the keynote reading with Q&A at 9 a.m. on April 9 inside the Satellite Student Union, hosted by Dr. René Rodríguez-Astacio.

Higuera grew up in a tiny desert town in Central California, surrounded by agricultural and oil fields. Her middle grade and picture books reinvent history, folklore, and her own life experiences into compelling storylines. Her books include the New York Times best-selling The Last Cuentista, which received the Newbery Medal and Pura Belpré Award; and Lupe Wong Won’t Dance, which received the Pura Belpré honor and the Sid Fleischman award for best children’s humor book of the year. 

For accommodations or access information, contact René Rodríguez-Astacio at renerodriguez@mail.fresnostate.edu or 559.278.1569. Parking costs $5 in Lots P5 and P6, east of the Peters Business building. The conference is supported by Fresno State’s Instructionally Related Activities fund.

Chicanx Writers and Artists Association

David A. Romero will give a featured reading, as part of the Flies, Cockroaches and Poets journal launch, at 3:30 p.m. on April 12 inside the Music Building (M 160), hosted by the students of the Chicanx Writers and Artists Association.

Romero is a Mexican American spoken word artist and the co-founder and editor-in-chief of El Martillo Press. He’s the author of the collections My Name Is Romero, Diamond Bars 2, and Diamond Bars: The Street Version. He won the Uptown Slam at the historic Green Mill in Chicago, the birthplace of slam poetry, and his work deals with family, identity, social justice issues, and Latinx culture.

For accommodations or access information, contact Angelina Leaños at cwaasubmissions@gmail.com or 559.278.1569. Parking is free on weekends in Lots P1 and P2, at the Shaw and Maple campus entrance. The event is supported by Fresno State’s Instructionally Related Activities fund.

The Normal School

Lena Mubsutina and Deema K. Shehabi will give an online reading with Q&A at 6 p.m. on April 25 on Zoom, hosted by students of The Normal School literary magazine.

Mubsutina is the author of the novel Amreekiya, an Arab American Book Award winner, a finalist for the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize, and one of Foreword’s “Four Phenomenal Debut Novels.” Her work has appeared in Sukoon, A Gathering Together, and The Offing, among others, and she has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes.

Shehabi is a Palestinian American poet, writer, and editor. She is the author of Thirteen Departures from the Moon and co-editor with Beau Beausoleil of Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, for which she received a Northern California Book Award. She’s also co-author of Diaspo/Renga with Marilyn Hacker and winner of the International Nazim Hikmet Poetry Award.

For accommodations or access information, contact Steven Church at stchurch@mail.fresnostate.edu or 559.278.1569. The event is supported by Fresno State’s Instructionally Related Activities fund.