University of California, Riverside
Department of Creative Writing

presents:

Viet Thanh Nguyen

part of

49th UCR Writers Week Festival 2026

Writers Week is the longest-running, free literary event in California and features the most renowned authors of our day alongside those at the start of promising careers. writersweek.ucr.edu

Josh Emmons, Professor
Allison White, Professor
Co-Directors, Writers Week

Download the 2026 Writers Week Poster

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BIO

Viet Thanh Nguyen is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer, as well as its sequel, The Committed. His nonfiction works include Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War, shortlisted for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award; A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial, shortlisted for the UK’s Baillie Gifford Prize; and his current book, To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other, currently shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has also written for children, with Chicken of the Sea and Simone.

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Tuesday - Friday, May 5 - 8, 2026

Free and open to the public

In-person: INTS 1113 (unless otherwise noted below)

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PARKING

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49th UCR Writers Week Featured Writers 

Caro De Robertis, Anel Flores, A.M. Sosa, Emily Weinstein, Jose Valdi, Emily Doyle, Johnathan Lethem, Ilya Kaminsky, D.A. Powell, Viet Nguyen, and more.

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SCHEDULE
subject to change
 

Tuesday, May 5:

• 11 a.m. Caro De Robertis (Fiction writer)

• 1 p.m. Anel Flores (Fiction writer)

• 3 p.m. A.M. Sosa (Fiction writer)

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Wednesday, May 6

• 11 a.m. Emily Weinstein (Nonfiction writer) CANCELED

• 1 p.m. Jose Vadi (Essayist and Poet)

• 3 p.m. Prageeta Sharma (Poet)

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Thursday, May 7

• 11 a.m. Mosaic Reading (UCR literary journal-affiliated undergraduates)

• 1 p.m. Emily Doyle (Fiction writer and UCR MFA alum)

• 3 p.m. Jonathan Lethem (Fiction writer)

• 5 p.m. "Mija" film screening (INTS 1128)

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Friday, May 8

• 11. a.m. Ilya Kaminsky (Poet)

• 1 p.m. D.A. Powell (Poet)

• 3 p.m. Viet Thanh Nguyen (Fiction writer)

• 4:45 p.m. – 6 p.m. MFA Students Reading

• 7 p.m. - UCR alumnus Ching-In Chen (at the Heritage House)

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SPECIAL THANKS

The 49th Writers Week 2026 is hosted by the UCR Department of Creative Writing.

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SPONSORS

CHASS Dean’s Office, the Center for Ideas & Society, Inland Empire magazine, the National Book Award Society

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BOOK PURCHASES
Cellar Door Books is our recommended local independent store. Be sure to stop by their page.

Information: writersweek@ucr.edu

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• FB UCR Writers Resist