UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE
Department of Creative Writing

44th Annual Writers Week Festival 2021

Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Writers Week director
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

Allison Adelle Hedge Coke 
Director, Writers Week
Distinguished Professor

Tom Lutz 
Publisher, Los Angeles Review of Books 
UCR Creative Writing Department Chair 
Distinguished Professor 

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February 13 and 16-19, 2021
ONLINE. Free and open to the public. 
Captioned & ASL translated.
Register here or on any author’s name below 
February 20 Post-festival ticketed celebration with our Lifetime Achievement Award partner LA Review of Books. Learn more 

Download the Interactive Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees Poster here

Download the Interactive 44th Writers Week Poster here
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Rita Dove, Joy Harjo and Juan Felipe Herrera

2021 LA Review of Books (LARB) – UCR Department of Creative Writing 
Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees, US Poet Laureates

Mike Davis – D. Charles Whitney Reader 
Karen Tei Yamashita – Stephen Minot Lecture

44th UCR Writers Week Featured Writers 
Millicent Borges Accardi • Kazim Ali • Francisco Aragón • Joseph Cassara • Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle • Camille T. Dungy • Carolyn Dunn • Steve Erickson • Kelli Jo Ford • Reyna Grande • Stephanie Elizondo Griest • Nalo Hopkinson • LeAnne Howe • John Jennings • Stephen Graham Jones • Laila Lalami • Brandy Nālani McDougall • Shin Yu Pai • Craig Santos Perez • Tommy Pico • Elizabeth Powell • Kamala Puligandla • Alison C. Rollins • Jane Smiley • Michael Torres • Melissa Valentine • Allison Benis White
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SCHEDULE 
Saturday, Feb 13 Pre-Festival Events
                                               
Session 1 – 1:00 pm PST
Francisco Aragón 

Session 2 – 3:00 pm PST 
Stephen Graham Jones  

Session 3 – Rescheduled May 5th, 10:00 am PDT 
LeAnne Howe 
Special Presentation On Documentary Film, “Searching for Sequoyah” for Native American Student Programs (NASP)

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Tuesday, Feb 16

Session 1 – 1:00 pm PST
Kelli Jo Ford • Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle • Alison C. Rollins

Session 2 – 3:00 pm PST
Stephanie Elizondo Griest • Reyna Grande • Elizabeth Powell

Session 3 – 6:30 pm PST
Karen Tei Yamashita Stephen Minot Lecture 
Allison Benis White • Nalo Hopkinson     

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Wednesday, Feb 17

Session 1 – 1:00 pm PST
Michael Torres • Shin Yu Pai • Steve Erickson

Session  2 – 3:00 pm PST
Kazim Ali • Jane Smiley • LeAnne Howe

Session 3 – 6:30 pm PST
Camille T. Dungy • Carolyn Dunn
A night to remember – Poetry/Prose by literary giant Camille T. Dungy
Chasing Tailfeathers, a new play by Director, Writer, Performer Carolyn Dunn. Cast: Kimberly Guerrero, Kalani Queypo, Carolyn Dunn, Kyrié Owen 

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Thursday, Feb 18

Session 1 – 12:00 pm PST
MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts  
Reading Program Candidates 

Session 2 – 1:30 pm PST
Kamala Puligandla • Melissa Valentine • Tommy Pico

Session 3 – 3:30 pm PST
Laila Lalami • Mike Davis D. Charles Whitney Reader

Session 4 – 6:30 pm PST
John Jennings • Millicent Borges Accardi • Joseph Cassara

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Friday, Feb 19

Session 1 – 1:00 pm PST
Writers Resist Reading 
Writers Resist Riverside: in collaboration with Pen America

Session 2 – 3:00 pm PST
Craig Santos Perez • Brandy Nālani McDougall  

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Session 3 – UCR 6:30-8:00 pm PST
UCR Department of Creative Writing Lifetime Achievement Award Ceremony
This award night is the closing event of the UCR-hosted festival.
A ticketed after-event award celebration is scheduled with LA Review of Books. Learn more
2021 LA Review of Books (LARB) – UCR Department of Creative Writing 
Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees, 
US Poet Laureates

Rita Dove, Joy Harjo and Juan Felipe Herrera

Rita Dove
Joy Harjo  
Juan Felipe Herrera 

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Saturday, Feb 20 - LARB 4:00-5:30 pm PST
Post-festival ticketed celebration with our Lifetime Achievement Award partner LA Review of Books Learn more.

2021 LA Review of Books (LARB) – UCR Department of Creative Writing 
Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees, US Poet Laureates

Rita Dove, Joy Harjo and Juan Felipe Herrera

Rita Dove 
Joy Harjo  
Juan Felipe Herrera 

The 44th Writers Week 2021 is made possible by support from Ken Crocker, Inland Empire Magazine, Thea Temple / Jack and Jacob Myers Literary Fund, Riverside Latino Network, African Student Programs, Middle Eastern Student Center, UCR Department of English, UCR Department of Ethnic Studies, UCR Department of Music, UCR Department of Theatre, Film, and Digital Production, Center for Ideas and Society, California Center for Native Nations, Dr. Michael Alexander, Associate Professor and Maimonides Chair of Jewish Studies, Dr. Melissa Wilcox, Professor and Holstein Endowed Chair, Pr. Alex Espinoza, Associate Professor, Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair of Creative Writing and English, Distinguished Professor, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Dr. Clifford Trafzer, Distinguished Professor of History and Rupert and Jeanette Henry Costo Chair in American Indian Affairs, UCR ARTS, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Dean’s Office, our generous sponsors through #UCRGivingTues donors, Native American Student Programs Office (NASP), Joshua Gonzales, Director, the Ratcliffe Family Creative Writing Endowment Fund and Los Angeles Review of Books.

#UCRGivingTues* donors include: Mark O. Bailie, Melissa A. Bartholomew, Katherine Benouar, Kathleen DeAtley, Clyde D. Derrick III, Terri L. Dunlap, Pr. Alex Espinoza, Diana Fontaine, Katherine K. Fugate, Jeffrey J. Girod, Kimberly V. Gomez-Fraser, Pr. Allison Hedge Coke, Travis B. Hedge Coke, Dr. Laila Lalami, Malinn C. Loeung, Michael Lundell, Jennifer Merrett, Heather M. Morales, LaSharon A. McLean Perez, Cati Porter, Rachel L. Pulido, Assistant Vice Chancellor Emily M. Rankin and Eveleen D. Samayoa.

Book purchases
A hyperlink is now available for all attendees to purchase books from our own campus B & N bookstore here. Cellar Door Books is our recommended local independent store. Be sure to stop by their page.

Information: writersweek@ucr.edu 

• FB UCR Writers Week
• FB UCR Writers Resist
• IG @ucrwritersweek
• Twitter @ucrwritersweek
• Twitter #ucrwritersresist  

Statement in Support of Black Lives Matter 
We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. The brutal killings of George Floyd in Minnesota, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia are part of a pattern of state violence against Black people, which too often remains invisible and unpunished, when it is not blamed on the victims themselves. America’s institutionalized practice of settler colonialism, genocide, slavery, and segregation continues in the form of continued occupation, discrimination, mass incarceration, and racist policing. The nationwide protests we are witnessing are an expression of anger at police violence, a rejection of white supremacy, and a call to our leaders that they live up to the nation's founding proclamation of equality. We demand accountability from the police, disinvestment from law enforcement in favor of education, housing, and community services, and, above all, justice for the victims.

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Recognition of Native Lands Statement 
We acknowledge that the land on which we gather is the original and traditional territory of Tongva people [Tongva and Cahuilla people] and within Tongva, Cahuilla, Luiseño & Serrano original lands and contemporary territories.

In the spirit of Rupert and Jeanette Costo’s founding relationship to our campus, we would like to respectfully acknowledge and recognize our responsibility to the original and current caretakers of this land, water and air: the Cahuilla, Tongva, Luiseño, and Serrano peoples and all of their ancestors and descendants, past, present and future. Today this meeting place is home to many Indigenous peoples from all over the world, including UCR faculty, students, and staff, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to live and work on these homelands.

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The Writers Week emblem, designed from the Agave americana Marginata in our local flora, was created to demonstrate our support for initiatives that create a more sustainable campus, community, and state that includes indigenous plants on campus and region. We also support the work of the UCR Office of Sustainability and the UCR Botanic Gardens.