Center for Literary Arts at SJSU

2009-2010 Season
Downloadable Schedule

< Fall 2009 Spring 2010 >
All events are free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible, unless otherwise noted.

Click here for an invitation to our 20th anniversary dinner
with special guest Tobias Wolff.

Spring 2010


	Marilyn Chin February 24 & 25 Marilyn Chin is the author of three collections of poetry - Dwarf Bamboo, The Phoenix Gone, The Terrace Empty, and Rhapsody in Plain Yellow - and a book of tales, Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen, just published by W.W. Norton. Chin has won two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, the PEN/Josephine Miles Award, four Pushcart Prizes, a Fulbright Fellowship, and numerous residencies. Her work can be found in a variety of anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry and The Oxford Anthology of Modern American Poetry. She co-directs the MFA program at San Diego State University. February 24, 3 pm: Mt. Pleasant High School February 25: In conversation with Sam Maio, 1:30pm, Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Rm 225-229 Reading and Book Signing, 7 pm: Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Rm 225-229

	Daniel Alarcón March 9 The James D. Houston Memorial Lecture Daniel Alarcón is the author of the novel Lost City Radio and the short story collection War By Candlelight, a finalist for the 2006 PEN/Hemingway Award. His fiction and nonfiction have been published in The New Yorker, Virginia Quarterly Review, Harper's and elsewhere. He is Associate Editor of Etiqueta Negra, an award-winning monthly magazine based in his native Lima, Peru. Alarcón lives in Oakland. 3 pm: Mt. Pleasant High School Reading and Book Signing, 7 pm: Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Rm 225-229

	Laleh Khadivi March 17 A Reading in Honor of Norouz, the Persian New Year Laleh Khadivi was born in Esfahan, Iran in 1977. She worked as a documentary filmmaker directing the film 900 Women about six women in a maximum-security prison in Louisiana. She earned an MFA from Mills College in 2006 and has been the recipient of the Carl Djerassi Fellowship, the Emory Fiction Fellowship, and a Whiting Writers Award. She will read from her novel, The Age of Orphans. Reading, 7 pm: Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, 5th Floor, Schiro Room

	Truong Tran April 13 Truong Tran is a Vietnamese-American poet and writer living in San Francisco. He has received poetry fellowships from Arts Council of Santa Clara, the California Arts Council and the Creative Work Fund Grant. He teaches creative writing at San Francisco State University and Mills College. He is the author of the poetry collections placing the accents, a finalist for the Western States Book Prize for Poetry; dust and conscience, winner of the 2002 San Francisco Poetry Center Book Award; and Within the Margin. 3 pm: Mt. Pleasant High School Reading and Book Signing, 7 pm: Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Rm 225-229

	Peter Nathaniel Malae April 21 Peter Nathaniel Malae is the author of the novel, What We Are, winner of the Joseph Henry Jackson Award, and the story collection, Teach the Free Man, a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lion's Award and the Glasgow Prize. He's been a Steinbeck, MacDowell and Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellow. Nine True Love Stories will be published in 2011. Reading and Book Signing, 7 pm: Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Rm 225-229

	Tim Cahill April 28 The Lurie Distinguished Visiting Writer A founding editor of Outside Magazine, travel writer Tim Cahill is the author of seven books, including Pass the Butterworms, Pecked to Death by Ducks, Hold the Enlightenment and Lost In My Own Backyard. A former longtime Bay Area resident, he now lives in Montana. A Conversation with Tim Cahill, 1 pm: Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Rm 225-229 Reading and Book Signing, 7 pm: Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Rm 225-229 Lurie Distinguished Visiting Writer The Lurie Distinguished Visiting Writer, established through the generosity of Connie and Robert Lurie, has brought distinguished authors including Ursula LeGuin, James Kelman, Carolyn Kizer, and ZZ Packer to teach at SJSU for one semester each year.
Fall 2009

	John Hamamura September 22 & 23 John Hamamura is the author of the novel Color of the Sea, the 2009-2010 SJSU Campus Reading Series selection. Born in the final year of WWII in a U.S. Army hospital in Minnesota, his father was a GI Japanese language instructor and his mother's family was behind barbed wire at a camp in southern Arkansas. His father's mother and siblings lived in Hiroshima; two of them survived the atomic bomb. He lives in Oakland, California. September 22, 3 pm: Mt. Pleasant High School September 23: In conversation with Nick Taylor, 1:30pm, Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Rm 225-229 Reading and Book Signing, 7 pm: Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Rm 225-229

	Mary Roach October 13 A Litquake South Bay Event! Mary Roach is the New York Times bestselling author of three books, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, and Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. She has written for numerous publications, including Salon.com, Wired, Outside Magazine, National Geographic and New Scientist. A National Magazine Award Finalist and contributing editor to Discover magazine, Roach lives in Oakland. A conversation with Mary Roach, 12 noon, Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Rm 225-229 Reading and Book Signing, 7 pm: Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Rm 225-229

	The Center for Literary Arts: Bay Area and Beyond October 17 The Center for Literary Arts joins with Litquake, San Francisco's annual week-long literary festival, for this special event during the climactic Lit Crawl in the Mission District. Featuring readings by Pam Houston, Rebecca Black, Nick Taylor, Shawna Yang Ryan, and Daughters of Yam. The Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission St. @ 19th St., San Francisco. 7pm sharp!

	Kim Addonizio October 21 Kim Addonizio is a nationally acclaimed poet who has authored five collections, most recently Lucifer at the Starlite. Her collection Tell Me was a finalist for the National Book Award. Addonizio's work has been recognized with two NEA Fellowships, a Pushcart Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She co-authored The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry. Addonizio is also the author of two novels, Little Beauties and My Dreams Out in the Street, and a new book on writing, Ordinary Genius. Reading and Book Signing, 7 pm: Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Rm 225-229

	Brenda Hillman and Robert Hass October 22 Poets Brenda Hillman and Robert Hass will speak and read from their current work and several of their most-loved earlier poems. Brenda Hillman is the author of eight books of poems, including the newly released Practical Water. Robert Hass is a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner and was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 1995-1997. Presented by Montalvo Arts Center and Poetry Center San Jose. 7:30 pm: Montalvo Arts Center, Carriage House Theatre, Saratoga. Tickets $16-45.

	Daniel Arnold October 28 A recent graduate of the SJSU MFA Program, Daniel Arnold's first book, Early Days in the Range of Light, is forthcoming from Counterpoint Press. Reading and Book Signing, 7 pm: Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Rm 225-229

	Denis Johnson November 3 & 4 The Martha Heasley Cox Lecture Denis Johnson is the author seven novels, one collection of stories, five books of poems, and numerous plays. He has been the recipient of a Lannan Fellowship and a Whiting Writers' Award. His novel Tree of Smoke won the 2007 National Book Award and was a Finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. His fiction and poems have appeared in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, Harper's, GQ, Esquire and Playboy. He lives in Northern Idaho. November 3: Reading and Book Signing, 7pm, Concert Hall (Music Bldg.) November 4: In conversation with Stephen Elliott, 1pm, Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Rm 225-229 The Martha Heasley Cox Lecture Series Through a generous donation from Martha Heasley Cox, this annual Lecture was established. Past lecturers include Dorothy Allison, Gore Vidal, and Kiran Desai.

	Sara Houghteling November 19 Sara Houghteling is the author of the novel Pictures at an Exhibition. She is a former John Steinbeck Fellow at SJSU and lives in Berkeley. Reading and Book Signing, 7 pm: Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, 5th Floor, Schiro Room

	The 2009-2010 Steinbeck Fellows December 2 Skip Horack, Katie Chase, and Andrew Milward will read from work in progress. Co-Sponsored with the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies. Reading and Book Signing, 7 pm: Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, 5th Floor, Schiro Room