12:00-12:45 PM

Ancestry within our Own

Reading Venue: Fresno Music Academy & Arts: Vista Theatre (1296 N. Wishon Ave)

• Brandon Xiong (he/him)

• Joseph LeForge

• Martin Dabon (he/him)

• Michael Steiner (he/him)

The reading will encompass the connection to our culture, identity, and families through our writing. We will be exposing our own pasts to our future through different forms. So, we will focus on how we grew up, our relationships with family, art, culture, and history of those around us. Which will highlight the passage of time of the lives that we have lived in the San Joaquin Valley.

Reality, Reimagined & Reborn

Reading Venue: Hart's Haven Used Bookstore (950 N. Van Ness Ave)

• Stefan Leiva (he/him)

• Shannon Matalone (she/her)

• H Bryan (they/he)

• Phoua Lee (she/her) 

A late bloomer’s battle against a daunting party, a young woman’s quarantine that grants the ability to see the future, a city wizard’s venture back to his hometown, and a high schooler’s emotional reckoning with the digital ghost of her lost friend. We four Fresno State MFA students have rewritten our personal experiences into new stories by utilizing the freedom fiction gives to transform the narrative. Masking to survive social anxiety, a transgender adult’s complicated reunion with his parents, the future weighing upon a young woman’s mind, and the adolescent struggle with self-harm. This is our reality. Reimagined and reborn.

Glitter Gods: Latinx Spells, Poems, & Rituals

Reading Venue: Splash (644 E Olive)

• Mateo Perez Lara  (they/them)

• Shelby Pinkham  (they/them)

• Hermelinda Hernandez (she/her)

• Mariah Bosch  (they/them/she/hers)

Four readers that open the plane toward a magical realm outside of this living reality. A portal to what keeps us protected, what keeps us healed, what fights against the horrors of the world. The rituals which bring communion to community. These poets invite you to share their space of invocation for strength, justice, power, change. From latinx queerness to immigrant perspective, these poets thread the lines of their ancestors and the future to showcase the power of words as spell and balm.

Things Left Behind

Reading Venue: Mi Cafesito (1495 N. Van Ness Ave)

• Kristin Lyn Crase (she/her)

• Shelley Kay Mast (she/her)

• Norla Henderson (she/her)

• Heather Parish (she/her) 

Featuring the voices of “four women of a certain age,” Things Left Behind explores who we become, what we leave behind, and the transformative power of letting go. Featuring the poetry of Kristin Lyn Crase, storytelling by Norla Henderson and Shelley Mast, and an essay by Heather Parish, this reading examines the past to celebrate the possibilities of the future. Sharing our stories is an act of communal reflection and release. We invite you to consider your own path to letting go and becoming something new.

Treasure in the Bones: sourcing light and gloom from the Golden State

Reading Venue: Sour Milk (1474 N. Van Ness Ave)

• Jacob Simmons (he/him)

• Soreath Hok (she/her)

• Sharon K. McClain (she/her)

Four writers explore the complex cultural landscape of California and how this connection has shaped them. Stories told through creative nonfiction and poetry.

Infinite Poets journey through mental health

Reading Venue: Spectrum Art Gallery (608 E. Olive Ave)

• Erica Castro (her/she)

• Karo Ska (she/they)

• Chai Tea (he/him)

• Alex Petunia (she/they) 

We have four poets who will all share pieces that talk about not fitting in, depression, and anxiety. They will share their journey to healing.Then they will share in their poems how poetry heals and is a form of self-love.

Windows and Mirrors

Reading Venue: Teazer World Tea Market (645 E. Olive Ave)

• Linda Scheller (she/her)

• Cristina Sandoval (she/her)

• Gillian Wegener (she/her)

• Stella Beratlis (she/her)

Four Stanislaus County poets will read new and published work on the theme of family relationships and their effects on the poets' lives and self-regard. They explore family dynamics, questions and conjecture, formative experiences, and nurturance in poems that generate new perspectives and complexity. By writing to see into another space, the poets discover new understanding about causality, connections, and compassion that enable them to better see themselves and their families.

California Dreaming: Celebrating the Beauty of the Unwanted, the Quotidian, and the Out of Place

Reading Venue: Tower Yoga: The Lotus Room (626 E. Olive Ave)

• Samina Najmi

• Daniel Rivers (they/them)

• Ramón García (he/him)

• Romeo Guzmán (he/him)

"What is the California Dream? Has it ever existed, and if so, what does this mean today? Writing the Golden State: The New Literary Terrain of California (Angel City Press, 2024) explores California through twenty-five essays that look beyond the clichés of the “California Dream,” portraying a state that is deviant and recalcitrant, proud and humble, joyful and communal. It is a California that reclaims the beauty of the unwanted, the quotidian, and the out-of-place. For this panel, one of the co-editors will be joined by contributors Ramón Garcia, Samina Najmi, and Daniel Rivers.