May 2013
2 posts
5 tags
580 Split Launch Party This Thursday!
Come celebrate the launch of the latest issue of 580 Split! There will be food, drinks, and, most importantly, readings by some of the fabulous writers featured in the newest issue: LALEH KHADIVI, FOWZIA KARIMI, and JOEL TOMFOHR.
There will also be contests and raffles with prizes (and also, pssst, a DJ!). This event is open to the public, so bring a friend!
Details: 580 Split Launch Party Mills...
3 tags
Graduating CW MFAs Read Wednesday at the Mills Art...
Let’s celebrate our graduating MFAs’ thesis projects!
In conjunction with the Fine Arts MFA exhibition, please join us for a thesis reading by graduating MFAs in Creative Writing at the Mills College Art Museum!
Details: Graduating MFA Creative Writing Thesis Reading Mills College Art Museum THIS Wednesday, May 8, 2013 6:00 p.m.
ALSO! There is still time for graduating MFAs to sign...
April 2013
6 posts
EVERYBODY EVERYBODY OPEN MIC Tuesday, April 23!
Undergrads! Grads! Everybody, Everybody!
It’s that time again!
On April 23, 2013, at 5:30 p.m., the Place for Writers is hosting our EVERYBODY, EVERYBODY open mic.
ONLY THIS TIME AROUND, WE’RE GETTING FANCY.
Your lovely co-hosts, Unique and Rex, will be decked out, dolled up, and dressed to impress (think feather boas, lipstick, neon short-shorts), and we ask that y’all...
The Contemporary Writers Series Presents Anne... →
[Click link to hear her reading from Nox!]
The Contemporary Writers Series is gearing up to present our final reader of the semester, Anne Carson!
Poet, essayist, translator, and professor of classics, Anne Carson’s writing moves between and across disciplines, from novel in verse Autobiography of Red to Eros the Bittersweet, described by one reader as “a philosophical prose poem...
Critical Works in Progress Finale 4/8
Hey everyone!
Our FINAL Critical Works in Progress event is coming up soon, on Monday, April 8th. MA candidate Kacy Takamoto will be giving a presentation entitled “Not to Have Seen It, Yet Inheriting It”: Fighting Against Historical Amnesia in The Quest to Reach The Freeing Word.
“Throughout time, traumatic memories of historical events have been subject to varying forms of...
March 2013
7 posts
Last Works in Progress of the year!
THE FINALE of The Works in Progress Reading Series of the 2012–2013 academic term is approaching!
Featuring: EVAN Nichols: got writer’s block writing this EMJI Spero Glen: mouth is full of bees SANTIAGO Morrice: step one: bleed into typewriter AUDACIOUS Wilson: spits milk and fire bombs LENA O’neal: used to have six finger OSA Reader…. FRANCESCA Pemberton: may be wearing...
Tomorrow is Cirque du Work BOOTCAMP! →
Just wanted to remind everyone to come out to Bootcamp on Friday for workshops on CV-building, creating the teaching statement and letter of intent, and mock interviews (if you have scheduled yourself for one). Also, one change— we will now have PIZZA for lunch (gluten free and vegan options available) instead of bring your own bag lunch! Feel free to bring your own food, as well.
...
Erica Hunt Reads at Contemporary Writers Series...
Erica Hunt is a poet and essayist. Some of her books of poetry include Local History and Arcade ( with artist Alison Saar). Her seminal essay “Notes for an Oppositional Poetics” appeared in The Politics of Poetic Form (edited by Charles Bernstein). Her work had been widely published in many journals and anthologies—too many to name here. She is currently president of the...
FREE CV building workshop!!
It’s one of those life skills you don’t learn in a class. Learn the ropes and curb anxieties at this quick and painless— and dare we say fun?— CV building workshop, a great way to kick off the Cirque du Work weekend festivities. Here are the deets:
CREATING AND BUILDING A CV (for Mills students only) 10:00 – 11:00 am, Mills Hall 135
Mills faculty Tarah Demant and...
Welcome Author Nina LaCour Back to Mills This...
We are pleased to welcome award-winning author and Mills alum, Nina LaCour, as part of the Contemporary Writers Series this Tuesday!
Nina LaCour grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and received her MFA in Creative Writing in from Mills College in 2006.
Hold Still, Nina’s first novel, was published by Dutton Children’s Books in 2009. Hold Still is a William C. Morris Honor book, a...
February 2013
16 posts
Works in Progress March 12th!
The fun continues! Join us once more for Works in Progress where we will hear work from 2nd Year MFA candidates: Brian Roth: doubts: when in doubt repeat Jacquie Benatua: looking for a living blueprint Grace Burns: wants a purple Royal typewriter Margaret Seelie: has cheese knees, on occasion OSA Student Reader Chloe Charlton: Heart fulla wisdom. And blood. Mills College Faculty/Professor...
5 tags
CANCELLED: Contemporary Writers Series presents...
Unfortunately, Victor LaValle’s reading has been cancelled. However, be sure to check out the links below and his new book, The Devil in Silver.
Watch for news about future Place for Writers’ events here and check out the remaining lineup for the Contemporary Writers Series.
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Well, this semester just keeps clipping along.
First, the incredible Joyce Carol Oates, and now, the...
In Case You Missed the Q&A with Joyce Carol... →
Thank you Michelle Tea/Radar Productions, for furiously taking notes at the Q&A!
Join Us For Joyce Carol Oates Tomorrow (Tuesday,...
Joyce Carol Oates reading tomorrow as part of the Contemporary Writers Series at Mills College
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 5:30 p.m. Mills College, Bender Room Reception to follow.
Read her recent story, I.D., published in The New Yorker, anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2011, and included in her new collection, Black Dahlia & White Rose: Stories.
*
Reminder for...
The Place for Writers Presents:
The Place for Writers and the Graduate English Department at Mills College invite you to our annual professional development conference on writing, publishing, teaching, and work, now known as Cirque du Work! This two-day conference will happen on Friday, March 15th and Saturday, the 16th at the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business Building. Day 1 of the conference will provide Mills MFA...
First Spring Critical Works in Progress: Leslie...
Hey everyone,
Our first Critical Works in Progress event of the semester is coming up on Monday, February 11th. MA candidate Leslie Martin will be giving a presentation entitled
Bordering Salvation: Borders, Bodies, and Home in Fanny Howe’s Saving History Although Fanny Howe’s avant-garde novel Saving History has been read as a text about organ trafficking, spiritual wandering, or the...
1 tag
Works in Progress Preview: IVY JOHNSON
The talented poet (and Place for Writers comrade!) IVY JOHNSON will be reading at this Tuesday’s Works in Progress. Here is a poem of hers to whet your appetite!
If This is Our Birth
if narcissus marked the beginning
if the roots of this were born from sleep
if we are implicated through our birth
if swimming in this technological ethos
if we are electrocuted in the waters
if this...
Upcoming Poetry Readings in the Bay Area →
THIS WEEKEND
Saturday, February 2 A Tribute to Jay DeFeo Jay DeFeo’s central role in the artistic culture of San Francisco over a period spanning four decades (1950s-1980s) makes her “both a figure of local pride and a lens onto the Bay Area’s vibrant artistic communities.”
DeFeo scholars, collaborators, friends, and artists who have followed in her wake discuss her work...
Sound and Artifacts: Collaboration Required
Hey guys— if you’re interested in interdisciplinary/collaborative work please check this out! The blurb is as follows:
“To promote cross-disciplinary art at Mills College, the Mills’ Book Art Department and Eucalyptus Press is hosting an evening dedicated to intermedia works utilizing sound as a meaningful component within artist books. Want to get involved? 1. Email below...
CONVERSATION WITH JOYCE CAROL OATES
Dear English majors and grad students:
You have a very special opportunity to join an intimate conversation with Joyce Carol Oates, who is visiting Mills’ Contemporary Writers Series class at 4pm the day of her reading. Discussion will focus on craft of writing and will be faciliated by Patricia Powell.
So come on by, and bring questions!
The deets:
Conversation with Joyce Carol...
January 2013
4 posts
3 tags
Works in Progress Next Tuesday, February 5!
Greetings everyone,
The first Works in Progress event of the season is happening Tuesday, February 5, and we have an amazing group of readers. Get an inspiring start to the semester and show your support for the Mills/Oakland writing community!
Presenting:
SOPHIE Elkin loud. controversial. but also kind.
SAILOR Holladay she writes to locate herself
IVY Johnson was born speaking in tongues
...
Wednesday Night Poetry Challenge!
Tonight is the perfect night for reading hopping!! Get your poetry muscles working and go to as many of these readings as you can!!! (If you only have enough muscle for one, might we suggest The Place’s very own Stephanie Young, with Bill Berkson, at Brian Gross Fine Art!)
Wednesday, January 30
3:00pm
“Cover to Cover” with Jack Foley
featuring Maria Mazziotti (part two)
on KPFA 94.1...
Interview with Joyce Carol Oates in The Paris...
-click on the photo to go to the interview-
Welcome Back and Upcoming Events
Welcome back! The Place for Writers hopes your break was restful, happy, productive, and reinvigorating. You will need all of your new energy because we are back with LOTS of events for the spring semester. Mark those new calendars with an upcoming few (and check back here soon for more details):
Tuesday, February 5, WORKS IN PROGRESS, 5:30 p.m., Bender Room, Mills College
Tuesday, February 11,...
December 2012
3 posts
November 2012
18 posts
UPCOMING READINGS BY YOUR PEERS
1. Cheena Marie Lo, a Mills MFA poetry alum, is going to be reading at QUEENS, a house on Woolsey in Berkeley this Wednesday at 6:30.
2. On Saturday, Truong Tran is hosting the LIVING ROOM READING SERIES, featuring Mills’ own, Marcus Lund, along with Alejandro Murguía, Roxane Beth Johnson, Ronaldo V. Wilson, and Kelly McNerney. Here is the description:
Living Room Series celebrates...
Gail Scott and Norma Cole Reading Tonight!
Saturday NOV 17 Gail Scott and Norma Cole 6:00 pm @Hosfelt Gallery, 260 Utah Street (at 16th), $10* Note: special venue and time, concurrent with Jay DeFeo exhibit
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Acclaimed Montréal novelist GAIL SCOTT’s fourth novel, The Obituary, has been described as a signal-to-noise song for contemporaneous street-level experience, and was finalist for the 2011 Montréal Book of the Year...
Undergraduate Reading Tomorrow!
Dear Everyone: come support our undergrad creative writers who will be reading tomorrow, Thursday, November 15th, in Mills Hall Living Room from 5:30-7:00 pm!
Works in Progress November 27th!
We’ve got a spectacular lineup for the post-Thanksgiving Works in Progress!
Reading are:
Patricia Powell Patricia love the green earth Jennifer Franklin she’s on the verge of Madison Davis is writing out of water Jess Gale a canister of meat + words Marcus Lund probably needs a ride home Somaya Abdullah Watching. Writing. Listening. Living. Revising. Oakland School for the Arts
...
HOMELESS IN HOMELAND with CD Release After Party...
Check out the Homeless in Homeland performance and CD release after party at La Peña Cultural Center this weekend!
“Saria Idana returns to La Pena with her solo show HOMELESS IN HOMELAND and this time with a CD Release After Party!!! The night will be hosted by the legendary poet and cultural organizer Josh Healey with performances by fabulous bay area poets and performers including...
Three upcoming readings at UC Berkeley →
Dear All,
The Holloway Poetry events for the fall 2012 will come to a crescendo and conclusion this coming week.
British poet Tony Lopez will read on Tuesday, Nov 13, with Berkeley poet-scholar Daniel Benjamin. This event will begin at 6:30 in the Maude Fife Room on the Berkeley campus.
On Thursday, Nov 15, John Wilkinson and Keston Sutherland will read on a...
