The annual Fall Reading Series presents a season of events celebrating literature, showcasing award-winning authors, and honoring the inspiration to write. Events are sponsored by the English Department and Creative Writing Program of Grossmont College, as well as a variety of other campus agencies and programs.
Wednesday, September 19
novelist & memoirist Anthony Swofford
7:00 - 8:30 p.m., Griffin Gate
7:00 p.m., Griffin Gate
Anthony Swofford returns to Grossmont College, to read from his brand new memoir, Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails, described by the New York Times Book Review as a “tale of post-traumatic success disorder.” Swofford was one of the headlining authors of the 2007 Literary Arts Festival at Grossmont College, and his best-selling Gulf War memoir, Jarhead, which received the 2004 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir, was adapted to an award-winning film starring Jake Gyllenhaal.
Thursday, September 27
writer & poet Amy Gerstler
7:00 p.m., Room 26-220
Los Angeles writer Amy Gerstler has authored numerous reviews and published eight
books of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, including Dearest Creature (Penguin, 2009); Ghost Girl (Penguin, 2004); Medicine (Penguin, 2000), finalist for the Phi Beta Kappa Poetry Award; Crown of Weeds (Penguin, 1997); Nerve Storm (Penguin, 1995); Bitter Angel (Carnegie Mellon, 1990), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; Past Lives (Santa Monica Museum of Art, 1989); and, The True Bride (Lapis Press, 1986). Gerstler has taught at Antioch West and the University of California
at Irvine's graduate writing program. She teaches in the Bennington Writing Seminars
program at Bennington College in Vermont, and at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena,
California.
Thursday, October 4
Celebration of Banned Books Reading
7:00 p.m., Griffin Gate
Join Joe Medina of the Grossmont College English Department for an evening of school and scandal with this annual reading commemorating National Banned Books Week. Topics change annually in this thought-provoking and sometimes audacious event.
Past readings have featured the works of Sandra Cisneros, Susan Patron, Langston Hughes,
James Joyce, Sherman Alexie, Erica Jong, J.K. Rowling, Lenny Bruce, Toni Morrison,
Alice Walker, Dorothy Allison, banned children's literature, controversial fan fiction
and slash, censored anime and manga, and many others. For further info, contact Joe
Medina at joe.medina@gcccd.edu.
Wednesday, October 17
The Far East: Everything Just As It Is
Lester Bangs Memorial Reading
7:00 p.m., Griffin Gate
A Grossmont College Creative Writing alumna, editor Mindy Solis presents this first-of-its-kind
journal dedicated to the stories and people of San Diego’s East County. The first
installment, The Far East: Everything Just As It Is, anthologizes works by writers across the generations, from Pushcart Prize winner,
poet Steve Kowitt, to the up-and-coming Enrique Cervantes, recipient of the 2012 James
Rodey Young Creative Writers Scholarship. A second anthology containing the written
and oral histories of San Diego’s East County promises to follow soon. The Far East
Project is produced under the aegis of San Diego’s So Say We All arts collective,
run by Justin Hudnall.
Saturday, November 17
Creative Write-a-Thon:
Rock the Page!
9:00 a.m. - 5 p.m., Griffin Gate
The biennial event is back! The popular all-day fundraiser returns! Enjoy a full day
of inspirational writing prompts and literary activities in all four genres; win valuable
prizes; and, of course, write, write, and write!
Proceeds go to the Grossmont College Creative Writing Program’s fall and spring literary events--always free and open to the public. Look for pledge sheets and posters soon.
Monday, December 03
New Voices: A Student Reading
7:00 p.m., Griffin Gate
The Grossmont College Creative Writing Program rounds out the fall 2012 semester in tribute to its rising stars, with a reading and performance of their original poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and drama. Artful, evocative, and entertaining—the writers of the Fall 2012 New Voices Reading will surprise and inspire you and your students.
This semester's New Voices line-up:
Miranda Deal
Shonna Gillis
Branden Boynton
Elisha Culmer
Katherine Marini
Christopher Ang
Marie Marandola
Carolyn Budd
Joel Trinidad
Audrey Atwater
Nichole Madigan