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.
grossmont.edu/frs
Download a PDF of the 2020 Fall Readings Series flier
Tuesday, August 25, 7-8:15pm
Week of Welcome New Voices: Student Reading
Spring 2020 Edition
In the first event of Grossmont College's very first online Fall Reading Series, students
from a shelter-in-place semester of creative writing workshops boldly reclaim their
time to deliver the New Voices Reading that—let's face it—we all could have used in
May. Selected by our Program's Spring 2020 instructors, these poets and writers bring
their very real talent to a virtual landscape of beautifully crafted original short
fiction, poems, dramatic works, novel excerpts, and literary nonfiction.
Thursday, September 17, 7-8:15pm
Acorn Review Reading
Grossmont College’s own student-produced literary journal, Acorn Review, makes a triumphant return with another popular contributors' reading of original works from its latest issue. Readers presenting their original works of poetry, spoken word, and literary prose include ShuJen Walker • Jay Mower • Chelsey Gable • Rebecca Kanter • Michele Magnuson • Beth Ferris • Jimmy Gallegos Snyder • Mick Miles • Dee Richards • Talahni Turpin • Calleigh Backrak • Reina Hearts • Tasha Bonsignore • Ingrid Yoxsimer • F. C. George.
Grossmont's history of student run literary journals is nearly as old as the college,
started in 1963 with the short-lived Talon Literary Magazine, produced by English Department faculty members George Kirazian and Chester H. Palmer
(who, as one of Grossmont's earliest Creative Writing instructors, inspired the Creative
Writing Program's choice of name for its newly formed Chest-O-Drawers Press). Fifteen
years later, part-time English instructor Verena Anderson would begin advising the
first editorial board for the brand new literary journal FirstDraft, and, upon her retirement, passed her torch to new faculty member Julie Cardenas. Under
Julie's direction, FirstDraft received a new name and a new course devoted to the publishing of the campus literary
journal, English 145: Acorn Review, Production and Editing, now the principle method
by which the journal continues to be published.
Copies of the latest 2019-20 issue of Acorn Review are available for purchase now. Acorn Review is currently accepting submissions of original work from students and community members. Find more info online about guidelines, specs, deadlines, and submission procedures, on the Acorn Review page.
Wednesday, September 30, 7-8:15pm
Banned Books/Banned Lives
THIS EVENT POSTPONED UNTIL FALL 2021
National Banned Books Week is an annual awareness campaign sponsored by the American
Library Association and Amnesty International, promoting the freedom to read by showcasing
banned/challenged books and persecuted individuals. Read more about U.S. National
Banned Books Week at bannedbooksweek.org.
Wednesday, October 28, 2-3:15pm
Lester Bangs Memorial Reading: Rich Farrell
reads from his new novel, The Falling Woman
We're extremely proud to have Grossmont College's own Novel Writing instructor, Rich
Farrell, celebrate the launch of his debut novel, The Falling Woman (Algonquin Books 2020). Selected by the American Booksellers Association as an "Indies
Introduce" book for Winter/Spring 2020, Farrell's novel tells the story of a lone survivor of a deadly plane crash and the investigation into its mysterious causes. Bridget Thoreson of Booklist calls The Falling Woman, “An intriguing story given weight by its examination of what it means to be faithful.”
Paul Dinh-McCrillis of Bookshelf describes it as a "mind-rattling debut mystery ... Page after page, Farrell builds confusion and frustration
into an incendiary debate between belief in the miraculous and the basic laws of physics."
Rich Farrell is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and earned a Master of Fine Arts in
Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. In addition to leading workshops on narrative
for San Diego Writers, Ink, he is the Creative Non-Fiction Editor at upstreet and a Senior Editor at Numéro Cinq. His work, including fiction, memoir, essays, interviews and book reviews, has appeared,
or is forthcoming, in Potomac Review, Hunger Mountain, New Plains Review, Descant, Contrary, Newfound, and others.
Find out more about Farrell and The Falling Woman at his official author website: richardfarrell.net/the-falling-woman
Monday, December 7, 7-8:15pm
The Return of New Voices: Student Reading
Fall 2020 Edition
The 2020 Fall Readings Series finds its other bookend with another New Voices Student
Reading to close out the semester and a year best described as.... Well, we'll let
our student writers tell you when this semester's cream-of-the-crop writers and poets
give their own virtual reading of original short fiction, drama, novel excerpts, poems,
creative nonfiction, and other unique hybrid forms of writing. Always one of the most
popular events of the semester, the New Voices student reading never disappoints.
And, this time, nothing will stop these new voices from being heard!