Fall Readings Series
The Creative Writing Program's annual Fall Reading Series presents a season of events celebrating literature, showcasing award-winning authors, and honoring the inspiration to write. Free of charge and open to the public, our events are generously underwritten by the Grossmont College English Department, the GC Academic Affairs Symposium and Lecture Fund, and the Foundation for Grossmont and Cuyamaca Colleges (FGCC) Creative Writing Fund. Please consider visiting the FGCC Creative Writing Fund to make a tax deductible contribution that will help us continue bringing literary excellence to our students and community. Thank you!
PARKING & ACCESSIBILITY:
For our off-campus visitors, parking is free in all available spaces designated for use by students; permits are not required. All venues are wheelchair accessible. If you would like an accommodation for ASL interpreter services (on-site or Zoom), CLICK HERE to submit a request to the Accessibility Resource Center's Interpreting/RTC Coordinator, Denise Robertson, denise.robertson@gcccd.edu • 619-933-8191 c/text • Video Phone: (619) 567-4269.
2024 FRS Calendar
Click author names for additional bios and event details. Campus information, directions, and maps are available HERE.
See below for info about our 2024 season of events, and download our 2024 FRS flier:
Ruben Navarrette memoirist and journalist
Banned Books/Banned Lives Reading
Wed., September 25, 12:30pm, Rm. 70-162 Library Living Room
Ruben Navarrette is the most widely read Latino columnist in the U.S., and the 16th most popular columnist
in America according to Media Matters. He is a nationally syndicated columnist with
The Washington Post Writers Group whose twice-a-week column appears in nearly 150
newspapers, a contributor to USA Today and foxnews.com, and a columnist for The Daily Beast. Navarette is the author of the memoir, A Darker Shade of Crimson: Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano (Random House 1994). On television, Navarrette has appeared on dozens of shows, television
and radio. He judged the contest for the Pulitzer Prizes in 2013 and 2014, and was
nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary by the Washington Post Writers Group
in 2012. Navarrette lives in the San Diego area with his wife, and three children.
Daniela Sow poet and author
Thur., October 10, 2pm, Griffin Gate
(Building 60, outside southwest corner)
Daniela Paraguya Sow (she/her) was born in New York City, New York, and she was raised in Angeles City,
Philippines, and in various cities in Southern California. She and her family currently
live in San Diego, where she serves as an Associate Professor of English at Grossmont
College. Her writing has appeared in Mixed Asian Media, The Plentitudes Journal, The Hyacinth Review, The Lumiere Review, and elsewhere. Her debut full-length poetry collection, Half Moon Rising, is now available for purchase (Kelsay Books, May 2024). Connect with her at danielasow.com
Also featured...
Two student poets will feature as opening readers for Daniela Sow's reading:
Kassandra Reyes and Artrice Bennett
KASSANDRA REYES was born in Encinitas, California, raised up and down San Diego and North County.
She writes passionately about what it means to be a Mexican-American, proudly embracing
her roots from Oaxaca and Michoacán Mexico. Majoring in English to become a teacher,
she advocates for the youth and children in poverty, prejudice, and disabilities.
ARTRICE BENNETT is a poet and lover of literature with a weakness for coffee and the color of burnt
clay. She graduated from Grossmont College before studying English at the University
of California, Berkeley and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Creative
Writing from San Diego State University, where she is a Prebys Creative Writing Scholar.
Her work is published in Crab Apple Literary, Tiny Spoon, and The Hyacinth Review.
Mark Wallace poet, novelist, essayist
Wed., November 13, 6:30pm, PVAC Performing and Visual Arts Center
Mark Wallace is the author and editor of a number of books of fiction, poetry, and
essays. His most recent novel, Crab, was published in 2017 by Submodern Books. Other recent publications include Haze:
Essays, Poems, and Prose (Edge Books 2004), and a book-length prose poem, Notes from the Center on Public Policy, and a novel, The Quarry and The Lot. Temporary Worker Rides a Subway won the 2002 Gertrude Stein Poetry Award and was published by Green Integer Books.
His critical articles and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, and he has
co-edited two essay collections, Telling It Slant: Avant Garde Poetics of the 1990s, and A Poetics of Criticism.
Mark Wallace is this year’s featured guest presenter for the annual Lester Bangs Memorial Reading, which honors influential music journalist, author, and musician, Lester Bangs. Bangs, an El Cajon native and Grossmont College alumnus, is widely credited for having coined the terms "punk" and "heavy metal.” In 2009, Grossmont College officially honored Bangs’s international celebrity status by dedicating to him a bronze "Walk of Fame" plaque, located in the Main Quad in front of the Tech Mall.
New Voices student literary reading
Mon, December 9, 6:30pm, PVAC
New Voices is our popular biannual event will feature exceptional student writers
from the Fall 2024 semester's creative writing courses performing their new and original
works of short and flash fiction, novel excerpts, literary nonfiction, poetry, drama,
and hybrid works.