Glenna Luschei Visiting Writing Series

This year's Visiting Writers Series is sponsored by a generous grant from Glenna Luschei, poet and editor/publisher of Solo Press.

Three free events are planned for the Fall 2008 semester.

 

Reading to celebrate the publication of Solo Café magazine, Friday, September 26, 8 p.m., A-160.

Readers will include Southern California contributors to issue 4/5 of the journal, including Carol Decanio, Gerald Locklin, Elijah Imlay, Shelley Savren, Kevin Patrick Sullivan, Florence Weinberger and Jackson Wheeler. The event will be hosted by Solo Press publisher Glenna Luschei.

 

Poetry Reading by Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Perie Longo, Thursday, October 16, 8 p.m., Atkinson Art Gallery.

Santa Barbara's second Poet Laureate writes poems that are by turns tender, funny, moving and wry. Don't miss this extended reading by one of our city's most beloved literary figures.

 

Fiction Reading by Aimee Bender, Thursday, November 20, 8 p.m., Atkinson Art Gallery.

City College is in for a treat when fiction writer Aimee Bender comes to town. Aimee is the author of three books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt (1998) which was a NY Times Notable Book; An Invisible Sign of My Own (2000) which was an L.A. Times pick of the year; and Willful Creatures (2005) which was nominated by The Believer as one of the best books of the year.

Her short fiction has been published in Granta, GQ, Harper's, Tin House, McSweeney's, The Paris Review, and many more, and has been heard on PRI's This American Life and Selected Shorts. She's received two Pushcart prizes, and was nominated for the TipTree award in 2005.

Aimee Bender lives in Los Angeles, and teaches creative writing at USC.

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Spring 2008 Events

Barry Spacks Reading, Tuesday, March 18

Poetry Reading by former Santa Barbara Poet Laureate David Oliviera

On Saturday, Feb. 23, at 7 p.m., in the Fé Bland Auditorium on SBCC's West Campus, David Oliveira will give a FREE poetry reading.

David Oliveira is a native of California’s San Joaquin Valley.  He attended California State University-Fresno, where he studied poetry with Philip Levine.  He was publisher and editor of Mille Grazie Press in Santa Barbara, California, and inventor of Poet Cards, trading cards featuring poets instead of sports figures.  He was also a founding editor of Solo, an award winning national journal of poetry.  In 1998, he and Phil Taggart, founded the Santa Barbara Poetry Series.  He is a recipient of an Individual Artist Award from the Santa Barbara Arts Commission, and in 2000, was chosen Santa Barbara’s poet laureate.

David Oliveira’s first full-length book of poems, A Little Travel Story, published in January 2008 by Harbor Mountain Press.  In addition, he has published one chapbook, In the Presence of Snakes, and is one of three featured poets in A Near Country: Poems of Loss (with Glenna Luschei and Jackson Wheeler). His poems have appeared in many journals and magazines and several important anthologies, among them: How Much Earth: The Fresno Poets (which he co-edited with Christopher Buckley and M. L. Williams); California Poetry from the Gold Rush to the Present; In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare; and The Geography of Home: California’s Poetry of Place.

In 2002, he moved to Phnom Penh where he is now professor of English at Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia.

 

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On October 25, 2007, 8 poets came together to celebrate the publication Solo Café: central coast poets say what needs to be said.

Videos of each of the poets has been posted on YouTube. You can watch their readings by clicking on their names below:

Glenna Luschei / Dan Gerber / Perie Longo / Barry Spacks/ Kevin Patrick Sullivan / Marsha de la O / Phil Taggart / David Starkey

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The First Reader in the Glenna Luschei Visiting Writers Series was Maria Melendez, who visited classes and read at the Atkinson Art Gallery on September 18, 2007.

María Meléndez has canvassed for political organizations and worked as a wildlife biology field assistant. In 2000 she was awarded an Artists-in-Communities grant from the California Arts Council to support her work as writer-in-residence at the UC Davis Arboretum, where she taught environmental poetry workshops for the public. She has authored one chapbook of poetry, Base Pairs, and edited two anthologies, Nest of Freedom and Moon Won’t Leave Me Alone, and is currently assistant professor of English at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. Her latest book is How Long She'll Last In This World.