2 to 2:45 PM

Shocky Horror Writing Show

Reading Venue: Fresbrew (810 E Olive Ave)

  • Carolina Mata (she/her)

  • Juan Huerta (they/them)

  • Amber Carpenter (she/her)

  • Mialese Carney (she/her)

In this reading, four writers share personalized stories that embody their shock, horror, and/or hoe-ness. These writers offer a multi-modal presentation of these themes through the blending of fiction & non-fiction. The goal of this reading is to see faces of disgust, lust, or utter shock. The four aim to distort reality and make the surreal real, and at times, the pieces may make an advance towards the reader. In the wake of reality bending or time warping art that has surfaced, these writers throw their own hats into this new emerging cannon.

Feels Like Home

Reading Venue: Fresno Music Academy and Arts: Vista Theatre (1298 N Wishon Ave)

  • Elizabeth Hunt

  • Jeremy Mumford

  • Optimism One

  • Paula Treick DeBoard

Home: a simple concept and a complicated lived experience. Through the lens of creative nonfiction narratives, four writers look at the meaning of home–what it is, what it isn’t, and what it could be.

Radical Domesticity

Reading Venue: Fresno Music Academy and Arts: Doris Gallery (814 E Olive Ave)

  • Kristin Lyn Crase (she/her)

  • Norla Henderson (she/her)

  • Shelley Kay Mast (she/her)

  • Heather Parish (she/her)

Four women stitch together a conversation inspired by the concept of “radical domesticity,” discussing how they gather, relate, and create a life at home (physical or metaphorical). Spend time at their table and enjoy the storytelling and creative non-fiction of Kristin Lyn Crase, Norla Henderson, Shelley Kay Mast, and Heather Parish.

The end of Conquest

Reading Venue: Hart's Haven Used Bookstore (950 N Van Ness Ave)

  • Linda Ravenswood de Montaño

  • Brian Sonia Wallace

  • Dr. Diana Magaloni

  • Darren de Leon

We are 500 years out from the so-called Conquest of Mexico by Cortez and the Spanish army. But the reverberations of that Cataclysm continue. We grapple with assimilation, continuity, artistry, & migration as we navigate new Roads to authenticity, beauty, and Community. Our four readers will present work created before and after pandemic, and elucidate how that work is connected to the 500 years of emotional, psychological, and structural rebuilding work that perseverates. The readers, as well, will discuss subtle ethics surrounding LGBTQA+ links, tethers to the plague in 1521 and 2021 and to bridge workers who continue the vital examination of the borderlands.

Persistence Quartet

Reading Venue: Spectrum Art Gallery (608 E Olive Ave)

  • Corrinne Clegg Hales (she/her)

  • C.G. Hanzlicek (he/him)

  • Megan Bohigian (she/her)

  • John Hales (he/him)

Come hear persistence—embodied in four distinctive writers who voice their insights, reckonings, possibilities, and questions to readers, written through lifetimes spent writing in the Continuous Present, the one inclusive tense in which all the doors are open.

Shared Witnessing: Clovis Community College Students

Reading Venue: Teazers (645 E Olive Ave)

  • Alex Bibler

  • Skyler Wilson

Student poets and writers from Clovis Community College will read from their creative works.

Dreams, Dysfunctions, and Departures

Reading Venue: The Alchemist (1306 N Wishon Ave)

  • Christa Fraser (she/her/hers)

  • Rebeca Antoine (she/her/hers)

  • Susan Varnot (she/her/hers)

  • Evaristo Rivera (he/him/his)

In this reading, four writers reveal hopes, strivings, failures, and episodes of stepping off, walking away, and ultimately returning to the same fractured narrative threads.

Writing Our Way Towards Home: on Place/Displacement

Reading Venue: Tower Yoga: The Lotus Room (626 E Olive Ave)

  • Steven Church

  • Brynn Saito

  • Brenna Womer (she/they)

  • Alison Mandaville

What does "home" mean? How does place and displacement shape the world? Four writers from a variety of places consider these questions and others.