2:00 - 2:45 PM
Events with a red asterisk* contain mature themes and content that may not be suitable for younger audience members.
*Oddly Curious: How Unexpected Curiosities Enliven Writers’ Work | feat. Elizabeth Svoboda, Brad Balukjian, Rowena Leong Singer, and Jenny Qi
Ever found yourself falling down a Wikipedia rabbit hole on Star Trek ship designations or suddenly obsessed with the sleeping habits of bumble bees? What feels like a distraction might be a clue into yourself or your next writing topic. Join Elizabeth Svoboda, Brad Balukjian, Rowena Singer, and Jenny Qi as they share their unexpected obsessions in their writing. Bookish (520 W. Olive Avenue)
Chiaroschuro in Contemporary Poetry | feat. Jose Hernandez Diaz, Arthur Kayzakian, Amanda Chiado, and Rooja Mohassessy
Chiaroscuro in contemporary poetry emerges through the interplay of illumination and shadow, beauty and grief, ecstasy and despair. The group’s work explores these contrasts through poems, odes, elegies, and prose poems that move between joy, wonder, and transcendence and the darker realities of loss, melancholy, and existential unease. This tension creates a layered poetic experience marked by emotional depth, intensity, and revelation. Rooted in the tradition of spoken word, our work is intended to be experienced aloud, where shifts between light and darkness resonate most powerfully. CellPros Tower District (812 E. Olive Avenue)
*A Third More Hopeful Thing | feat. Haley White, Allison Botello-Nieto, Gina Sandí-Díaz, and Wade Pierson
Inspired by Michaela Angemeer's poem of the same name, "A Third More Hopeful Thing" explores the space between individuals, their parents, their ancestors, and the world at large. Four readers will share personal, vulnerable work that moves fluidly between the intimate and the universal, tracing the inheritance of memory, silence, and longing across generations. This reading invites the audience into moments of quiet reckoning: with family, with lineage, and with the tender, complicated ground of where we come from, especially in relation to how it influences who we become. Broadway Parque (940 N. Broadway Street)
*Beyond the Manosphere | feat. Kaylynn Holt, Antonia Cardinale, Hannah Sutton, and Ivy Tong
What roles do you imagine women in fiction embodying? A doting wife? Overworked mother? Manic pixie love interest? Instead of troubled detectives or dashing heroes, women are often subjected into two dimensional archetypes. This very embodiment diminishes us to being present but passive, reactive but not active in our own stories. But this is not our truth. This is not our voice. As we share our stories, we share our voices. Join us, four emerging authors, as we explore various genres—YA, historical fiction, horror, fantasy—demonstrating our fiction is as complex as we are. Goldstein's Mortuary & Delicatessen (1279 N. Wishon Avenue) 21+ older only
*We, The Rancid Tree | feat. Blu Torres, Ozzy Cortez, Brenda "Morita" Mora, and Destiny Delgado Gonzales
“We, The Rancid Tree” is a collection of narratives woven together parallel to roots beneath the soil: poets tracing their stories of growth, decay, and transformation into one. Though our paths have strayed and crossed like branches bursting in every direction, an invisible thread tethers us to another. We become whole through each other— and find that we are a body inseparable from the world around (and inside of) us. Through rot, metamorphosis, and rebirth, these poems explore the painful beauty of becoming whilst revealing the inescapability of such nature. Summer Fox Brewing - Tower (1426 N. Van Ness Avenue) 21+ older only
Mythmaking: Unearthed & Reinvented | feat. Amelia Holguin, Ivy Tong, Celeste Jones, and Leslie Kay Quintana
We are real: fact or fiction? Mythmaking manifests in many ways: shovel in hand, lucky charms clung to walls, nocturnal light phenomenon low in the sky, and childhood creation stories. Unearth personal histories that bend narrative into the strange and nostalgic. Follow four women writers as they piece together fragmented stories to pen modern myths and leave with a pocket full of new superstition and ritual. Mi Cafesito Van Ness (1495 N. Van Ness Avenue)
Flight | feat. Megan Anderson Bohigian, Corrinne Clegg Hales, C. G. Hanzlicek, and John Hales
Did you know birds come from dinosaurs which are not so unlike us? In poems and prose, four Fresno writers connect past to present, memory to the moment, and dark to light. Come. Fly. Spectrum Art Gallery (608 E. Olive Avenue)
Writing Ourselves Into the World | feat. Cherice Cameron, Erica Castro, Lisa Montagne, and Jamie Maxwell
This panel brings together four women writers for a genuine conversation about storytelling, creativity, and what it means to find your voice. Through personal experiences, the discussion will touch on identity, vulnerability, self-doubt, inspiration, and the realities of navigating writing as women. This panel focuses on the emotional and human side of expression. Why we create, how stories connect us, and the importance of making space for honest voices. Audiences can expect a thoughtful and engaging discussion about creativity, community, and the power of telling stories that feel real and deeply personal. They connect us to the world and others. Hart's Haven Used Bookstore (950 N. Van Ness Avenue)
Dueling Poets: Riffs and Reverberations | feat. Angela Chaidez Vincent, Corrinne Clegg Hales, Michelle Patton, and Steven Sanchez
Four poets read, respond to, and riff on each other's poems. Community and camaraderie abound in this lively literary interactive adventure! Teazer World Tea Market (645 E. Olive Avenue)
Shapes of Expression: Students from Clovis Community College | Readers to be announced.
Student poets and writers from Clovis Community College will read their original work. Tower Yoga Lotus Room (626 E. Olive Avenue)