COLLOQUIUM PRESENTERS

Keynote Speaker

T.C. Boyle

T. Coraghessan Boyle is the author of twenty-three books of fiction, including, most recently, After the Plague (2001), Drop City (2003), The Inner Circle (2004), Tooth and Claw (2005), The Human Fly (2005), Talk Talk (2006), The Women (2009), Wild Child (2010), When the Killing's Done (2011) and San Miguel (2012). He received a Ph.D. degree in Nineteenth Century British Literature from the University of Iowa in 1977, his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1974, and his B.A. in English and History from SUNY Potsdam in 1968. He has been a member of the English Department at the University of Southern California since 1978, where he is Distinguished Professor of English. His work has been translated into more than two dozen foreign languages, including German, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Hebrew, Korean, Japanese, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Finnish, Farsi, Croatian, Turkish, Albanian, Vietnamese, Serbian and Slovene. His stories have appeared in most of the major American magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, The Paris Review, GQ, Antaeus, Granta and McSweeney's, and he has been the recipient of a number of literary awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Prise for best novel of the year (World's End, 1988); the PEN/Malamud Prize in the short story (T.C. Boyle Stories, 1999); and the Prix Médicis Étranger for best foreign novel in France (The Tortilla Curtain, 1997). He currently lives near Santa Barbara with his wife and three children.

Lois Ann Abraham

Lois Ann studied creative writing at CSU Chico with Clark Brown, Gary Thompson, and Carole Oles. She regularly attends writing workshops and spent two weeks studying with Philip Lopate. Her fiction and non-fiction have been published in Sojourner, Chico News & Review, Sacramento News & Review and Writing on the Edge. Her first novel, Tina Goes to Heaven, is in the hands of an agent and bound for glory. In addition to creative writing, she teaches English grammar, composition, and literature at American River College.

John Bell

John Bell is a widely published poet and fiction writer. He has earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Wichita State University and has served as co-chair of the American River College English Department.

Traci Gourdine

Traci Gourdine’s poetry and stories have been published in numerous literary magazines, and she has been anthologized within Shepard and Thomas’ Sudden Fiction Continued (Norton Publishing). Traci and Quincy Troupe were paired in a year long exchange of letters for the anthology Letters to Poets: Conversations about Poetics, Politics, and Community (Saturnalia Books). She is co-editor of Night is Gone, Day is Still Coming (Candlewick Press), an anthology of writing by young Native writers, as well as We Beg to Differ, poems by Sacramento poets against the Iraq war. She has also co-edited the Tule Review with Luke Breit for the Sacramento Poetry Center. Traci Gourdine is a professor of English at American River College and chairs the Creative Writing department for the California State Summer School for the Arts. She was Chair of the Sacramento Poet Laureate Committee for four laureate terms. For ten years she facilitated writing workshops within several California state prisons in the Arts in Corrections program for the William James Association. She is a professor of English at American River College in Sacramento.

Christian Kiefer

Christian Kiefer is a musician, poet, novelist, and a widely published music journalist and scholar. He holds a Ph.D. from UC Davis. His novel, The Infinite Tides, was published by Bloomsbury last July. His poetry has appeared in many respected literary journals including Zyzzyva, the Antioch Review, and Berkeley Poetry Review.

David Merson

David Merson teaches composition and creative writing at American River College, where he served as Editorial Adviser for the American River Review for nine years and was awarded the 2006 "Teacher of the Year Award" in 2006 by the ARC Associated Student Association. He earned his M.A. in Fiction Writing at UC Davis.

Harold Schneider

Harold Schneider, Professor of English at ARC, has taught creative writing here for over 20 years, and also at UC Irvine and UC Davis. He advised the American River Review from 1991-2001, and in 2000 received The Patrons Chair, an award for excellence in teaching. His literary influences include the inestimable William H. Gass, with whom he studied while pursuing an M.A. in English at Purdue University, a degree finalized later at U.C. Irvine (MFA, fiction writing). On his mantle stands an Emmy for television writing (The Hollywood Squares, 1974).

Michael Spurgeon

Michael Spurgeon is a tenured professor of English at American River College, where he teaches composition, literature, and creative writing and serves as the Editorial Adviser to the American River Review. His writing has appeared in multiple regional and national journals. He is co-founder and Board President of 916 Ink. Michael's first novel, Let The Water Hold Me Down, will be published by Ad Lumen Press this June.

Scott Thomas Anderson

Scott Thomas Anderson is an investigator reporter and is the recipient of the California Newspaper Publishers Association’s highest honor for writing. He is the author of Shadow People, an exploration of meth-driven crime in rural America.

Jodi Angel

Jodi Angel’s second collection of short stories, You only Get Letters from Jail, will be released in July of 2013. Her first collection, The History of Vegas (2005), was named as a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2005 as well as a LA Times Book Review Discovery. Her short story “Portions” was selected for Special Mention for the 2007 Pushcart Prize and has also been adapted into an independent short film. Her work has appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, Sycamore Review, and Carve Magazine, among other publications. She currently teaches literature and fiction writing at UC Davis and Sacramento City College.

Aaron Bradford

Aaron Bradford, a transplant to the Sacramento Region, combines the rich Long Beach and Los Angeles stand-up poetry style with narrative, dramatic monologue, and haiku traditions. He teaches fiction and composition at ARC, Folsom Lake College, and Sierra College. He has published numerous poems and the chapbook, Channeling Humbert Humbert, available through Bender Press.

David Dominguez

David Dominguez holds a BA in comparative literature from the University of California at Irvine and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arizona. He is the author of the collections Marcoli Sausage (2000), Work Done Right (2003), and The Ghost of César Chávez (2010). A resident of California’s Central Valley, Dominguez writes poetry that reflects life in the area, often focusing on work and family history. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and have been anthologized in The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (2007), Bear Flag Republic: Prose Poems and Poetics from California (2008), Breathe: 101 Contemporary Odes (2009), and Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing (2010). Dominguez is the co-founder and editor of The Packinghouse Review. He teaches at Reedley College in Reedley, California.

Deena Drewis

Deena Drewis is the founding editor of Nouvella, a press dedicated to publishing works ranging between 10,000 and 40,000 words. She is also the Editorial Coordinator at Sacramento News & Review. Previously, Deena served as a Senior Editor at Flatmancrooked Publishing from 2008 to 2011. She holds a degree in literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Greg Glazner

Greg Glazner is the author of Singularity (1998) and From The Iron Chair (1993), both published by W.W. Norton. His awards include The Walt Whitman Award from The Academy of American Poets, The Bess Hokin Award from Poetry, and an NEA Fellowship. He has recently completed a genre-bending novel, Opening the World. Sections of the book have appeared in Ploughshares, Poetry, The Colorado Review, Seneca Review, The Idaho Review, Volt, Pool, Salt, and other magazines. Having taught at the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico, he is currently on the faculty at UC Davis.

Emily Wallis Hughes

Emily Wallis Hughes is a poet, educator, and backpacker from Agua Caliente, California. Recent work has been published in Gigantic Magazine and the Sacramento News & Review. She holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from UC Davis, and teaches English at American River College.

Eleanor Jackson

Eleanor Jackson has been agenting since 2002. Previously, she was an agent at Markson Thoma and at InkWell Management. She represents writers of fiction and non-fiction in a wide range of categories. Her list includes award winning and #1 New York Times Bestselling author David Wroblewski, Christian Kiefer, Noah Charney, and the nonprofit, nonpartisan science and journalism organization Climate Central.

Jeff Knorr

Jeff Knorr is currently the Poet Laureate of Sacramento. He is the author of the three books of poetry, The Third Body (2007), Keeper (2004), and Standing Up to the Day (1999). His other works include Mooring Against the Tide: Writing Poetry and Fiction (2005); The River Sings: An Introduction to Poetry (2003); and the anthology, A Writer's Country (2000). His poetry and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies throughout the nation. Jeff has edited, judged, and been a visiting writer for various conferences and festivals. He was the founding co-editor and poetry editor of the Clackamas Literary Review. He has also been an invited judge for contests such as the DeNovo First Book Contest and the Willamette Award in Poetry. He has appeared as a visiting writer at many venues and festivals including Wordstock and University of Pennsylvania’s Kelly Writer’s House. Jeff Knorr lives in Sacramento, California and is Professor of literature and creative writing at Sacramento City College.

Jason Sinclair Long

Jason Sinclair Long earned his MFA in Playwriting from UCLA. His plays have been developed and produced at various theaters around the country, including the well-known HERE theater and The Lincoln Center in New York. He lives in Northern California with his wife, two sons, and ever-changing brood of chickens.

Erika Mailman

Erika Mailman is a historical novelist living in northern California. Her first book, Woman of Ill Fame, tells the tale of a Gold Rush prostitute embroiled in a serial murder case and was a Pushcart Press Editor’s Book Award nominee. Her second, The Witch’s Trinity, looks at a medieval woman accused of witchcraft by her own daughter-in-law and was a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book and Bram Stoker Award finalist. She has been a Yaddo fellow and a juror for the Shirley Jackson Awards. She teaches novel writing online through mediabistro.com. www.erikamailman.com.

Christa Parravani

Christa Parravani is a writer and photographer. Parravani's first book, Her: A Memoir, was released by Henry Holt in March 2013 and was an Indie Bound Next pick for March. Her work has been excerpted in Marie Claire, featured in O, Vanity Fair, Real Simple, Poets and Writers and Cosmopolitan Magazine. Her photographs have been exhibited internationally, and are represented by the Michael Foley Gallery in New York City and the Kopeikin gallery in Los Angeles. She has taught photography at Dartmouth College, Columbia University and UMass, Amherst. She earned her MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University and her MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers Newark. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, the writer Anthony Swofford, and their daughter.

Saoran Pol La Tour

Saoran Pol LaTour, author of memoir Vantha's Whisper, was born in 1942 in Phnom-Penh, Cambodia. She graduated from Faculty of Commercial Science there in 1964 and worked in Khmer-Society of Distilleries as an industral accountant. She married Vantha Pol, her school-mate, and together they had five children, one girl and four boys. Their happiness was cut short in 1975, when the Communist Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia. During their brutal regime, Saoran experienced much suffering, losing her husband Vantha and three of her sons because of the harsh conditions. After surviving four years of starvation and inhumane treatment at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, she was finally able to join her mother and the rest of her extended family in California where she now makes her home.

Parissa Samadi

Parisa Samadi was born in Kermanshah, in the western part of Iran. Her interest in languages started from her early exposure to the two natives languages of the area, Farsi and Kurdish. She moved to Mashad, in the eastern part of the country, and earned her science degree in Laboratory Sciences from Mashad University. She came in contact with a few native languages of that region, too. Later, she moved to Tehran and earned her BA degree in the French language. She translated a few books and many articles and short stories in various publications. She began learning English after immigrating to the United States and earned Associate Degrees in English, Liberal Arts, and Communication and Literature from American River College. She is currently a student at Sacramento State University and she will earn a BA degree in English next semester.

Anthony Swofford

Anthony Swofford is the author of the novel Exit A and the memoirs Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails and Jarhead. A film adaptation of Jarhead directed by Sam Mendes was released in 2005. Swofford's writing has appeared in Harper’s, the New York Times Magazine and many other places. He has taught at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Lewis and Clark College. He is currently at work on a new novel and is developing a dramatic television series for HBO.

Ziaeddin Torabi

Ziaeddin Torabi is one of Iran's most well known poets and is the winner of the 2010 Iran Annual Book Prize, the nation’s top honor for writing, for his poetry collection Face to Face with Dream. He has published more than thirty volumes in different areas including many volumes of poetry, translation, criticism, and review. Born in 1944 in Zanjan, Iran, Torabi went on to earn a B.A. in English Language and Literature from Isfahan University and an M.A in Linguistics from Tehran University. He was head of the Tehran Municipal Literary Center and taught literature at the Tehran University of Science and Technology for a decade.