Lisa Alvarez’s debut collection of short fiction, Some Final Beauty and other Stories is forthcoming from the University of Nevada Press, as part of their New Oeste series. Her poetry and prose have appeared in journals including Air/Light, Anacapa Review, Huizache, So It Goes, and in anthologies including most recently, Rumors, Secrets and Lies: Poems about Pregnancy, Abortion and Choice (Anhinga Press) and Dear California: The Golden State in Diaries and Letters (Stanford University Press) edited by David Kipen. She has edited three anthologies including Why to These Rocks: 50 years of Poetry from the Community of Writers (Heyday). She teaches at Irvine Valley College where she co-directs the Puente Program. She co-directs the Writers Workshops at the Community of Writers and serves as Assistant to the Poetry Director.
50th UCI Event
Meriwether Clarke (’14)’s poetry and prose have appeared in Best New Poets, The Rumpus, Cimarron Review, Colorado Review, Prairie Schooner, Tin House, Poetry Daily, The Journal, Gigantic Sequins, The Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. A graduate of UC Irvine’s Programs in Writing and Northwestern University, she has been supported by the Vermont Studio Center, the Community of Writers, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her chapbook, twenty-first century woman, was released by Dancing Girl Press in 2019. https://meriwetherclarke.com/
Lorene Delany-Ullman’s (’98, ’14) book of prose poems, Camouflage for the Neighborhood, won the 2011 Sentence Award. She recently published her poetry and creative nonfiction in Citric Acid, Zócalo Public Square, and TAB: A Journal of Poetry & Poetics. The following anthologies have included her work: Orange County, A Literary Field Guide, Bared: Contemporary Poetry and Art on Bras and Breasts, Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease, and Alternatives to Surrender. Her manuscript, The Grief Contest, was a finalist for the 2023 Louise Bogan Award (Trio Press) and the 2020 Four Way Books Levis Prize in Poetry. She works with artist Jody Servon on Saved: Objects of the Dead, a photographic and poetic exploration of the human experience of life, death, and memory. Excerpts from their collaborative project have been published in AGNI, Tupelo Quarterly, Tarpaulin Sky, Palaver, and Lunch Ticket and exhibited nationwide in over thirty museums, galleries, and libraries. Saved: Objects of the Dead, as a book was published by Artsuite in January 2023. Delany-Ullman currently teaches writing at the University of California, Irvine.
Alex Espinoza’s (’04, ’05) debut novel, Still Water Saints, was published to wide critical acclaim. His second novel, The Five Acts of Diego León, was the winner of a 2014 American Book Award. He is the author of the nonfiction book Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime and has written for the New York Times Sunday Magazine, VQR, the Los Angeles Times, and NPR. His short story “Detainment” was selected for inclusion in the 2022 Best American Mystery and Suspense Stories. His latest novel is The Sons of El Rey (Simon and Schuster, June 2024). Alex lives in Los Angeles and is the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair and Professor of Creative Writing at UC Riverside.
Glen David Gold (’96, ’97/Staff: ’02, ’04, ’06, ’09, ’10, ’12, ’14, ’18, ’21) is the author of the bestselling novels Sunnyside and Carter Beats The Devil, which have been translated into 14 languages. His essays, memoir, journalism and short fiction have appeared in McSweeney’s, Playboy, Tin House, Wired, Zyzzyva, the New York Times Sunday Magazine, the Guardian UK and London Independent. He has written Howard the Duck for Marvel Comics, The Spirit for DC and The Escapist for Dark Horse. His essays on the artist Jack Kirby accompanied the landmark Masters of American Comics and Comic Book Apocalypse museum shows. He has co-written episodes of The Thrilling Adventure Hour, Welcome to Nightvale and Unlicensed. His three-part memoir I Will Be Complete became available June 26, 2018.
Rhoda Huffey is the author of two novels, 31 Paradiso and The Hallelujah Side, and her short fiction has appeared in Santa Monica Review, Ploughshares, and Green Mountains Review. She lives in Venice Beach with her husband and their many animals. www.rhodahuffey.com
Photo Credit: Daniel Shapiro
Michael Jaime-Becerra is a writer from El Monte, California, a working-class suburb east of East Los Angeles. He is the author of This Time Tomorrow, a novel awarded an International Latino Book Award, and Every Night Is Ladies’ Night, a story collection that received the California Book Award for a First Work of Fiction. Recent essays of his have been featured in the Los Angeles Times, ZYZZYVA, and The Los Angeles Review of Books.
Photo Credit: EVJ
Louis B. Jones is the author of five novels, three on The New York Times annual list of Notable Books. A Fellow of the NEA and the MacDowell Colony, he has published stories and essays in ZYZZYVA, Santa Monica Review, and The Threepenny Review. He has served as Writer-in-Residence at Washington University in St. Louis and Wichita State University; and has for many years helped run the Community of Writers. [Admin/Fiction]
Photo Credit: Brett Hall Jones
Michelle Latiolais is the author of the novel, Even Now, which received the Gold Medal for Fiction from the Commonwealth Club of California. Her second novel, A Proper Knowledge, was published by Bellevue Literary Press, as was Widow, a collection of stories, involutions and essays. Her novel She was released in 2016 by W.W. Norton & Company. Recent work is forthcoming in Mississippi Review in 2025.
Photo Credit: Brett Hall Jones
Kem Nunn is the author of six novels, including the National Book Award nominee, Tapping the Source; Tijuana Straits, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Mystery/Thriller; The Dogs of Winter; Pomona Queen, Unassigned Territory; and Chance. In addition to writing novels, he writes screenplays for television and film, most notably John from Cincinnati, which he co-created with David Milch; Chance, adapted from his novel and co-created for television with Alex Cunningham; Deadwood; and Sons of Anarchy. His articles and book reviews have appeared in Rolling Stone, GQ, Surfer, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times.
Photo Credit: Ulrike Nunn
Andrew Tonkovich is the longtime editor of the Santa Monica Review and founding editor of Citric Acid: An Online Orange County Literary Arts Quarterly of Imagination and Reimagination. His writing has appeared widely, including in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Orange County Register, ZYZZYVA, Ecotone, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Los Angeles Times, Faultline, and Juked. He was for many years a contributing writer to the OC Weekly on books and politics. He is the author of two fiction collections, The Dairy of Anne Frank and More Wish Fulfillment in the Noughties and Keeping Tahoe Blue and Other Provocations. With Lisa Alvarez, he co-edited the landmark anthology Orange County: A Literary Field Guide. He taught at UC Irvine for twenty-five years, serving as president and grievance steward of the union representing adjunct faculty. Tonkovich hosts a weekly books show and podcast, Bibliocracy Radio, which airs on Pacifica Radio KPFK 90.7 FM in Southern California, and edits the Community of Writers’ OGQ. [Fiction]