Clovis Roundup Staff
The Spring 2017 Fresno Poets’ Association Reading Series will include four prize-winning poets, a graphic memoirist and a newly published faculty member from the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing at Fresno State.
All readings in the series will be held in the Alice Peters Auditorium (Peters Business building, Room 191) at 7 p.m. inside the University Business Center. Admission is free. Parking is recommended in Lots P5 and P6 and is free for the Friday readings only; on the other nights, a free parking code is available by calling (559) 278-1569.
Friday, Feb. 3 — Andrea Jurjević
Winner of the 2015 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry, as selected by poet and Fresno State professor emeritus C. G. Hanzlicek, Jurjević’s debut poetry collection is “Small Crimes” from Anhinga Press. A native of Croatia, she teaches English at Georgia State University.
Friday, Feb. 24 — Biljana D. Obradović
A transnational writer and poetry translator, Obradović’s latest poetry collection is “Incognito” from WordTech Editions. She co-edited “Cat Painters: An Anthology of Contemporary Serbian Poetry” from Diálogos Books. She’s an English professor at Xavier University.
Thursday, March 9 — Randa Jarrar
An associate professor of English at Fresno State and a recent Lannan Foundation fellow, Jarrar’s latest story collection is “Him, Me, Muhammad Ali” from Sarabande Books. She won an Arab-American Book Award for her debut novel, “A Map of Home.”
Friday, March 17 — Solmaz Sharif
A finalist for the 2016 National Book Award for Poetry and a recent National Endowment for the Arts fellow, Sharif’s debut poetry collection is “Look” from Graywolf Press. A former Stegner fellow, she is currently a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University.
Tuesday, April 25 — Kristen Radtke
The managing editor for Sarabande Books and the film and video editor of TriQuarterly literary magazine, Radtke’s graphic memoir is “Imagine Wanting Only This” from Pantheon Graphic Novels, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Friday, May 5 — Mai Der Vang
Winner of the 2016 Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, Vang’s debut poetry collection is “Afterland” from Graywolf Press. A co-founder of the Hmong American Writers’ Circle, she teaches English at Clovis Community College.