Writers (Video)

Cathy Park Hong's first book, Translating Mo'um, was published in 2002 by Hanging Loose Press. Dance Dance Revolution, her second collection, received the Barnard Women Poets Prize. Her third and most recent book of poems, Engine Empire, was published in May, 2012. Hong is also the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She lives in Brooklyn and is an...

Namwali Serpell’s nonfiction work has appeared in The Believer and Bidoun; her fiction in Callaloo and Tin House. Her first short story, “Muzungu,” was selected to appear in The Best American Short Stories 2009 and shortlisted for the 2010 Caine Prize for African Literature. In 2011, she was one of six recipients of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award for women write. Series: "Story Hour in t...

Joyce Carol Oates has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time. She is a recipient of the National Book Award and many others including the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, the Prix Femina Etranger, the Common Wealth Award for Distinguished Service in Literature, The Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement, and the Chicago Tribune Lifetime Achievement Award. She...

Lyn Hejinian is the author of numerous books, including most recently The Book of a Thousand Eyes and The Wide Road, written in collaboration with Carla Harryman. In fall 2012, Wesleyan University Press published A Guide to Poetics Journal: Writing in the Expanded Field 1982-1998, an anthology of works on key issues in poetics first published in Poetics Journal, co-edited by Hejinian and Barrett W...

American poet Billy Collins reads a selection of humorous poems for appreciative audience in this keynote event of the 2013 Writer’s Symposium by the Sea, sponsored by Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 24992]

American poet Billy Collins reads a selection of humorous poems and then discusses the craft of writing with Dean Nelson and an appreciative audience in this keynote event of the 2013 Writer’s Symposium by the Sea, sponsored by Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 24601]

Michelle Tea has written memoirs, poetry and the novel “Rose of No Man's Land.“ She is founder and Executive Director of RADAR Productions, a non-profit which oversees monthly readings at the San Francisco Public Library, the Sister Spit international literary performance tours, a poetry contest and the Radar LAB retreat for writers and artists. Tea is Editor at Sister Spit Books, an imprint of Ci...

Aaron Shurin is the author of eleven books of poetry and prose, most recently Citizen, a collection of prose poems and King of Shadows, a collection of personal essays. His writing has appeared in over thirty national and international anthologies, and has been translated into seven languages. Shurin’s honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council...

Peter Orner's fiction and non-fiction has appeared in many publications and received numerous awards. He is the editor of two non-fiction books and is a long time permanent faculty member at San Francisco State. He reads before an audience at UC Berkeley. Series: "Story Hour in the Library" [Humanities] [Show ID: 24371]

Pam Houston’s latest novel is Contents May Have Shifted. Her stories have been selected for The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories of the Century. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA award for contemporary fiction, and The Evil Companions Literary Award and multiple teaching awards. She is the Director of Creative Writing at U.C. Davis an...

Kathleen Fraser’s newest collection, m o v a b l e TYYPE, foregrounds texts from four recently produced Artist Books. Her collected essays, Translating the Unspeakable: Poetry and the Innovative Necessity, is in its second printing. She edited and co-founded the journal HOW(ever) and in 2001, launched its on-line version, How2. While director of The Poetry Center, Fraser founded The American Poetr...

Hosted by Robert Hass and University Librarian Thomas C. Leonard, this event features distinguished faculty and staff from a wide range of disciplines introducing and reading a favorite poem. This year’s participants: Justin Brasheres (Environmental Science), Associate Chancellor and Chief of Staff Beata Fitzpatrick, Donna V. Jones (English), Vice Provost Catherine Koshland (Teaching, Learning, Ac...

Rebecca Solnit is the author of thirteen books, most recently the best selling “Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas.” She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism, and the Lannan Literary Award. A product of the California public education system from kindergarten to graduate school, she recently received an honorary doctorate from the Rhode Isla...

Michael L. Ross, Professor of Political Science and and Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at UCLA, looks at how developing nations are shaped by their mineral wealth -- and how they can turn oil from a curse into a blessing. Series: "Writers" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 24027]

In his new book “Sounds of Capitalism,” UCLA musicologist Timothy D. Taylor tracks the use of music in American advertising for nearly a century, from variety shows to the rise of the jingle, the postwar rise in consumerism and the more complete fusion of popular music and consumption in the 1980s and after. Here he discusses the awkward transition early 20th century advertisers endured as they ad...

Why is Cinco de Mayo, a holiday commemorating a Mexican victory over the French at Puebla in 1862, so widely celebrated in California and across the United States, when it is scarcely observed in Mexico? David E. Hayes-Bautista, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at UCLA, explains the holiday is not Mexican at all, but rather an American one...

Story Hour in the Library celebrates the writers at UC Berkeley with this annual student reading featuring short excerpts of work by winners of the year’s biggest prose prizes, Story Hour in the Library interns, and faculty nominees. Series: "Story Hour in the Library" [Humanities] [Show ID: 23988]

One of the year’s most lively events, the student reading includes winners of the following prizes: Academy of American Poets, Cook, Rosenberg, and Yang, as well as students nominated by Berkeley’s creative writing faculty, Lunch Poems volunteers, and representatives from student publications. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 22620]

Why is Cinco de Mayo, a holiday commemorating a Mexican victory over the French at Puebla in 1862, so widely celebrated in California and across the United States, when it is scarcely observed in Mexico? David E. Hayes-Bautista, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at UCLA, explains the holiday is not Mexican at all, but rather an American one...

Isabel Allende is one of Latin America's foremost female writers. The author of nineteen books, her works have been adapted for movies, plays, musicals, operas, ballets, radio programs and two international movies. In addition to her career as writer, journalist, and teacher, she has created The Isabel Allende Foundation to empower women and girls worldwide. Series: "Story Hour in the Library" [Hu...

Timothy D. Taylor is professor in the department of ethnomusicology and musicology at UCLA. In his new book, “Sounds of Capitalism,” he tracks the use of music in American advertising for nearly a century, from variety shows to the rise of the jingle, the postwar rise in consumerism and the more complete fusion of popular music and consumption in the 1980s and after. Series: "Writers" [Humanities]...

Countries that are rich in petroleum have less democracy, less economic stability, and more frequent civil wars than countries without oil. Michael L. Ross, Professor of Political Science and and Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at UCLA, looks at how developing nations are shaped by their mineral wealth -- and how they can turn oil from a curse into a blessing. His new book, show...

Richard Berengarten (aka Richard Burns) was born in London in 1943. The author of more than twenty books, Berengarten has been something of a maverick in contemporary British poetry. Two of his books are regarded as contemporary classics: “The Manager” and “The Blue Butterfly,” an elegy for victims of a Nazi massacre in former Yugoslavia. A book of essays about his work, “The Salt Companion to Ric...

This reading celebrates the publication of “ascension,” the first book of poems by giovanni singleton, coordinator of Lunch Poems. She has recently been selected by the Poetry Society of America for its biennial New American Poets series. singleton is a recipient of a New Langton Bay Area Award Show for Literature and has been a fellow at Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Cave Canem: A Workshop f...

Mark Danner has written about foreign affairs and American politics for more than two decades, covering Latin America, Haiti, the Balkans and the Middle East among other stories. He was for many years a staff writer at The New Yorker and contributes frequently to The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine and other publications. He teaches at the University of California and at Bard...