Writers Week returns to in person only format

Join The University of California, Riverside's Department of Creative Writing for the 48th UCR Writers Week Festival May 5-8. The free and open-to-the-public festival is the longest-running free literary festival in California. All events will be held in Interdisciplinary South (INTS) 1113.

Featured writers this year include:

• Geoffrey Dyer, a two-time National Book Critics Circle Award winner; GQ Writer of the Year Award winner, and winner of the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is a member of the Royal Society of Literature and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
• Jean Guerrero, whose book "Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir," won a PEN Literary Award and was named a New York Times Editor's Choice and one of NPR's Best Books. She is also the author of "Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump and the White Nationalist Agenda." She is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times.
• Sarah Manguso's, whose novel "Very Cold People" was longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, the Wingate Literary Prize, and the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. She is the author of 10 books that have been translated into 15 languages.
• Maggie Nelson, who has written national bestsellers "On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint" and "The Argonauts," which also was a National Book Critics Circle Award winner. She is a past winner of MacArthur "genius" and Guggenheim fellowships.
• Bret Anthony Johnston, who is a National Endowment for the Arts fellow and winner of the Glasgow Prize and Sunday Times Short Story Award. His bestselling books include "We Burn Daylight," "Remember Me Like This," and "Corpus Christi: Stories." He is a past director of the creative writing program at Harvard University.

Other featured writers include Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Jos Charles, Jennifer Espinoza, Blas Falconer, Edgar Gomez, Erin Marie Lynch, Lilliam Rivera, and Steven Shaviro.

The original festival in 1977 was designed for the UCR community and whoever heard about it in town.

Geoffrey Dyer

"I don't know how far the media reach went into the Inland Empire or LA. I don't think very far. It was an in-house event for our creative writing students and people in the local community who liked literature," said Professor of Creative Writing Josh Emmons, co-director of this year's festival, along with Associate Professor Allison Benis White.

The festival, a rare opportunity for the general, literature-loving public to interact with authors in the wild, grew over time but always remained a live event until COVID closed the world. During the pandemic, Allison Hedge Coke, then festival director, took the event virtual for the first time, making it available internationally.

In 2024, the event was presented both online and live. The festival last year saw 52 writers read, plus keynote speakers, and presented Lifetime Achievement Awards to honor Dave Eggers (Eggers had to cancel due to catching COVID), Quincy Troupe, and Rigoberto González.

"We decided to bring it back to its roots this year, make it all in person," said Emmons, "to encourage live interaction between audiences and writers. We preferred this to get students and people from the community to come into the room to listen to a reading live. That's the beauty; asking questions and getting the unduplicatable energy of face-to-face interactions."

Sarah Manguso / Photo by Beowulf Sheehan

As part of getting back to their roots, organizers scaled back the number of writers invited to 13, to make the festival more manageable for attendees. "There would be less FOMO for the students, and they wouldn't be missing as many things," Emmons said.

The co-directors believed not doing a keynote speaker this year would create a festival where everyone is on the same level. "In the spirit of democracy," Emmons said.

In that same spirit, Emmons and White asked everyone in the Creative Writing Department to invite a writer. Nine of their colleagues accepted, agreeing to send out the formal invite, greet the writers when they arrive for the festival, and introduce the writers before they take the podium.

The participating authors will have 40 minutes to read followed by 20 minutes of Q&A, the standard format for readings. After the Q&A, there will be a book signing.

Bret Anthony Johnston / Photo by Nina Subin

"This year we're doing something a little bit new," Emmons said. "We've pre-bought 20 copies of each writer's latest book to give away to our undergraduates to help raise the average attendance, and it also helps out the authors."

There are three readings scheduled every day, and each day will follow the same schedule. The first reading begins at 11a.m., followed by 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Another focus for this year's Writers Week is highlighting California writers. Most of the featured writers are Southern California-based.

"As writers, we felt because our tagline is we're the longest-running free literary festival in California, we should lean into and promote the California-ness and celebrate the community that exists here and strengthen it," Emmons said.

General Parking is free, and will be in Lot 1 Blue, with VIP parking in Lot 1, Red.

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