Each year, California State University, Bakersfield hosts the California Writers Series to feature various authors and their works at the Walter W. Stiern Library. Normally, an event hosted in the Walter W. Stiern Library’s Dezember Reading Room, this year’s event will take place in a virtual setting on Wednesday, March 3 at 7 p.m.
The Writers Series will feature author, John Brantingham, an English professor at Mt. San Antonio College, where he coordinates the creative writing program and runs the yearly creative writing conference, Culturama. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks’ first poet laureate.
Brantingham has eleven books of poetry and fiction, including “Inland Empire Afternoon;” “Life, Orange to Pear;” “Crossing the High Sierra” and “California Continuum: Migrations and Amalgamations,” co-written with Grant Hier.
He has co-edited a variety of works, as well, including The L.A. Fiction Anthology (Red Hen Books), and his fifteen poetry and fiction collections include East of Los Angeles (Anaphora Literary Press), The Green of Sunset (Moon Tide Press), Let Us All Pray Now to Our Own Strange Gods (World Parade Books), Crossing the High Sierra (Cholla Needles Press), and California Continuum: Volume 1 (Pelekinesis Press), with Grant Hier.
He is the co-creator of the San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival and the Valley Poets Reading Series, which has featured poets and writers from around the world and seeks to create a vibrant literary community for the residents of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys.
Brantingham also serves as the president for the non-profit that funds the festival. Along with teaching at his home institution, Mt. SAC, he has taught advanced courses in creative writing for NYU Shanghai, the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, and CSU Long Beach. He has read across the United States and in China, Canada, England, and Wales.
The California Writers Series began in 2006, highlighting authors, with past visitors including: Wendy C. Ortiz, Lindsay Wilson, Dixie Salazar, Reyna Grande, Christopher Buckley, Vickie Vértiz, Brendan Constantine, Dana Gioia, Brian Evenson, Matthew Zapruder, Matthew Spektor and Kevin Clark, just to name a few.
The writers invited to speak at the CSUB campus usually live in or have ties with California. Once the authors have read, the audience would have a chance to ask the author questions, engage in discussion and have a chance to get their books signed. However, due to COVID-19, in the online format, it will shift.
This year’s event is sponsored by the Walter W. Stiern Library, Sigma Tau Delta and Teachers of Tomorrow. It is made possible through a generous donation by the Virginia and Alfred Harrell Foundation.
To tune in for the evening’s engagement, join the Zoom meeting with the following ID: 893 3619 2107
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