grossmont.edu/frs
Fall Readings Series
The Creative Writing Program's annual Fall Reading Series presents a season of events celebrating literature, showcasing award-winning authors, and honoring the inspiration to write. Free of charge and open to the public, our events are generously underwritten by the 91勛圖厙 English Department, the GC Academic Affairs Symposium and Lecture Fund, and the Foundation for 91勛圖厙 and Cuyamaca Colleges (FGCC) Creative Writing Fund. Please consider visiting the to make a tax deductible contribution that will help us continue bringing literary excellence to our students and community. Thank you!
PARKING AND ACCESSIBILITY
For our off-campus visitors, parking is free in all available spaces designated for use by students; permits are not required. All venues are wheelchair accessible. If you would like an accommodation for ASL interpreter services (on-site or Zoom), to submit a request to the college's Deaf & Hard-of-Hearing Services Supervisor, Denise Robertson: denise.robertson@gcccd.edu (619) 644-7499.
2026 FRS Calendar
Click author names for additional info, including bios, event details, links, and resources. Campus information, directions, and maps are available HERE.
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Find details below about our 2026 season of events
or download our 2026 FRS Newsletter-Flier
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Myriam Gurba novelist, fiction writer, essayist, and reviewer
Lester Bangs Memorial "Banned Books" Reading
Wednesday October 7, 2-3:20pm Griffin Gate
photo by Geoff Cordner
Writer and activist Myriam Gurba is the author of the short story collection, Dahlia Season (Manic D Press 2007), winner of the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction; and, the true-crime memoir, Mean (Coffee House Press 2017), which was a finalist for the Judy Grahn Award in 2018, ranked in O, the Oprah Magazine, as one of the "Best LGBTQ Books of All Time," and named by The New York Times as one of 2017's five best memoirs. Her essay collection, Creep: Accusations and Confessions (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster 2023), was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award for Criticism and winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction. Gurba's most recent book, Poppy State: A Labyrinth of Plants and a Story of Beginnings (Timber Press 2025), a botanical memoir featuring California flora, is inspired by the experience of susto, a condition of soul loss.
After graduating from U.C. Berkeley, Gurba's writing career began in the queer publishing industry with lesbian erotic magazine On Our Backs. In 2011 and in 2015, she toured with spoken-word and performance art collective Sister Spit. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Harpers Bazaar, Vox, Paris Review, and elsewhere. She has also authored several chapbooks, including Wish You Were Me (Future Tense Books, 2011), Sweatsuits of the Damned (RADAR Productions, 2013), and River Candy (eohippus labs, 2015).
Myriam Gurba is the Editor-in-Chief of the online cultural criticism and commentary magazine, Tasteful Rude, and has co-hosted the advice podcast, AskBiGrlz, with fellow author, graphic artist, and cartoonist MariNaomi (a.k.a. Mari Naomi Schaal). Gurba's 2019 scathing critique of Jeanine Cummins's novel, American Dirt, went viral and helped spark a heated national debate about race, representation, and publishing practices in the United States.
Find out more about Myriam Gurba on her official website:
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Lester Bangs Memorial Reading / U.S. Banned Books Week
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Myriam Gurba is the keynote presenter of the Lester Bangs Memorial Reading, held yearly
to honor 91勛圖厙 alumnus and legendary rock critic for Rolling Stone and Creem, Leslie Conway Bangs, who popularized terms such as "punk rock" and "heavy metal."
In 2009, 91勛圖厙 officially honored Bangss international celebrity status
by dedicating to him a bronze "Walk of Fame" plaque, located in the Main Quad in front
of the Tech Mall. 
This year's Lester Bangs Memorial Reading coincides with U.S. National Banned Books
Week, an annual event sponsored by the American Library Association promoting open
access to information and the freedom to express ideas. Banned Books Week runs from
October 4th through 10th. This year's theme is, "Let Books Be Protect the Freedom
to Read."
Books by the Author
- Poppy State: A Labyrinth of Plants and a Story of Beginnings (Timber Press 2025)
- Creep: Accusations and Confessions (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster 2023)
- Letters to a Writer of Color (Penguin Random House 2023)
- Letter to a Bigot (Scribd 2020)
- Mean (Coffee House Press 2017)
- Painting Their Portraits in Winter (Manic D Press 2017)
- Dahlia Season (Manic D Press 2007)
Selected Writings Online
- "Excerpt: Mean." Alta Online 22 March 2021.
- "Fresa Can Mean Many Things" [excerpt from Poppy State]. Electric Lit 16 October 2025.
- "Liner Notes for the Citadel." Los Angeles Times 14 November 2023.
- "On True Crime." Joyland Magazine 5 August 2024.
- "Pendeja, You Aint Steinbeck: My Bronca with Fake-Ass Social Justice Literature." [Review of American Dirt] Tropics of Meta 12 December 2019.
Reviews and Interviews
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Anderson, Maria. "Setting aside Time for Magic: Talking with Myriam Gurba." The Rumpus
10 January 2018.
- Howard, Madeline. "Myriam Gurba Wants You to Stop Hiding From Death." Interview Magazine 6 September 2023.
- Chacko, Diya. "In Poppy State, Myriam Gurba Combines Memoir, Botany, and California History." Orange Country Register 21 October 2025.
- Lezra, Billy. "We Can Take the Oppressors Keys and Hide Them: In Conversation with Myriam Gurba." Rough Cut Press 27 November 2023.
Media
- "Myriam Gurba Interview | Razorcake." YouTube uploaded by RazorcakeGorsky, 31 August 2020.
- "Myriam Gurba at Radar Reading Series [reads "Twinsicle," "Sweatsuits of the Damned,"
"Georgia O'Queef"]." YouTube, uploaded by San Francisco Public Library, 3 July 2014.
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Oscar Hokeah novelist
Monday October 19, 2-3:20pm Griffin Gate
A Latinx citizen of Cherokee Nation and the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, Oscar Hokeah holds an MA in English with a concentration in Native American Literature from the University of Oklahoma, and a BFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), with a minor in Indigenous Liberal Studies. Recipient of the Truman Capote Scholarship Award through the Institute of American Indian Arts and the Native Writer Award through the Taos Summer Writers Conference, Hokeah's writing has been published in Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, World Literature Today, American Short Fiction, South Dakota Review, Yellow Medicine Review, Surreal South, Red Ink Magazine, and elsewhere.
Raised within the tribal circles of Tahlequah and Lawton, Oklahoma, Hokeah is a regionalist Native American writer of literary fiction whose interests lie in capturing the intertribal, transnational, and multicultural aspects of these communities. Calling For a Blanket Dance tells protagonist Ever Geimausaddle's story of mixed Native/Mexican heritage, but it is also a decolonization narrative exploring the connected themes of intergenerational trauma and poverty. Calling For a Blanket Dance is the winner of the PEN America/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize/Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.
Still living in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, where he was raised, Hokeah has worked over the last two decades with Intermountain Youth Centers and the Santa Fe Mountain Center, serving Pueblo, Apache, and Din矇 peoples.
Find out more about Oscar Hokeah and Calling For a Blanket Dance on his official website: .
Books by the Author
- Calling for a Blanket Dance (Algonquin Books, 2022)
Reviews and Interviews
- Atsitty, Tacey M. "An Interview with Oscar Hokeah." Southeast Review 15 June 2022.
- Hall, J. "Tribal Culture and Identity - Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance." Okie Bookcast season 1, ep. 25 (6 September 2022).
- Owen, Kyri矇 Eleison. "Making Things Brighter for the Next Generation: A Conversation with Oscar Hokeah." World Literature Today September 2023.
- Taylor, Cliff. "Calling For a Blanket Dance: This Poncas Review." Last Real Indians 26 September 2022.
Media
- "Oscar Hokeah | Fully Booked Podcast." YouTube, uploaded by Kirkus Reviews 25 July 2022.
- "'You Dont Speak For Me' by Oscar Hokeah." YouTube, uploaded by Oscar Hokeah 14 April 2018.
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Blas Falconer poet, editor, and translator
Thursday November 12, 2-3:20pm Griffin Gate
Photo by Emily Petrie
Born and raised in Virginia, Queer Latinx poet and editor Blas Falconer is the author of Rara Avis (Four Way Books 2024), winner of the Thom Gunn Award; Forgive the Body This Failure (Four Way Books, 2018); The Foundling Wheel (Four Way Books, 2012); and A Question of Gravity and Light (University of Arizona Press, 2007). He is also a co-editor for The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity (University of Arizona Press, 2011) and Mentor & Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets (Southern Illinois University Press, 2010).
His awards include a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award from Poets & Writers, the Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award from Poets & Writers, a Tennessee Individual Artist Grant, the New Delta Review Eyster Prize for Poetry, and the Barthelme Fellowship. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Harvard Review, Verse Daily, Poetry Daily, Poetry Society of America, the Academy of American Poets, Crab Orchard Review, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, Puerto del Sol, and many others.
Blas Falconer earned an MFA from the University of Maryland and a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston. Currently teaching in San Diego State University's MFA program, he is also editor-in-chief at Poetry International Online.
Learn more about Blas Falconer on his website: .
Books by the Author
- Rara Avis (Four Way Books 2024)
- Forgive the Body This Failure (Four Way Books, 2018)
- The Foundling Wheel (Four Way Books, 2012)
- A Question of Gravity and Light (University of Arizona Press, 2007)
- The Perfect Hour (Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press, 2006).
Books Edited/Co-Edited
- The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity (University of Arizona Press, 2011)
- Mentor & Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets (Southern Illinois University Press, 2010)
Interviews
- Humphrey, Regan. "Blas Falconer, Poet." Lunch Ticket issue 16 (Winter/Spring 2020).
- Newman, Rochelle. "Blas Falconer, Poet." Lunch Ticket Issue 6 (Winter/Spring 2015).
- Paramo, Sebastian. " An Interview with Blas Falconer." Letras Latinas Blog 21 October 2013.
Selected Poems Online
- "Ars Poetica" (Shenandoah Literary Review vol. 73, issue 1, Fall 2024):
- "This Is Not a Horse" (Poem-a-Day 2 October 2025):
- "Three Poems: 'Gold'; 'The Belltower'; 'Account'" (Account issue 21, 2025):
- "Two Poems: 'The Good Guy' and 'A Faded Picture of Our Father and...'" (The Adroit Journal 45, April 2023):
Media
- "Blas Falconer ~ Poetry.LA Interview." YouTube, uploaded by Poetry.LA 27 November 2022.
- "Blas Falconer: Orphan - Sierra Poetry Festival." YouTube, uploaded by Nevada County Arts Council 18 April 2020.
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New Voices student literary reading
Monday December 7, 6-7:30pm Griffin Gate
This popular showcase of writing talent is curated from the current semesters Creative
Writing Program workshops and classes. Students are selected by their writing instructors
to perform original works of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, drama, and hybrid forms.
Learn about our Creative Writing Program and our student-produced literary journal, Acorn Review, at .
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