Search
Search
Writers Week: Meet the Authors
Learn about some of the authors featured in the UCR Library's Writers Week exhibit. View the exhibit in the Tomás Rivera Library until February 16.
This year's Writers Week is taking place February 10 and February 12 - 16. See all the events (most are hybrid) and RSVP at writersweek.ucr.edu.
Learn more about our Writers Week exhibit here and more about the authors featured below.
Prageeta Sharma is a poet born in Framingham, Massachusetts. Her collections of poetry include Bliss to Fill, The Opening Question, which won the Fence Modern Poets Prize, Infamous Landscapes, Undergloom, and Grief Sequence.
Noah Amir Arjomand is a filmmaker currently enrolled in the MFA Writing for the Performing Arts program at UCR, where he is a chancellor's distinguished fellow in screenwriting. He is the author of Fixing Stories: Local Newsmaking and International Media in Turkey and Syria and co-directed and co-produced the feature-length documentary Eat Your Catfish about my mother's life with ALS.
Vickie Vértiz was born and raised in Bell Gardens, a city in southeast Los Angeles County. With over 25 years of experience in social justice, writing, and education. Her writing is featured in the New York Times Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, Huizache, Nepantla, the Los Angeles Review of Books, among many others.
Cati Porter is the recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council for 2023-24. Additionally, Cati Porter’s poetry has won or been a finalist in contests by: So To Speak, judged by Arielle Greenberg; Crab Creek Review, judged by Aimee Nezhukumatathil; and Gravity & Light, judged by Chella Courington. Cati Porter lives in Inland Southern California where she runs her Poemeleon: A Journal of Poetry and directs Inlandia Institute, a 501(c)(3) literary nonprofit.
Issam Zineh is a Palestinian-American poet and scientist. He is author of Unceded Land (Trio House Press, 2022), finalist for the Trio Award, Medal Provocateur, Housatonic Book Award, and Balcones Prize for Poetry, and the chapbook The Moment of Greatest Alienation (Ethel Press, 2021). His poems appear or are forthcoming in AGNI, Guernica, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, Tahoma Literary Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.
Melissa Studdard is the author of five books, including the poetry collections Dear Selection Committee. Her work has been featured by NPR, PBS, The New York Times, The Guardian, Ms. Magazine, and Houston Matters, and more.
Minda Honey is the editor of Black Joy at Reckon, a newsletter has nearly 60K subscribers. Her essays on politics and relationships have appeared in Harper’s Baazar, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Oxford American, Teen Vogue, and Longreads.
Daisy Ocampo Diaz (Caxcan, or Caz’ Ahmo, Indigenous Nation of Zacatecas, Mexico) earned her PhD in History from the University of California, Riverside in 2019. Her research in Native and Public History informs her work with museum exhibits, historical preservation projects, and community-based archives.
Elena Karina Byrne is a screenwriter, essayist, reviewer, multi-media artist, and editor. She is The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books Programming Consultant & Poetry Stage Manager and Literary Programs Director for the historic The Ruskin Art Club. She is the author of five poetry collections.
Farnaz Fatemi is an Iranian American writer and editor in Santa Cruz, California. Her debut book, Sister Tongue زبان خواهر , was published in September 2022. It won the 2021 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, selected by Tracy K. Smith, from Kent State University Press, and received a Starred Review from Publisher’s Weekly.
Lisa Teasley is a graduate of UCLA and a native of Los Angeles. Her critically acclaimed debut, Glow in the Dark, is winner of the Gold Pen Award and Pacificus Literary Foundation awards for fiction. She has also won the May Merrill Miller and the National Society of Arts & Letters Short Story awards. Teasley has a new story collection, Fluid, which was released on Cune Press, September 26, 2023.
Quincy Troupe is an awarding-winning author of 12 volumes of poetry, three children’s books, and six non-fiction works. In 2010 Troupe received the American Book Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement. Quincy Troupe is professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego, formerly editor Code magazine and Black Renaissance Noire, a literary journal of the Institute of Africana Studies at New York University, and poetry editor of A Gathering of the Tribes online magazine.
Reza Aslan is s a renowned writer, commentator, professor, Emmy- and Peabody-nominated producer, and scholar of religions. A recipient of the prestigious James Joyce award, Aslan is the author of three internationally best-selling books, including the #1 New York Times Bestseller, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Aslan is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside and serves on the board of trustees for the Chicago Theological Seminary and The Yale Humanist Community.
Rigoberto González earned a degree in humanities and social sciences interdisciplinary studies from the University of California, Riverside, and an MFA from Arizona State University in Tempe. González is the author of five poetry collections, including The Book of Ruin (Four Way Books, 2019); Unpeopled Eden (Four Way Books, 2013), winner of the Lambda Literary Award and the 2014 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets.
Donato Martinez teaches English Composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at Santa Ana College. His first full collection of poetry, Touch the Sky, was published in June by El Martillo Press.
Jason Magabo Perez holds an MFA in writing and consciousness from New College of California, formerly in San Francisco, and a dual PhD in ethnic studies and communication from the University of California, San Diego. Perez is the author of I ask about what falls away, forthcoming in 2024; This is for the mostless (WordTech Editions, 2017); and Phenomenology of Superhero (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016).
Dave Eggers is the author of many books, among them The Eyes and the Impossible, The Circle, The Monk of Mokha, Heroes of the Frontier, A Hologram for the King, and What Is the What. He is the founder of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing company, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Kimberly Blaeser, writer, photographer, and scholar, is a past Wisconsin Poet Laureate. She is the author of five poetry collections, most recently the bi-lingual Résister en dansant/Ikwe-niimi: Dancing Resistance (2020), Copper Yearning (2019), and Apprenticed to Justice.
Marsha de la O was born and raised in Southern California. She earned her MFA from Vermont College and is the author of two collections of poetry: Black Hope (1997), winner of the New Issues Poetry Prize, and Antidote for Night (2015), winner of the Isabella Gardner Prize from BOA Editions.
Cindy Juyoung Ok is a poet, former high school physics teacher, and university creative writing instructor. Her collection of poems, Ward Toward, won the Yale Younger Poets Prize.
Introducing Jennifer Rodriguez, our new Director of Human Resources/Academic Personnel
We are excited to announce Jennifer Rodriguez as our new HR/Academic Personnel Director, effective September 14.
Jennifer holds a Bachelor's degree in Health Policy & Administration from Penn State and a minor in Spanish. She has also earned several HR certifications, including Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and the Society for Human Resources Management - Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). Currently, she is on the path to completing her Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) certification.
Jennifer has been a member of the UCR community since 2007, initially joining the Vice Chancellor Administration unit and later joining Housing, Dining & Auxiliary Services. Since 2013, she has served as a Senior Human Resources Consultant with the School of Medicine.
Previously located at UCPath for the past 9 years, Jennifer is excited to return to the hustle and bustle of campus and is ready to use her HR expertise to support the UCR Library’s vision.
Library Welcomes New Geospatial Information Librarian
Janet Reyes is our new Geospatial Information Librarian for the UCR Library.
Janet spent her professional career creating or using a variety of geographic data. Prior to coming to UC Riverside, the bulk of her career was spent at Aerial Information Systems Inc. (AIS), an environmental consulting firm in Redlands, California that specializes in geospatial data development. Among her duties at AIS were photointerpretation of land use and vegetation; compiling various types of geographic data into geographic information systems (GIS); project management; quality control; data assessment; and report writing. Many of the projects completed by AIS covered portions of the Inland Empire or southern California, and some were performed as a subcontractor to the GIS software giant Esri.
Janet also has experience as a planner handling mapping projects and demographic data for the San Bernardino County Planning Department, and she worked for Rome Research Corporation as a photointerpreter.
She holds a BS in natural resources from Cornell University and an MS in physical geography from Oregon State University, where she worked in the Environmental Remote Sensing Applications Laboratory.
In her new role, Janet looks forward to connecting UCR community members to the geospatial information they need.
Library Administration Welcomes New Administrative Assistant
UCR Library is pleased to welcome Rochelle Settle as the Administrative Assistant in Library Administration, effective April 3, 2017.
Rochelle's work station is at the front desk in suite 141 of Rivera Library. She will manage supply orders through the Library’s supply database, as well as scheduling, cash/check deposits, and other library projects and administrative duties.
Rochelle has over nine years of experience working in an educational environment. Most recently, she worked with the Raytown C-2 School District in Kansas City, Missouri.
Rochelle earned her Master of Arts in Theological Studies at the Central Theological Seminary, Shawnee, Kansas. She also has a Bachelor of Science in Biblical Studies from Calvary University, Kansas City, Missouri.
Spotlight on Faculty: Professor Tiffany López
Tiffany López is an inspiration not only on the University of California, Riverside campus, but regionally and nationally as well. She is dedicated to creating awareness of cultural history, and providing insight into the intersection of art and creative production’s role in personal and social change.
López is a professor in the UCR Department of Theatre, Film and Digital Production, and Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS). She has been teaching at UC Riverside for nearly two decades, and her dedication to introducing students to Chicana/Chicano and Latina/Latino history and culture has been a driving force in her work.
As part of the UCR Library's Latino Americans: 500 Years of History programming series in March, López will lead a scholarly discussion and give a dramatic reading from the Segundo Jueves Latina/o Play Project. She will read an excerpt of "Y No Se Lo Trago La Tierra" by Tomás Rivera, past UCR chancellor and the first Mexican-American chancellor in the UC system.
The Play Project is a series of performances including dramatic readings, plays, music, and dance from Latina/o cultural writings and works that López has developed as living, shared artwork using the medium of theatrical performance. A Segundo Jueves Latina/o Play Project performance will be presented at the Culver Center in April, 2016.
NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) Specialist
On Tuesday, Sept. 7, Megan Murphy joined the UCR Library as the new UCR NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) Specialist.
Megan has a BA in Archaeology from Dickinson College and an MA in Anthropology with a focus on Archaeology at University of Colorado, Boulder, where she also served as a Teaching Assistant.
Megan has extensive experience in working on repatriating human remains, cultural objects, and funerary objects, having interned at both the University of Knoxville in Tennessee and the University of Pennsylvania on NAGPRA projects at those institutions. She has also done an archaeology internship at Fort Vasquez Museum and an oral history internship at Louisville Historical Society.
Megan will be working closely with Professor Gerald Clarke, the UCR NAGPRA Repatriation Coordinator, to contact proactively and consult with all possible tribes affiliated with the small number of Native American human remains and artifacts covered by either the federal NAGPRA or state CalNAGPRA laws and facilitate tribal claims for their repatriation. This work will include preparing and submitting notices to be published in the Federal Register.
In addition, she will be working closely with Dr. Matt Hall, the Director of the Archaeological Curation Unit on campus to re-inventory the 600 cubic foot collection of artifacts held by the unit in compliance with CalNAGPRA as per the requirements of Assembly Bill 275, which significantly amended the law in September 2020. The same law will require at a minimum confirming that the UCR Library’s inventories of its holdings of Native American artifacts, archives, artwork, etc., primarily in Special Collections and University Archives, meet the requirement of AB275 (which requires inventorying all object, artwork, artifacts, archives, etc. in consultation with tribal leaders in order to identify which materials do or do not fall under the purview of AB275).
Megan will also be assisting the University Librarian Steven Mandeville-Gamble in his role as UCR NAGPRA Administrator to help organize meetings and support the work of the new UCR Repatriation Oversight Committee, once it is convened in late September 2021. Megan will divide her time between her office on the fourth floor of Rivera Library and in Watkins Hall, working on the inventory of the Archaeological Curation Unit.
Please join us in welcoming Megan to the UCR Library team!
ACRL Spotlight: Janet Reyes
Janet Reyes, Geospatial Information Librarian, is the ACRL Member of the Week for October 30, 2023.
The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is the higher education association for librarians and is a division of the American Library Association. Every week, the ACRL Insider blog spotlights an ACRL member, and this week it's the UCR Library's Janet Reyes.
Janet’s key responsibility at the UCR Library is to provide support for a wide range of geospatial resources and tools. She also coordinates contact among faculty, departments, and schools involved with geospatial research. Learn how Janet contributes to the UCR campus in her own words, what she’s currently reading, what she values about ACRL, and more by reading her spotlight.
Renowned Science Fiction and Fantasy artist Michael Whelan speaks at UCR Library
Renowned science fiction artist Michael Whelan came to speak at the UCR Library on the evening of May 18, 2017.
“An Evening with Michael Whelan” was co-sponsored by the Riverside Art Museum (RAM), and ran from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm in Special Collections & University Archives. Whelan lectured to a standing-room only crowd about his career, his creative inspiration, and more.
Special Collections had also prepared a display of noteworthy books from the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy that feature Whelan’s cover art, which is still available for viewing on the fourth floor of Rivera Library.
The Jay Kay and Doris Klein Librarian for Science Fiction JJ Jacobson said that she was spoiled for choice. “I got 555 results one way, and 568 another,” Jacobson said of her catalog search results.
Jacobson said that she could have approached the display design from a number of different methods, but in the end, she decided to highlight Eaton Collection books by authors that many consider to be the “Grand Masters” of Science Fiction and Fantasy, including Ray Bradbury, Poul Anderson, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton, and Samuel Delany.
As the most honored artist in Science Fiction, Whelan has won an unprecedented 15 Hugo Awards (which is the equivalent of an Academy Award in the science fiction art world), three World Fantasy Awards, and 13 Chesleys from the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists. The readers of Locus Magazine (for SF insiders) have named him “Best Professional Artist” 30 times in their annual poll, most recently in 2014. The Spectrum Annual of the Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art named Whelan a Grand Master in 2004.
Other noteworthy awards include a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators, a Vargas Award, a Grumbacher Gold Medal, and the Solstice Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America.
The Riverside Art Museum had an exhibition of Whelan's artwork titled “Beyond Science Fiction: The Alternative Realism of Michael Whelan” on display until May 25, 2017.
To learn more about the artist, please visit: michaelwhelan.com.
Assistant University Librarian for Collections
UCR Library is pleased to announce that Tiffany Moxham is appointed as our Assistant University Librarian for Collections, effective January 1, 2018.
Moxham, most recently the UCR Library’s Coordinator of Medical Library Services, has fourteen years’ experience working in academic and research libraries in North America, including ten years’ experience as a supervisor and manager in academic libraries and research groups.
Her work with the UCR School of Medicine has been transformational, both in terms of the services that the library has provided the SOM and also in terms of helping to prepare the School of Medicine for its successful accreditation review in spring 2017, which resulted in the SOM receiving full accreditation.
Moxham has superlative experience strategizing around issues related to ensuring quick and timely access to critical information resources while living within finite and constrained budgets. She has a demonstrated track record of using data-informed decision-making, being academically nimble, and engaging deeply with the academic programs that she supports. Throughout these efforts, she has consistently demonstrated what it takes to be a key partner in the academic and curricular success of the students and faculty at UCR as well as her previous institutions.
Her skills and insights will be critical as the UCR Library faces the challenges of ever-spiraling academic resource costs, evolving faculty and student curricular and research needs, and emerging forms of scholarly discourse alongside traditional modes.
Please join us in congratulating Tiffany in her new role!