The CSUSM Community and World Literary Series hosts on-campus literary readings several times a semester. Our visiting authors have produced some of the most innovative and original work in contemporary poetry, fiction, drama and performance art. Some of these writers are local to southern California, while others come from elsewhere in the country and the world. All are at the forefront of developments in contemporary aesthetics and culture.
 

Students, faculty, staff and members of the public are invited to experience, live, some of the most exciting literature of the present moment. Whether you think of yourself as a writer, someone who wants to be a writer, or someone who’s interested in any of the amazing possibilities in contemporary literature, art, culture, politics or history, The Community and World Literary Series offers you a chance to hear and interact with writers exploring subjects of crucial contemporary relevance. Their work may very well suggest possibilities for your own future. Come on out and become part of the CSUSM literary community.

An anthology of work by past writers in the series can be found on our website, http://www.csusm.edu/cwls/.

All on-campus readings this spring are free and take place Thursdays at 7 p.m. The readings are currently scheduled to be held in the Grand Salon, Room 113, of the M. Gordon Clarke Field House

February 21:  Edwin Torres.
Internationally known poet and performance artist Edwin Torres has to be seen and heard to be believed, and now you're going to get your chance. He is one of the most well-known authors from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City, which has been featured in several television documentaries, including The United States of Poetry.

April 10:  Joyelle McSweeney.
McSweeney is one of the up-and-coming young stars of American literature, the author of several books of poetry and two recent books of speculative fiction.

April 24:  Barbara Henning.
Novelist and poet, Henning is one of the most adventurous figures in contemporary literature. Whether she's writing about inner city Detroit, where she grew up in a military family, other places where she's lived like New York City or Santa Fe, or of her many long visits to India, Henning's work is always startling and thought-provoking and concerned with both daily life and the spiritual.