Skip to main content
  • Find People
  • Faculty & Staff
  • Student Resource Guide
  • CLASS-Web / MyPortal
  • Canvas
  • Online Learning
  • Library
  • Quick Links
    • 25Live
    • A - Z Index
    • Academic Calendar
    • Bookstore
    • CLASS-Web / MyPortal
    • Copy Services (TRAC)
    • currIQūnet META
    • eLumen
    • Faculty & Staff Email
    • Facility Rentals
    • Facilities Work Order Requests
    • Industry Credentials
    • Most Used Pages
    • Parking Permits
    • Professional Development
    • Program Mapper
    • Service-Now
  • Quick Links
    • 25Live
    • A - Z Index
    • Academic Calendar
    • Bookstore
    • CLASS-Web
    • Copy Services (TRAC)
    • currIQūnet META
    • eLumen
    • Faculty & Staff Email
    • Facility Rentals
    • Facilities Work Order Requests
    • Most Used Pages
    • Parking Permits
    • Professional Development
    • Program Mapper
    • Service-Now
Las Positas College - Home
  • Discover LPC
    • Why Choose LPC?
    • Office of the President
    • President's Welcome Message to Students
    • About Las Positas College
    • College Governance
    • Parking Permits
    • Administrative Services
    • Foundation
    • Accreditation
    • Measure A
    • Employer Services
  • Admissions
    • Admissions & Records Office
    • Steps to Success
    • Apply for Admissions
    • International Students
    • Admissions Forms
    • Transcripts
    • Fees, Tuition, & Refunds
    • Online Class Schedule
    • Registration Policies
    • Residency Requirement
    • Priority Registration
    • Concurrent Enrollment
    • DegreeWorks
  • Financial Aid
    • Financial Aid Office
    • Financial Aid TV
    • Financial Aid Forms
    • Financial Aid Eligibility
    • Financial Aid Programs
    • Scholarships
    • Fee Waiver Program
  • Students
    • Student Services
    • Assessment Center
    • Black Cultural Resource Center
    • Bookstore
    • Career & Employment Center
    • Counseling
    • Disabled Student Programs and Services
    • Health & Wellness Services
    • Online Orientation Information
    • LPC Tutorial Center
    • Transfer Center
    • Veterans First Program
    • CLASS-Web
    • Student Email
    • Canvas
    • Student Life
    • Student Government
    • Student Clubs
    • Student Resource Guide
    • Classes Not Meeting Today
    • Computer Center
    • ILC (Integrated Learning Center)
    • RAW (Reading & Writing) Center
    • Open Math Lab (Math Students Only)
  • Academics
    • Academic and Career Pathways
    • Academic Services
    • Programs & Divisions
    • Academic Calendar
    • Academic Integrity
    • Articulation
    • College Catalog
    • Class Schedule
    • Final Exam Schedule
    • Degrees & Certificates
    • Industry Credentials
    • Credit for Prior Learning
    • Apprenticeship
    • Continuing Education (Noncredit)
    • High School Credit Program
  • Performing Arts
  • Athletics
Las Positas College - Home
  • Discover LPC
    • Why Choose LPC?
    • Office of the President
    • President's Welcome Message to Students
    • About Las Positas College
    • College Governance
    • Parking Permits
    • Administrative Services
    • Foundation
    • Accreditation
    • Measure A
    • Community Education
    • Educational Partnerships
    • Child Development Center
    • Outreach Services
    • Consumer Information
    • Employer Services
    • Student Success Scorecard
    • Salary Surfer
    • A - Z
    • Social Media
    • The Express
  • Discover LPC
    • Why Choose LPC?
    • Office of the President
    • President's Welcome Message to Students
    • About Las Positas College
    • College Governance
    • Parking Permits
    • Administrative Services
    • Foundation
    • Accreditation
    • Measure A
    • Community Education
    • Educational Partnerships
    • Child Development Center
    • Outreach Services
    • Consumer Information
    • Student Success Scorecard
    • Salary Surfer
    • A - Z
    • Social Media
    • The Express
  • Admissions
    • Admissions & Records Office
    • Steps to Success
    • Apply for Admissions
    • International Students
    • Admissions Forms
    • Transcripts
    • Fees, Tuition, & Refunds
    • Online Class Schedule
    • Registration Policies
    • Residency Requirement
    • Priority Registration
    • Concurrent Enrollment
    • DegreeWorks
  • Financial Aid
    • Financial Aid Office
    • Financial Aid TV
    • Financial Aid Forms
    • Financial Aid Eligibility
    • Financial Aid Programs
    • Scholarships
    • Fee Waiver Program
  • Students
    • Student Services
    • Assessment Center
    • Black Cultural Resource Center
    • Bookstore
    • Career & Employment Center
    • Counseling
    • Disabled Student Programs and Services
    • Health & Wellness Services
    • Online Orientation Information
    • LPC Tutorial Center
    • Transfer Center
    • Veterans First Program
    • CLASS-Web
    • Student Email
    • Canvas
    • Student Life
    • Student Government
    • Student Clubs
    • Student Resource Guide
    • Classes Not Meeting Today
    • Computer Center
    • ILC (Integrated Learning Center)
    • RAW (Reading & Writing) Center
    • Open Math Lab (Math Students Only)
  • Academics
    • Academic Services
    • Programs & Divisions
    • Academic Calendar
    • Academic Integrity
    • Articulation
    • College Catalog
    • Class Schedule
    • Final Exam Schedule
    • Academic and Career Pathways
    • Degrees & Certificates
    • Industry Credentials
    • Credit for Prior Learning
    • Apprenticeship
    • Continuing Education (Noncredit)
    • High School Credit Program
  • Performing Arts
  • Athletics
Las Positas College Literary Arts Festival. Saturday May 7, 2022.

Las Positas College Literary Arts Festival. Saturday May 7, 2022.

  1. Las Positas College
  2. LPC Literary Arts Festival
  3. 2023_homepage_archive

LPC Literary Arts Festival

  • Literary Arts Home
  • Creative Writing and Literature Classes
  • Canvas Curriculum Assignments and Resources
  • Video Archive
  • Sponsorship Application
  • Previous Festival Pages
  • Registration on Eventbrite

Countdown to the LPC Literary Arts Festival

American Book Award Winner   |   NY Times #1 Bestselling Author   |   California & Livermore Poets Laureate   |   Local & Internationally Acclaimed Authors   |   20th Annual LPC Poetry Slam

 

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. FREE AND IN-PERSON!

 

The #1 community college in California's free annual literary arts festival. Bringing award-winning authors to the Tri-Valley since 2020.

Author readings, writing workshops, panel discussions, book signings, music, food trucks, kids activities, and more!

 

 

Events are free, but seating is limited. Click here to register! See below for authors, events, and schedule.

 

Saturday, May 13th

Mertes Center for the Arts (Building 4000)

Las Positas College

Livermore, CA

Campus Map

 

 

Festival Schedule

 

 

Festival Keynote Speaker:
American Book Award Winner Tommy Orange

Tommy Orange and There There

American Book Award Winner, PEN/Hemingway Award Winner, & Pulitzer Prize Finalist

Keynote: Fireside Chat with Michelle Cruz Gonzales +

Writing Workshop with Tommy Orange

 

Tommy Orange is an American novelist and writer from Oakland, California. Orange’s There There is a national bestseller that won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and the American Book Award. It was also shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. It appeared on countless “Best Books of the Year” lists, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Time, O: The Oprah Magazine, GQ, and Entertainment Weekly. Orange is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He earned a Masters in Fine Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Orange was born and raised in the Dimond District of Oakland, California. For more information, visit Penguin Random House.

In conversation with Las Positas College English Professor Michelle Cruz Gonzales, author of The Spitboy Rule.

The Spit Boy Rule

 

 

Muwékma Wolwóolum Šawwenikma ’ayye Yiššakma: Muwékma Ohlone Singers and Dancers

Muwekma Dancers

Join the Muwékma Ohlone Singers and Dancers as they open the festival with singing and dancing. The ancestral and traditional land of the First People of the region are aboriginal to the present-day Muwékma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area (formerly Verona Band of Alameda County). A Muwékma Ohlone Tribal Land Acknowledgment for Las Positas College will follow. For more information on the Muwékma Ohlone Tribe, visit Muwékma.org.

 

 

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author
Bruce Henderson: The Untold Story of Japanese Americans in WWII, with LPC Student Veterans Panel

Bruce Henderson and Bridge to the Sun book

In conversation with LPC English Professor Dr. Jim Ott, followed by LPC Student Veterans sharing their thoughts on writing about their military experiences.

Bruce Henderson is the author of more than twenty nonfiction books, including a #1 New York Times bestseller that was made into a highly-rated television miniseries. His books have been published in twenty countries.

His latest book, Bridge to the Sun: The Secret Role of the Japanese Americans Who Fought in the Pacific in World War II, is one of the last, great untold stories of that war. It is a gripping true tale of courage and adventure—the saga of the Japanese American U.S. soldiers who fought in the Pacific theater against Japan, their ancestral homeland, even as their families back home in America were being rounded up and held behind barbed wire in government internment camps. For more information, visit BruceHendersonBooks.com.

 

 

The Poetry of Place: California and Livermore Poets Laureate in Conversation
featuring Lee Herrick and Peggy Schimmelman

Lee Herrick and Peggy Schimmelman

Lee Herrick, California Poet Laureate, was born in Daejeon, South Korea, adopted at 10 months old, and grew up in California. He is the author of the poetry collections Scar and Flower (2018), Gardening Secrets of the Dead (2012), and This Many Miles from Desire (2007). His poems have appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies, including The Bloomsbury Review, ZYZZYVA, Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California’s Great Central Valley (2nd edition), One for the Money: The Sentence as Poetic Form, and Indivisible: Poems of Social Justice, among others. He is coeditor, with Leah Silvieus, of The World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit (2020). From 2015 to 2017, Herrick served as Poet Laureate of Fresno, California. Herrick lives in Fresno and teaches at Fresno City College and in the low-residency MFA Program at Sierra Nevada College. For more information, visit LeeHerrick.com.

 

Peggy Schimmelman is the Poet Laureate of Livermore, CA. Her work includes the poetry chapbooks Crazytown and Tick-Tock and the novels Insomniacs, Inc. and Whippoorwills. She is co-author of Long Stories Short and Two Truths and a Lie by Wild Vine Writers. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in the North American Review, Naugatuck River Review, Peregrine, WinningWriters.com, the Aleola Journal of Poetry and Art, Pacific Review, Comstock Review, the Wild Musette, 100wordstories.org, and others. For more information, visit PeggySchimmelman.com.

 

 

Ava LaShay and Avery Night
Drag Queen Storytime for Kids and Kids at Heart

Ava LaShay and Avery Night

Ava LaShay is a Bay Area, CA based drag queen, event emcee and former student of Las Positas College. Ava is published in two Las Positas Anthologies and can be found hosting drag shows throughout the Bay Area. For more information, visit AvaLashay.com.

Avery Night is a drag performer and makeup artist who recently relocated to California from Vermont. She has only been doing drag for 5 months but has over one hundred shows under belt and has no plans of slowing down. You can find her performing in shows throughout the Bay Area. 

 

 

National Book Award Finalist
Randy Ribay in Conversation, followed by
Young Adult Fiction Workshop

Randy Ribay

Randy Ribay is an award-winning author of young adult fiction, including An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes, After the Shot Drops, and Patron Saints of Nothing—which received five starred reviews, was selected as a Freeman Book Award winner, and was a finalist for the National Book Award, LA Times Book Prize, Walden Book Award, Edgar Award, International Thriller Writers Award, and the CILIP Carnegie Medal. His most recent story is the sci-fi audionovella Project Kawayan from Audible. Randy was born in the Philippines and raised in the United States. He earned his BA in English Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder and his Ed.M. in Language and Literacy from Harvard Graduate School of Education. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, son, and cat-like dog. For more information, visit RandyRibay.com.

Randy will be speaking about his work with Anamarie Navarro from APIEA, Chabot College. 

 

 

Northern California Book Award Winner
Tamim Ansary:
Memoir Master Class

Tamim Ansary

Tamim Ansary is an Afghan-American writer of fiction, memoir, and history.  He became famous after 9/11 for a viral email condemning the Taliban but also warning of the dangers of a full-scale war in Afghanistan.  He also facilitated the SF Writers Workshop for over 20 years.  His work has won the 2010 Northern California Book Award, been selected for San Francisco’s One City One Book read, and broadcast on NPR. Among his many books are The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000 Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection; Games without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan; West of Kabul, East of New York; and Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes. Ansary also edited and published a group of essays by young Afghans entitled, Snapshots: This Afghan American Life. For more information, visit MirTamimAnsary.com.

 

 

Native Nations Poetry Panel
with former SF Poet Laureate Kim Shuck & Jennifer Elise Foerster

Kim Schuck and Jennifer Foerster

Kim Shuck is a silly protein. Shuck was the 7th Poet Laureate of San Francisco. Kim has edited, co-edited, wandered through the editing meetings of ten-ish anthologies (depending upon publication dates which are very subject to change) and is solo author of another ten books of prose and/or poetry. Shuck’s latest volumes are: This Wandering State, an anthology of San Francisco Poets, Noodle, Rant, Tangent, a collection of short prose, and Exile Heart, a poetry collection. For more information, visit KimShuck.com.

 

Jennifer Elise Foerster is the author of three books of poetry, The Maybe-Bird, Bright Raft in the Afterweather, and Leaving Tulsa, and served as the Associate Editor of When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry. The recipient of a NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, she was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford, holds a PhD in Literary Arts from the University of Denver, and teaches Poetry at the Rainier Writing Workshop. Foerster grew up living internationally, is of European (German/Dutch) and Mvskoke descent, and is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma. She lives in San Francisco. For more information, visit JenniferFoerester.com.

Panel Moderated by Dean Rader

 

 

Talking to Paintings: The Art of Poetry & Poetry of Art with Dean Rader

Dean Rader

Dean Rader reads from his new book, Before the Borderless: Dialogues with the Art of Cy Twombly, followed by an ekphrastic poetry workshop. Dean Rader is a poet, art writer, scholar, and critic who has published widely in the fields of poetry, American Indigenous studies, modern and contemporary art, and visual culture. His debut collection of poems, Works & Days, won the 2010 T. S. Eliot Poetry Prize, was a finalist for the Bob Bush Memorial Award for a First Book of Poems, and won the 2010 Writer's League of Texas Poetry Prize. His follow-up book, Landscape Portrait Figure Form (Omnidawn), was named by the Barnes & Noble Review as one of the Best Poetry Books of 2013. His most recent solo project is Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry (Copper Canyon Press, 2017), a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award and the Northern California Book Award. For more information, visit DeanRader.com.

 

 

Feminist Writing Workshop with Judith Serin

Judith Serin and Gravity book

Judith Serin reads from her new book, Gravity, followed by a workshop on feminist writing. Serin's collection of poetry, Hiding in the World, was published by Diane di Prima's Eidolon Editions, and her Days Without (Sky): A Poem Tarot, seventy-eight short prose poems in the form of a tarot deck with illustration and book art design by Nikki Thompson, was published by Deconstructed Artichoke Press. Her fiction collection, Gravity, was published with Eyewear Publishing. She writes fiction and creative nonfiction as well as poetry, and her work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. She teaches literature and writing at California College of the Arts. For more information, visit JudithSerin.com.

 

 

Get Published! Tips & Tricks from Authors Who Have Lived to Tell the Tale
with Nancy Davis Kho and Tomás Moniz

Nancy Davis Kho and Tomás Moniz

Nancy Davis Kho is a speaker, author, and podcaster whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and NPR affiliate KQED. Nancy’s book THE THANK-YOU PROJECT: Cultivating Happiness One Letter of Gratitude at a Time was published by Running Press in December 2019. Nancy covers “the years between being hip and breaking one” at MidlifeMixtape.com and on the Midlife Mixtape Podcast, available on all major podcast platforms. The Midlife Mixtape Podcast won a 2020 Iris Award as Podcast of the Year and was included in Wall Street Journal’s list of 8 Podcasts for Anyone Nervously Facing Retirement. Nancy has been both champion and judge in the acclaimed international comedy-lit improv show, Literary Death Match. Nancy is from upstate New York and now lives with her husband and two daughters in Oakland, California. For more information, visit DavisKho.com.
 

Tomás Moniz is a father, writer, teacher, and performer. His debut novel Big Familia was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Debut Novel 2020 Award, a finalist for a LAMBDA 2020 award for Bisexual Fiction, and a finalist for the Foreword Review Indies Award! He edited Rad Dad, Rad Families, and the kids book Collaboration/Colaboración. He's an Artist Affiliate at the Headlands Center for the Arts. For more information, visit TomásMoniz.com.

 

 

 Catherine Ceniza Choy on Asian Americans in the U.S., Scholarly Writing & Publishing

Catherine Choy

Catherine Ceniza Choy is professor of ethnic studies and an associate dean of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice at UC Berkeley and the author of Asian American Histories of the United States, published by Beacon Press. The book features the themes of anti-Asian hate and violence, erasure of Asian American history, and Asian American resistance to what has been omitted in a nearly 200-year history of Asian migration, labor, and community formation in the US. Choy argues that Asian American experiences are essential to any understanding of US history and its existential crises of the early twenty-first century. She is also the author of Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History, Global Families: A History of Asian International Adoption in America, and Gendering the Trans-Pacific World. For more information, visit ethnicstudiesberkeley.edu.

Catherine Ceniza Choy will be in conversation with LPC and Chabot Ethnic Studies Professors Thien-Huong Ninh and Kay Fischer. 

 

 

The 20th Annual LPC Poetry Slam
"Speak Your Peace" with Bri and Tri

Bri Blue and Tri Spicer

The 20th annual LPC Poetry Slam will be hosted by Bri and Tri of Speak Easy Poetry and LPC's own Toby Bielawski. Featuring slam performances and an open mic with prizes. Open to the public. 
 
Bri Blue is an Author, Orator, Poet, Spoken Word Artist, Women's Rights Advocate, and Motivational Speaker hailing from Berkeley, CA. A UC Berkeley graduate, Blue's unique, high-energy, tailored performances connect emotion, entertainment, and inspiration to the goals, vision, and experiences of her audience. See videos of Bri Blue speaking here.
 
Natriece (Tri) Spicer is an author, educator & owner of The Inspired Life, a wellness consulting company. She wears a hat rack of titles easily compiled into her preferred term as the people’s person. Her latest project is the release of “The Inspired Life Podcast hosted by Natriece” available on ApplePodcast, Spotify, and everywhere things are being streamed! She often dreams of working from the coast of Africa someday. For now, she likes anything outdoors and lives in sunny California. See videos of Natriece Spicer speaking here.
 
Esperanza Cabrales
 

With special guest and past LPC Poetry Slam Award Winner Esperanza Cabrales!

Esperanza Cabrales is a Xicana poet from the 209 that fell in love with poetry in 2013 and has been writing ever since. Her work has been published in the 2021 edition of Havik: The Las Positas Journal of Arts and Literature and The Aesthetic Digital Magazine (where she was a former editor). She has a finished chapbook called "Can You See Her?" for which she is currently pursuing publication. Esperanza has performed throughout California from Stockton and Manteca to the bay and LA. She has featured in Stockton at Hatch Workshop, a makerspace for local artists.

 
 
 

Associated Collegiate Press Best of Show Winner
Havik: The Las Positas College Journal of Arts & Literature Publication and Awards Ceremony

Havik Trophies

Havik, the Las Positas College Journal of Arts & Literature, celebrates the release of its 2023 edition with live readings and presentations by contributors, as well as awards in the categories of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, visual art & photography, experimental work, and academic nonfiction. Founded by David A. Wright, the anthology has been published annually in various forms since 1978. Havik’s 2022 edition, "We Are Here," and 2021 edition, "Inside Brilliance," both received 1st place Best of Show in Literary Arts Magazines at the yearly Associated Collegiate Press national conventions. The in-person ceremony is open to all and will be streamed live online. For more information, visit the Havik website.

 

 

+ Music, Kids' Activities from Local Libraries, and Ampuli Indian Food and Crazy Empanadas Food Trucks!

Ampuli Indian Food TruckCrazy Empenada

 

 

Click Here to Register Now!

 

 

Learn More about Creative Writing at LPC:

Havik: The Las Positas College Journal of Arts & Literature

Creative Writing and Literature Courses

LPC Creative Writing Certificate

 

QUESTIONS? CONTACT US:

LPCLitFest@gmail.com 

 

Visit our Facebook Event Page to Register--Click "Going"

Click Here to Sponsor Our Festival

 

 

Thank you to Our Sponsors and to Donors like You!

 

The Las Positas College Literary Arts Festival is generously supported by grants from the Las Positas College Foundation; Las Positas College President’s Speakers Series and Dr. Dyrell Foster, LPC President; Las Positas College Asian American and Pacific Islander Interest Group and SEA Grant; City of Livermore: Office of Innovation & Economic Development and Commission for the Arts Grant; the Livermore Cultural Arts Center; the Milanese Family Gift Fund; and private donors.

THANK YOU!

 

LPC logo

 

LPC Foundation

 

Livermore Cultural Arts Council

 

File:City of Livermore logo.svg

 

 

 

LPC Literary Arts Festival Founders:

Professors Toby Bielawski, Richard Dry, Martin Nash, and Rifka Several

 

2022-23 Executive Board:

Toby Bielawski, Richard Dry, Martin Nash, Stella Del Rosario, and Michelle Gonzales

 

Previous Festivals Archive

 

Las Positas College

3000 Campus Hill Drive
Livermore, CA 94551
(925) 424-1000

  • Apply for Admission
  • Bookstore
  • Canvas
  • Contact
  • Jobs
  • Employer Services
  • Faculty & Staff Email
  • Student Email
  • CLASS-Web / MyPortal
  • Campus Map
  • Student Government
  • Document Viewers
  • Parking
  • Air Quality Map
  • Safety & Security
  • Campus Crime Statistics
  • Academic Senate
  • Curriculum Committee
  • Incident Referral Forms
  • Accreditation
  • Title IX
  • Accessibility
  • Disclaimers
  • Governing Board Agenda
  • HEERF Cares Act Reporting
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
Chabot-Las Positas Community College District
7600 Dublin Boulevard, 3rd Floor
Dublin, CA 94568
(925) 485-5208
Chabot College
25555 Hesperian Boulevard
Hayward, CA 94545
(510) 723-6600
© Copyright 2025 Las Positas College
©