Please join the Creative Writing MFA program in welcoming our special guests from our partners in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts!
READING Thursday, March 21 at 6 pm - Butler Building #4 - Deborah Taffa and Raquel Gutiérrez | Reception to follow. More info.
TALK Friday, March 22 at 10 am - Zoom - Layli Long Soldier | Email amccann@calarts.edu or csartistcoordinator@calarts.edu for link. More info.
SALON riday, March 22 at 1 pm - Langley - Deborah Taffa and Raquel Gutiérrez | Discussion of the week's events and IAIA/CalArts Partnership
Deborah Jackson Taffa’s debut book, Whiskey Tender, forthcoming from HarperCollins on Feb 27, 2024, has received widespread advanced praise. With fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in Prose (2024), PEN America, MacDowell, Rona Jaffe, and the NY State Summer Writer’s Institute, Deborah received her MFA from the NWP at the University of Iowa. Editor in Chief at River Styx magazine, she is the director of the MFA CW program at the Institute of American Indian Arts and splits her time between Saint Louis, MO, and Santa Fe, NM. She is a citizen of the Yuma Nation and Laguna Pueblo.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Gutiérrez is a critic, essayist, poet, performer, and educator. Their debut book, Brown Neon, garnered critical acclaim, being named one of the best books of 2022 by The New Yorker and listed among “The Best Art Books of 2022” by Hyperallergic. Notably, Brown Neon was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Prize for Best Lesbian Biography/Memoir in 2023 and received The Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction. They currently teach at the Oregon State University-Cascades Low Residency Creative Writing MFA Program and the IAIA Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program.
Layli Long Soldier is the author of the chapbook Chromosomory (2010) and the full-length collection Whereas (2017), which won the National Books Critics Circle award and was a finalist for the National Book Award. She was awarded a Whiting Writer’s Award in 2016. Most recently, Long Soldier was involved with the documentary, Lakota Nation versus The United States. Voicing the unspeakable with the lyrical power of two of her poems, “135 Xs” and “38,” she recited her work throughout the film. She also read sections of the actual treaties that underscore the dual power of words to also obfuscate. Long Soldier is a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.