Poetry Without Borders

From the organizers:
Join us at "Poetry Without Borders," a reading of joy, defiance, and the American experience.

Featured readers are:

KAZIM ALI was born in the United Kingdom and has lived transnationally in the United States, Canada, India, France, and the Middle East. His books encompass multiple genres, including the volumes of poetry Inquisition, Sky Ward, winner of the Ohioana Book Award in Poetry; The Far Mosque, winner of Alice James Books’ New England/New York Award; The Fortieth Day; All One’s Blue; and the cross-genre texts Bright Felon and Wind Instrument. His novels include the recently published The Secret Room: A String Quartet and among his books of essays are the hybrid memoir Silver Road: Essays, Maps & Calligraphies and Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice. He is also an accomplished translator (of Marguerite Duras, Sohrab Sepehri, Ananda Devi, Mahmoud Chokrollahi and others) and an editor of several anthologies and books of criticism. After a career in public policy and organizing, Ali taught at various colleges and universities, including Oberlin College, Davidson College, St. Mary's College of California, and Naropa University. He is currently a Professor of Literature at the University of California, San Diego. His newest books are a volume of three long poems entitled The Voice of Sheila Chandra and a memoir of his Canadian childhood, Northern Light.

KARLA CORDERO is a descendant of the Chichimeca people from Northern Mexico, a Chicana poet, educator, and ARTtivist, raised along the borderlands of Calexico, CA. She is a three-time Pushcart nominee and offered fellowships from California Arts, VONA, Macondo, CantoMundo, The Loft Literary Center, Community of Writers and Pink Door Writing Retreat. Karla teaches creative writing and composition at MiraCosta College and San Diego City College, receiving recognitions such as the San Diego State University Global Diversity Award and Associate Faculty of the Year for education and social justice. Her commitment to bridging education and community is further practiced as founder of Voice 4 Change: a spoken word showcase, inviting nationally award winning writers to share their narratives of survival and celebration for diversity through performance and workshop facilitation. Karla is the editor of SpitJournal an online literary review for poetry and social justice and the CFO and Social Justice Equity Coordinator for the non-profit Glassless Minds, an open mic venue in Oceanside, CA, serving historically underserved youth. In addition, as a performing artist, Karla is the 2013 Grand Slam Champion, aiding the Elevated San Diego Slam Team to rank 4th in the nation at the National Poetry Slam Competition. She has been invited to perform for television networks such as NBC 7 San Diego Art Pulse, TBN Juice Live, and the Old Globe Theater. Her poems have appeared in NPR, Academy of American Poets: Poem-a-day, O-Oprah Magazine, PANK, Bettering American Poetry, Latino Book Review, the Bernie Sanders 2020 Campaign Rally, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4. LatiNEXT Anthology, among other publications. Karla is the author of the chapbook, Grasshoppers Before Gods (Dancing Girl Press 2016) and her first full length collection titled, How To Pull Apart The Earth (NOT A CULT.) is a 2019 San Diego Book Award winner and awarding-winning finalist for the 2019 International Latino Book Award and the International Book Award. You can follow her work @karlaflaka13

BLAS FALCONER is the author of 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); and The Perfect Hour (Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press, 2006). 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). He teaches in the MFA program at San Diego State University. Falconer’s awards include a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 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. Born and raised in Virginia, Falconer earned an M.F.A. from the University of Maryland (1997) and a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston (2002). He currently lives in Los Angeles, California with his family.

ARTHUR KAYZAKIAN is the winner of the 2021 Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series award for his collection, The Book of Redacted Paintings, which was also selected as a finalist for the 2021 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. He is the recipient of a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is also the winner of the Finishing Line Press Open Chapbook Competition for his chapbook, My Burning City. He has been a finalist for the Locked Horn Press Chapbook Prize, Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize, the C.D. Wright Prize, the Sunken Garden Poetry Prize, and the Black River Chapbook Competition. He is a contributing editor at Poetry International and a recipient of the Minas Savvas Fellowship. He serves as the Poetry Chair for the International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA). His work has appeared in or is forthcoming from several publications including Taos Journal of International Poetry & Art, Portland Review, Chicago Review, Nat. Brut, Michigan Quarterly Review, Witness Magazine, and Prairie Schooner.

Hosted by WILLIAM NERICIO. The Director of San Diego State University's longest-running Interdisciplinary and Cultural Studies graduate program, MALAS (the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences program), William Nericcio is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at SDSU, where he also serves on the faculties of Chicana/o Studies and the Center for Latin American Studies. Nericcio's first book, Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of "Mexicans" in America, appeared with the University of Texas Press in February 2007. His next book, an edited anthology of playwright Oliver Mayer's early works entitled The Hurt Business appeared in April of 2008 and his follow-up to that, Homer from Salinas: John Steinbeck's Enduring Voice for California, on the work of John Steinbeck (with a strong California focus), appeared in March, 2009. Publishing in various fields across the humanities and social sciences, Nericcio is the author of noteworthy essays including his lurid meditations on the life of Pee-wee Herman (aka Paul Reubens) in the Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies and an illustrated survey of the cool comic Mestizo stylings of Gilbert Hernandez and his spiritual godmother, Frida Kahlo, for NYU Press's Latino Popular Culture. Links to these works and more are available on his World Wide Web Mothership while his latest blog entries on stereotypes and American mass culture can be found on The Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog and at mextasy.blogspot.com. Lastly, Nericcio's latest books, Talking #browntv: Latinas and Latinos on the Screen, co-authored with Frederick Luis Aldama (December 2019), for the Ohio State University Press and Cultural Studies in the Digital Age: An Anthology of 21st Century Interdisciplinary Inquiries, Postulations, and Findings for Hyperbole Books, co-edited with Dr. Aldama and Italian semiotician Antonio Rafele (January 2021), are now in print. Learn more about Dr. Nericcio published work on Amazon.com and Academia.edu.

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