At the Living Writers Series, students, faculty, and community members come together to hear visiting writers read and talk about their work, and learn about the creative process from an artist working in the field. Hosted by the Literature Department’s Creative Writing Program, each event in the Living Writers Series features a contemporary writer reading their work, then engaging with the audience.
The goal of these events is to introduce students (and community members) to new writing and the many ways of being a writer in the world. The series serves as the central meeting place for UCSC’s creative writing community: faculty, graduate students, undergraduates and members of the public. Faculty organize the author visits, undergraduate interns serve as event hosts, and graduate students introduce the writers. The series is co-sponsored by many organizations, including The Puknat Literary Endowment, The Porter Hitchcock Poetry Fund, the Laurie Sain Endowment, The Humanities Institute, and Bookshop Santa Cruz, which sells the writers’ books.
The series is offered in conjunction with creative writing workshop courses at UCSC, giving creative writing students the opportunity to see how the lessons they learn in the classroom can be applied in the wider literary world. In this way, students learn creative techniques not only from their instructors and classmates, but also from authors practicing their art in the industry. Each series also includes one event featuring an undergraduate in the Creative Writing program as the main guest.
