Writer's Voice

Funded by contributions from alumni and friends, the Department of English, and the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, Writer’s Voice introduces contemporary writers to citizens of the North Valley. All readings are free and open to the public.

Follow Writer's Voice on Facebook for more information about upcoming events.

Fall 2025 Series

Ibe Liebenberg, Poetry

Thursday, September 25 | 7:30 pm | ARTS 150

Ibe Liebenberg is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. He lives in Paradise, California and works as a firefighter and a lecturer at Chico State University. He is a graduate of the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in both poetry and fiction. His debut poetry collection, Birds at Night (Texas Tech UP, 2025), won the Sowell Emerging Writers Prize. He has been published in POETRY Magazine, The ThreePenny Review, Ecotone, North American Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Sugar House Review, American Journal of Poetry, and Salamander Magazine. Liebenberg’s honors include ranking as finalist for the James Welch Poetry contest, Winner of the Tribal College Journals Creative writing contest in both fiction and poetry, and Winner of 2024 Joy Harjo Poetry Prize.

Fred Aroyyo, Creative Nonfiction Reading

Associate Professor of Creative Writing
Middle Tennessee State University

Co-sponsored by the Chico State Women’s Philanthropy Council and The Chico State Humanities Center

Wednesday, October 15 | 7:30 pm | ARTS 150

Dr. Arroyo will read selections from new and published work, including his most recent collection: Sown in Earth: Essays of Memory and Belonging.

Fred Arroyo is the author of Alba and Other Songs, winner of the 3rd Gunpowder Press Alta California Chapbook Prize, published in a bilingual edition (2024). His Sown in Earth:Essays of Memory and Belonging was shortlisted for 2021-2022 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. He is also the author of Western Avenue and Other Fictions (also shortlisted for the Saroyan Prize), and The Regionof Lost Names—all three of these titles with the University of Arizona Press. His writing has appeared in the anthologies Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing and The Colors of Nature: Essays on Culture, Identity and the Natural World. Fred’s Emigrant Creek and Other Songs (poems) will appear with Letras Latinas / Red Hen Press Collaborative in 2027. He’s also working on a collection of short fictions, The Book of Manuels.

Grant Faulkner, Fiction

Wednesday, November 5 | 7:30 pm | ARTS 150

Grant Faulkner is the co-founder of Memoir Nation, the co-founder of 100 Word Story, an executive producer on America’s Next Great Author, and the former Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

He has published three books on writing: The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story; Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo; and Brave the Page, a teen writing guide.

He’s also published All the Comfort Sin Can Provide, a collection of short stories, Fissures, a collection of 100-word stories, and Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story.

His “flash novel,” something out there in the distance, a collaboration with the photographer Gail Butensky, is coming out in September 2025 with the University of New Mexico Press.

His stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, including Tin House, The Southwest Review, and The Gettysburg Review, and he has been anthologized in collections such as Norton’s Flash Fiction America; New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction; and in several editions of the annual Best Small Fictions and Best Microfiction anthologies.

His essays on creativity have been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Lit Hub, Writer’s Digest, and The Writer. He serves on the National Writing Project Writers Council, Litquake’s board of directors, the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Words’ Creative Council, and Left Margin Lit’s Advisory Board.

Past Events

List of Previous Speakers

Spring 2025

• Diana Koi Nguyen- poetry
• Sarah Pape- poetry
• Rob Davidson- fiction
• Annie Wenstrup- poetry

Fall 2024

• Stephen D. Gutierrez- fiction
• Anna Moore- fiction
• Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj- poetry

Spring 2024

• Farnaz Fatemi- poetry
• Bonnie Tsui- nonfiction

Fall 2023

• Andrea Ross- memoir
• Keenan Norris- fiction

Spring 2023

• Yesika Salgado - Poetry
• Henry Hughes - Poetry
• Caroline Kim - Fiction

Fall 2022

• Author Jean Hegland & Graphic Novel Artist Loming
• Anna B. Moore - Fiction
• Alondra Adame - Poetry & Creative Nonfiction
• Rae Gouirand - Poetry
• Sarah Pape - Creative Nonfiction
• Graduate Student Reading - Poetry & Fiction

Spring 2022

• Nicole Stellon O'Donnell - Poetry

Fall 2021

• Tom Lin - Fiction

Spring 2021

• Lia Purpura

Fall 2020

• Fred Arroyo

Fall 2019

• Juan Alvarado Valdivia
• Peg Alford Pursell
• Nancy Au
• Ingrid Keriotis

Spring 2019

• Jamel Brinkley - Fiction
• Mai Der Vang - Fiction, Creative Nonfiction & Poetry
• Rob Davidson - Fiction
• Jose Antonio Rodriguez - Poetry & Creative Nonfiction

Fall 2018

• Michelle Tea - Poetry
• Lynn Freed - Nonfiction

Spring 2018

• Sasha Pimentel - Poetry
• Beth Spencer - Poetry
• Ryan Van Meter - Nonfiction
• Luke Davies - Poetry/Fiction

Fall 2017

• Graduate Student Reading - Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction
• Naomi Williams - Fiction
• Mary Troy - Fiction
• Rob Davidson - Fiction

Spring 2017

• Neal Snidow - Fiction

Fall 2016

• Graduate Student Reading - Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction
• Martha Collins - Poetry

Spring 2016

• Louis B. Jones - Fiction
• Sean Hill - Poetry

Fall 2015

• Christian Kiefer - Fiction
• George Keithley - Fiction

Spring 2015

• Carole Simmons Oles - Poetry 
• Chris Cokinos - Creative Nonfiction
• Dimitri Keriotis - Fiction
• Gary Thompson - Poetry and Fiction
• Matthew Frank - Creative Nonfiction
• Steve Gutierrez - Poetry and Fiction

Fall 2014

• Joan Frank - Fiction & Nonfiction
• Wendy C. Ortiz - Memoir
• Doug Rice - Fiction & Nonfiction

Spring 2014

• Joanne Harris Allred - Poetry
• Dr. Daryl Farmer - Nonfiction
• Brian Turner - Poetry & Memoir

Fall 2013

• Brenda Hillman - Poetry
• Jon Raymond - Fiction
• Peggy Shumaker - Poetry

Spring 2013

• Martha Collins - Poetry
• Henry Hughes - Poetry
• Patricia Ann McNair - Fiction

Fall 2012

• Fred Arroyo - Fiction
• Nick Flynn - Poetry & Memoir
• Rae Gouirand - Poetry
• Andrew Lam - Fiction
• Martin Puchner

Spring 2012

• Camille T. Dungy - Poetry
• Steven Edwards - Nonfiction
• Troy Jollimore - Poetry

Fall 2011

• Jeanne Clark - Poetry

Spring 2011

• Laleh Khadivi - Fiction
• Sally McNall - Poetry
• Carol Sklenicka - Fiction & Biography
• Rob Magnuson Smith - Fiction