Writer's Week

Angela Morales is the author of The Girls in My Town, a collection of personal essays, winner of the PEN Diamonstein-Spielvogel award for the Art of the Essay and the River Teeth Book Prize. Her creative nonfiction and essays have appeared in publications such as Best American Essays, The Los Angeles Review, The Harvard Review, and others. Currently, she teaches creative writing and composition at Glendale Community College as well as Antioch University and holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program.

Artist Website: https://www.angelamorales.net
Instagram: @professorbgirl
X: @professorbgirl

Vanessa Martir, a multi-genre writer and editor, is the founder of the Writing Our Lives Workshop and the Writing the Mother Wound Movement. She is a 2021 Letras Boricuas fellow, and her work has been widely published, including in The NY Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, Longreads, The Rumpus, and the anthologies Not That Bad, edited by Roxane Gay and So We Can Know, edited by Aracelis Girmay. When she’s not writing or teaching, you can find Vanessa hiking an old growth forest.

Artist Website: vanessamartir.com
Instagram: @vanessa_loba
Facebook: Writer Vanessa Mártir
X: @ Vanessa_LaLoba

Bojan Louis is Diné of the Naakai dine’é, born for the Áshííhí. He is the author of the short-story collection, Sinking Bell (Graywolf Press 2022), the poetry collection Currents (BkMk Press 2017), and the nonfiction chapbook Troubleshooting Silence in Arizona (The Guillotine Series 2012). His work can also be found in Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers, When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, Native Voices Anthology, and The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature. His honors include a MacDowell Fellowship, a 2018 American Book Award, a 2023 National Endowments for the Arts Literature Fellowship, and a 2023 American Book Award. In addition to teaching at the Institute for American Indian Arts, Louis is an associate professor in the Creative Writing MFA and American Indian Studies programs at the University of Arizona.

Artist Website: https://bojanlouis.com/
Instagram: @bogila_libros

Casandra M. López is a California Indian (Tongva/Luiseño/Cahuilla) and Chicana writer who has received support from CantoMundo, Bread Loaf, and Tin House. She’s the author of the poetry collection, Brother Bullet, and has been selected for residencies with Storyknife, Hedgebrook, and Headlands Center for the Arts. Her memoir-in-progress, A Few Notes on Grief, was granted a 2019 James W. Ray Venture Project Award. She is an assistant professor at UC San Diego.

Instagram: @casandramlopez
X: @casandramlopez

Sterling HolyWhiteMountain is a Jones lecturer at Stanford University, where he formerly held a Stegner fellowship. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The Paris Review. He is an unrecognized citizen of the Blackfeet Nation.

X: @MrHWM

All workshop materials and handouts are covered by the lab fee.

Laptop, paper, and favorite writing utensils!

The program will begin with an all program mixer on Sunday, 6/23, where you will have an opportunity to meet your classmates, as well as participants in other adult programs for the week.

Workshops will begin Monday morning, 6/24, with a brief orientation starting at 8:30 am. Workshops run daily from 9 am- 5 pm, with a lunch hour from 12-1 pm.

Monday nights will feature an opening reception at the Parks Exhibition Gallery, featuring work from our very own summer faculty!

Sessions may vary by instructor, but attendees can expect to participate in one-on-one instruction, daily craft talks, and evening lectures/ readings. Students can also attend readings and lectures hosted by our other programs on campus throughout the week.

The week will culminate with a participant reading and farewell reception.

The Native American Arts Center at Idyllwild Arts is thrilled to extend an invitation to Indigenous writers to participate in the 2024 Writers Week. Fellowship applications can be accessed using the links below. Last day to apply is Friday, May 10th!
Poetry Fellowship ApplicationFiction / Creative Nonfiction / Memoir Fellowship Application