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Join the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) from Sunday, January 4, through Wednesday, January 7, 2026, as the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (MFACW) program presents the January Evening Reading Series. Visiting writers, acclaimed for their work in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and screenwriting, will read and perform alongside several of our full-time mentors. Each evening will engage audiences with poetry, memoir, or fiction from some of today’s most vibrant and vital voices.We are pleased to invite the public to attend the January Evening Reading Series events, held in the CLE Commons Room 201 on the IAIA campus at 83 Avan Nu Po Road, Santa Fe, NM 87508.
All readings are open to the public and free of charge, and will be held in person and virtually via livestream on the IAIA website and Facebook. See links below to watch the livestreams.
We hope to see you there! For questions, please contact IAIA MFACW Program Coordinator Veronica Bustamante at [email protected].
Evening Reading Series Events
Sunday, January 4 at 6:00 pm (MST): Readings by Joseph V. Lee (Aquinnah Wampanoag), Sherwin Bitsui (Diné), and Chip Livingston (Mixed-blood Creek)—CLE Commons, IAIA Campus
Monday, January 5 at 6:00 pm (MST): Readings by Kim Blaeser (White Earth Nation), Pam Houston, and Layli Long Soldier (Oglala Lakota Nation)—CLE Commons, IAIA Campus
Tuesday, January 6 at 6:00 pm (MST): Readings by Arthur Sze, current Poet Laureate of the United States (Second generation Chinese American) and Simon Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo)—Performing Arts and Fitness Center, IAIA Campus
Wednesday, January 7 at 6:00 pm (MST): Readings by Shane Hawk (Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes of OK), Bojan Louis (Diné), and Kelli Jo Ford (Cherokee Nation)—CLE Commons, IAIA Campus
Biographies
Shane Hawk (Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma) is a horror writer and contributing editor at Counterpoint Press. His debut collection, Anoka, was released in 2020 and contributed to the growing wave of Indigenous Horror reshaping the genre. Hawk is widely known as the co-editor of the bestselling anthology series Never Whistle at Night. He has also co-written a horror stage play titled The Land Has Spoken and has an original television series in development. He lives in San Diego, California, with his wife and daughter. For further information, please visit shanehawk.com.
Bojan Louis (Diné) is a poet, essayist, short story writer, and mentor in the MFACW program at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). He is the author of the short story collection Sinking Bell, the poetry collection Currents, and the nonfiction chapbook Troubleshooting Silence in Arizona. His work can 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; and The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature. Louis has received a MacDowell Fellowship and a 2018 American Book Award.
Kelli Jo Ford is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Her debut novel-in-stories, Crooked Hallelujah, was longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, The Story Prize, the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, The Dublin Literary Award, and The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. She is the recipient of an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, The Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize, a Native Arts & Cultures Foundation National Artist Fellowship, an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant, and a Dobie Paisano Fellowship. She teaches writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts.
MFA in Creative Writing
The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is designed as a two-year program with two intensive week-long residencies per year (summer and winter) at IAIA. Students and faculty mentors gather for a week of workshops, lectures, and readings. At the end of the residency week, each student is matched with a faculty mentor, who then works one-on-one with the student for the semester. IAIA’s program is unique in that we emphasize the importance of Indigenous writers speaking to the Indigenous experience. The literature we read carries a distinct Native American and First Nations emphasis. The MAFCW offers four areas of emphasis: poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and screenwriting.
The deadline to apply for the 2026 academic year is February 1 at 5:00 pm (MST).
https://iaia.edu/event/2026-mfacw-january-evening-reading-series-hawk-louis-ford/
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), 47 A van NU Po, Santa Fe, NM 87508, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
