Name: An Evening with Luis Alberto Urrea
Start: 2026-04-17T19:30:00-07:00
Location: Shasta College

Join us for an evening with acclaimed author and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Luis Alberto Urrea!
April 17th at 7:30pm in Room 400 (Building 400). This reading will kick off the Creative Writing Festival, set for the following day on April 18th, where Luis will also be leading a workshop. https://www.facebook.com/events/25853741317659313/
Hailed by NPR as a "literary badass" and a "master storyteller with a rock and roll heart," Luis Alberto Urrea is a prolific and acclaimed writer who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss, and triumph. A 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and a Guggenheim fellow, Urrea is the critically acclaimed and best-selling author of 19 books, winning numerous awards for his poetry, fiction, and essays. Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and American mother, Urrea is most recognized as a border writer, though he says, "I am more interested in bridges, not borders."
Urrea's newest book, "Good Night, Irene," takes as inspiration his mother's own Red Cross service. With its affecting and uplifting portrait of friendship and valor in harrowing circumstances, "Good Night, Irene" powerfully demonstrates yet again that Urrea's "gifts as a storyteller are prodigious" (NPR).
"The Hummingbird’s Daughter," his 2005 historical novel, tells the story of Urrea's great-aunt Teresa Urrea, sometimes known as the Saint of Cabora and the Mexican Joan of Arc. The book, which involved 20 years of research and writing, won the Kiriyama Prize in fiction and, along with "The Devil's Highway," was named a best book of the year by many publications.