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As part of LitHop 2024, hear performances from Fresno writers Victoria Monsivaiz, Stefan Leiva, David R. Carrasco-Gomez, and Guadalupe Salgado Partida.Time: 3 to 3:45 PM
Date: Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024
Place: Tower Yoga: The Lotus Room (626 E. Olive Ave., Fresno, CA 93728
Admission: Free
The educator and activist Andrés Montoya — described as “a field hand, ditch digger, canner, ice plant worker, and sometimes teacher of writing” — graduated from Fowler High and earned his bachelor’s degree from Fresno State. He died from leukemia in 1999 and left the world two poetry collections: “the ice worker sings and other poems,” and the posthumous “a jury of trees.” His legacy lives on through the Andrés Montoya Memorial Scholarships, supported by the Montoya family and awarded annually since 2000. Hear the voices of four Montoya Scholars as they traverse contemporary landscapes of identity, queerness, cultura, y chicanismo.
Reader bios:
Victoria Monsivaiz (she/her) is a second-generation Mexican American born in Denver, Colorado, raised in the Central Valley. She studies poetry in Fresno State’s M.F.A. Creative Writing Program, with an emphasis in publishing and editing. She has served as president of the Chicanx Writers and Artists Association (CWAA) and the student-run Latinx newspaper La Voz de Aztlán. She teaches poetry for the English Department as a teaching assistant. Her writing focuses on experiences growing up in a single-parent and multigenerational Mexican household, dissecting current and former familial bonds through a critical lens that navigates culture, identity, queerness, “second-parenting,” and traditional gender roles.
Stefan Leiva (he/him) is a queer fiction writer and digital illustrator. Born and raised in Fresno, he studies in Fresno State’s M.F.A. Creative Writing Program, focusing on queer stories, primarily queer young-adult fiction. He enjoys writing, drawing, reading, playing video games, and spending game nights and collaborative writing sessions with friends. Stefan is working toward becoming a creative writing instructor at the university level as well as a fiction novelist, since he cannot stop writing.
David R. Carrasco-Gomez (he/him) is a Fresno-born writer and artist. An incoming poetry student in Fresno State’s M.F.A. Creative Writing Program, he uses expressive practices and exploration to delve into the mysteries of consciousness and its relationship to and within the greater world. Themes of darkness and light emerge in his writing: addiction, existential unease, religious trauma, ecstasy, reclaiming the divine, creation of meaning, reveling in mystery, remembering the sublimity of the ever churning now. David workshops poetry with neighborhood cats, mockingbirds, and black widows, throughout the week ’round about midnight. The poet advocates ontological moods and freeform beatitudes for all.
Guadalupe Salgado Partida (she/her/they/them) is a bright-eyed 31-year-old who loves reading poetry and sauntering. She is an incoming poetry student in Fresno State’s M.F.A. Creative Writing Program, and she has received support from VONA/Voices. When she is not working on writing, she meditates and enjoys the world around her.
Info: https://www.lithopfresno.org
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Tower Yoga: The Lotus Room (626 E. Olive Ave., Fresno, CA 93728), United States
