The Literary Arts Festival is a Grossmont College event that is held each year, sponsored by the Grossmont College Creative Writing program and English Department. The festival is a four-day event where different poets, authors and writers share their wisdom and ways the students could improve their writing skills, and are even given the opportunity to showcase their talents that they’ve been working on throughout the semester.
Monday April 29, was the beginning of the festival, where the first event was a seminar title Why Literature Matters, where a panel of faculty administers and students discussed the importance of literature in their lives and Grossmont College. Grossmont College Student Cassady Lynch shared her story on why literature mattered to her. Later on that night a student reading was held where students who were picked from their English and creative writing professors to perform readings that they’ve worked on during the semester.
On April 30, a literary performance was held, where actors Walter Ritter and Veronica Murphy selected different California authors and works and performed them. The second event was a presentation held by SDSU Comparative Literature Professor William Anthony Nericco in which he presented his book Tex(t) Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of The “Mexican” America, where he recited his different works of his life as a Mexican American.
On May 1st , started off with American Student Literature and English students reading their works that were inspired by Tobias Wolff. The event continued along with a discussion of Wolff’s works and contributions to the short story genre, and the night ended with Wolff himself, where he read some of his works and signed books for students and faculty.
On May 2, was the last day of the festival with a reading and lecture on paranormal literature. The day continued with Judy Reeves, an author of A Writer’s Book of Days and also the originator of San Diego Writers Ink, a non profit organization for writers where they provide workshops, writing classes, and much more. Reeves discussed different topics of what San Diego Writers Ink has to offer to writers. The night ended with a reading and signing of the book Lantern Tree: Four Books of Poems. The book was developed by poets local San Diego poets Chris Baron, Heather Eudy, Cali Linfor and Sabrina Youmans the book was published in San Diego.
