Fresno State's Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing presents an evening with graduate degree candidates Hermelinda Hernandez Monjaras, sami h. tripp, Brian Rojas, and Alberto Saldaña Uribe. This reading is one of three MFA showcase performances for 2023-24.

Time: 6:30 to 8:30 PM
Date: Friday, February 16, 2024
Place: Alice Peters Auditorium (PB 191) on campus

Admission: Free
Reception to follow.

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Hermelinda Hernandez Monjaras is a Zapoteca from Oaxaca, Mexico. She's an aspiring poeta, currently pursuing her Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing (poetry) at Fresno State. She is a graduate artist in Juan Felipe Herrera's Laureate Lab Visual Wordist Studio, and she has received a fellowship from the Community of Writers. Her poetry has appeared in Small Press Traffic, Acentos Review, Zone 3, Poets.org, Honey Literary, The Ana, Voicemail Poems, and elsewhere.

sami h. tripp is a queer hyphenate who is constantly in awe of the ways science and magic braid together. Influenced by their mixed identities, they are working and writing towards reconnection with ancestors past and present. They are privileged to be currently learning, creating, and communing with Yokuts land. Their poetry can be found in Bramble Lit Mag, Blue Heron Review, and Saints and Sinners: New Poetry from the Festival 2023 anthology.

Brian Rojas is an MFA candidate in poetry from the San Fernando Valley. He studied Studio Art at UC Davis, focusing on painting, Chicano muralism, and screenprinting. Drawing from his studies in art, religion, Mesoamerican art, and Mexicayotl, Brian explores land, ancestry, and movement through abstract, visual, and narrative poetry. Brian lives in Porterville and plans to work in education after graduating. He is eternally grateful for the love and support of his wife Raquel and their two year-old Joaquín Tochtli, without both of whom he would not be writing and with whom he has found his rinconcito en el cielo.

Alberto Saldaña Uribe is a high school dropout, college graduate, and currently studying poetry in the MFA program at Fresno State. Raised by storytellers inside lively kitchens, he learned at an early age how meals can preserve ancestry. Tracing oral legacies in ink, his family is the vital ingredient of his writing. By balancing hand-me-down recipes with his own seasoning of equal parts grief and hope, his work is his contribution to the table. Find him on Instagram: @titioso98

All attendees are strongly encouraged to wear a mask when indoors. Visit Covid.FresnoState.edu for current campus health updates.

Parking is free after 5 PM in Lots P5 and P6, east of the Peters Business building. (Campus map)

All participants are welcome. For disability related accommodations or access information, please contact Brynn Saito at bsaito@mail.fresnostate.edu or 559.278.1569. Requests should be made at least one week in advance of the event.