My Calendar

Events in May 2022

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May 1, 2022
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May 21, 2022(1 event)

1:00 pm: Friends of the Riverside Public Library Annual Meeting Featuring Susan Straight


May 21, 2022

Saturday, May 21, 2022

Friends of the Riverside Public Library Annual Meeting Featuring Susan Straight

Free and open to the public • Saturday May 21, 2022 • 1 PM doors open

2 PM reading & conversation

Riverside Public Library
3900 Mission Inn Ave • Riverside, CA 92501

“to us it felt truly magical.” — Susan Straight on growing up with the Riverside Public Library

On May 21, join the Friends of the Riverside Public Library for an afternoon of camaraderie and conversation with acclaimed Riverside author, Susan Straight, who will be reading from her new novel, Mecca. In addition, participate in a silent auction, enjoy refreshments, and learn more about the Friends of the Library. Susan Straight is the author of eight novels, including the national bestseller Highwire Moon, a finalist for the National Book Award, and A Million Nightingales, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, as well as the memoir In the Country of Women, named a best book of 2019 by NPR. She is the recipient of the Edgar Award for Best Short Story, the O. Henry Prize, the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and her stories and essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, Granta, Harper’s Magazine, and elsewhere. She was born and continues to live with her family in Riverside, California, where she is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside.

The Friends donate time and resources to help fund materials and programs by operating the BOOKSTORE located on the first floor of the new main library in downtown Riverside. They encourage reading and a love of books by supporting programs like Inlandia at Arts Walk and work in tandem with the library board of trustees Riverside Public Library Foundation to promote excellence in the library system. Their annual meeting is an opportunity to engage with a distinguished local author.

In Mecca, the celebrated novelist Susan Straight crafts an unforgettable American epic, examining race, history, family, and destiny through the interlocking stories of a group of native Californians all gasping for air. With sensitivity, furor, and a cinematic scope that captures California in all its injustice, history, and glory, she tells a story of the American West through the eyes of the people who built it―and continue to sustain it. As the stakes get higher and the intertwined characters in Mecca slam against barrier after barrier, they find that when push comes to shove, it’s always better to push back.

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May 31, 2022
June 1, 2022
June 2, 2022
June 3, 2022(1 event)

4:00 pm: Revising and Submitting Your Writing for Publication with Cati Porter


June 3, 2022

Alternating Fridays, June 3 – July 29, 2020

4:00-5:00 PM on Zoom

Revising and Submitting Your Writing for Publication

with Cati Porter

FREE as part of the Inlandia Creative Writing Workshops program

Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/Inlandia-Rev-Sub

You have begun to tentatively call yourself a writer, but you don’t know how to take that next step and get your work published. Or you’ve been published but you need some accountability to kick start your summer submissions. Or maybe you have lots of drafts that could use some polishing, or even some dusting off if they’ve been in that proverbial desk drawer. In this workshop you will be given the tools and the time to work toward publication. Please note: This is NOT a writing workshop. It is recommended that at the start of the workshop you have no fewer than ten pieces of writing you would like to revise and submit.

This workshop will meet virtually every other week for five weeks but there will also be optional coaching and mentorship via email check-ins to report on progress and office hours to work one-on-one with Cati via email, Zoom, or phone, by appointment.

Inlandia Institute Executive Director Cati Porter has been publishing prose and poetry in magazines, newspapers, literary journals, and anthologies for thirty years. She is the author of ten poetry collections published with a variety of independent and nonprofit publishers. She has hosted panel discussions and roundtables on publishing, led workshops for children, teens, and adults, and conducted professional development workshops for teachers teaching poetry. She is a native of Southern California where she lives with her family.

June 4, 2022