The Institute of American Indian Arts’ (IAIA) Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing program presents the 2019 Summer Readers Gathering—July 20–27, 2019. Readings will take place each night beginning at 6:00 pm in the Auditorium in the Library and Technology Center (LTC) on the IAIA campus. For directions and a map of the IAIA Campus, please visit www.iaia.edu/visit. All readings are free and open to the public.

Esther Belin

Esther Belin

Esther Belin (Diné) is a multimedia artist and writer. She is the author of two collections of poetry, From the Belly of My Beauty (1999), which won the American Book Award form the Before Columbus Foundation, and Cartography (2017). She is a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts and the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in Durango, Colorado.

Derek Palacio

Derek Palacio

Derek Palacio received his MFA in Creative Writing from Ohio State University. His short story Sugarcane appeared in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2013, and his novella, How to Shake the Other Man, was published by Nouvella Books. His debut novel, The Mortifications, was published in 2016 by Tim Duggan Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group. He is the co-director, with Claire Vaye Watkins, of the Mojave School, a free creative writing workshop for teenagers in rural Nevada. He lives and teaches in Ann Arbor, MI.

Marie-Helene Bertino

Marie-Helene Bertino

Marie-Helene Bertino is the author of the novel 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas and the story collection Safe as Houses, and was the 2017 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Fellow in Cork, Ireland. Her work has received The O. Henry Prize, The Pushcart Prize, The Iowa Short Fiction Award, The Mississippi Review Story Prize, and has twice been featured on NPR’s Selected Shorts. She teaches at NYU, The New School, and Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM, and lives in Brooklyn, where she was the Associate Editor for One Story and Catapult. Her third book, Parakeet, is forthcoming from FSG in Spring 2020. For more information, please visit at www.mariehelenebertino.com.

Schedule of Readings

Participating in the gathering this year are noted writers Layli Long Soldier (Oglala Lakota), Abigal Chabitnoy (Unangan/Sugpiaq), and E.C. Onsondu—as well as IAIA MFA faculty members Ramona Ausubel, Esther Belin (Diné), Marie-Helene Bertino, Sherwin Bitsui (Diné), Cherie Dimaline (Métis), Jennifer Elise Foerster (Muscogee [Creek] Nation of Oklahoma), Santee Frazier (Cherokee), Geoff Harris, Pam Houston, Toni Jensen (Métis), Kristiana Kahakauwila (Native Hawaiian/German/Norwegian), Chip Livingston (Creek), Derek Palacio, Brooke Swaney Pepion (Blackfeet Tribal Member and Salish Descendent), and Ken White.

“The 2019 IAIA MFACW brings together a diverse range of voices working in the literary arts. We welcome readings by new mentors Esther Belin (Diné) and Brooke Swaney Pepion (Blackfeet Tribal Member and Salish Descendent). Featured writers include emerging poet Abby Chabitnoy (Unangan/Sugpiaq), Nigerian fiction writer E.C. Osondu, and renowned poet and visual artist Layli Long Soldier (Oglala Lakota). This year, with the appointment of Joy Harjo (Mvskoke) as US Poet Laureate, we celebrate the integral contributions made by Indigenous Women to World Literature.”
—MFA Program Director Santee Frazier (Cherokee)

Free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Santee Frazier at (505) 424-2365 or mfa@iaia.edu. Support for these events is provided by the Lannan Foundation and New Mexico Arts. Partially funded by the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission and the 1% Lodgers Tax.