[Cancelled] Celebrating 50 Years of Collaboration: UC Irvine and the Community of Writers


 UCI Illuminations     Apr 30 2020 | 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM HG 1030

In an abundance of caution and to ensure social distancing during the COVID-19 outbreak, this event has been cancelled.

Celebrating Two Communities:
Fifty Years of Writing Collaboration between UC Irvine’s MFA Program and the Community of Writers



Join alumni and staff of both the UC Irvine creative writing fiction and poetry program and the Community of Writers for a joyful reunion commemorating parallel success stories over five decades. This spring 2020 event includes archival photographs, special guests and addresses from outstanding alumni of both programs to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the co-founding of these two landmark California institutions: the Community of Writers summer writing workshops in Squaw Valley, and the UC Irvine M.F.A. writing program.



Featuring a keynote by poet, novelist and memoirist, Elizabeth Rosner, and a closing talk by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon — featuring comments about the late UCI M.F.A. founder and CoW workshop co-founder Professor Oakley Hall (Warlock, The Corpus of Joe Bailey).

The early evening event on the UC Irvine campus — open to the public — also feature tributes by several other notable poets and writers –who’ve been both participants at the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, and who also earned their M.F.A.s at UCI including Lisa Alvarez, Meriwether Clarke, Lorene Delany-Ullman, Alex Espinoza, Glen David Gold, Rhoda Huffey, Louis B. Jones, Michael Jaime-Becerra, Michelle Latiolais, Kem Nunn, Robin Page, and Andrew Tonkovich,.

Free (reservation required). RSVP here.

Refreshments. Books will be available for purchase.

5:30 p.m. Doors Open for check-in, reception and  hors d’oeuvres

6:00 p.m. Presentation begins