[CW-Grad] Writers Week Postgame Report

[mjayme at ucr.edu]

Dear All,

Thank you everyone for helping make this year's Writers Week conference such a 
thrill and a success.  It was good to see many of you again and again over the 
course of the week.  I recognize how busy we all are, and with this in mind, I do 
appreciate you making time to drop in on a visiting poet or journalist or fiction 
writer.  

Thank you in particular to our current Chair, Chuck Whitney, who has always 
been incredibly supportive to Writers Week.  He suggested this year's Hays 
Lecturer, Lawrence Wright, and made the connection to bring him to UCR and 
the surrounding community.  Wright's lecture was terrifically attended, many 
books were sold, and by all accounts the event was a resounding success.  All of 
this began with Chuck's work.

Thank you also to our forthcoming Chair, Tom Lutz, who brought us a 
wonderful keynote speaker in Janet Fitch, and did so in clutch fashion, as an 
unforeseen change in the schedule came in the very final planning stage.  
Thank you also to all the other faculty who called in favors to help solve this 
year's keynote issue.  Your generosity was tremendous, and it appears that, with 
a proper budget and fingers crossed, we may already have a keynote for next 
year.  

Thank you also to Chris Buckley, who once again assembled a terrific 
assortment of poetic voices, and to Rob Latham in English, who did the same in 
Science Fiction.  Thank you to all the other faculty--Susan, Laila, Juan Felipe, 
Reza, Claire, and Robin--who contributed readings and introductions and class 
time for our visiting authors.  

Thank you also to Yvonne.  Thank you also to Tiffany.  Their help, both this past 
week and throughout the year, made Writers Week come together.  Without their 
hard work, I really don't know how the conference could happen.  

Thank you also to Brian Marcelo, our department's work-study student, for his 
many, many efforts.  From brochure designer to public relations person to 
bookseller, his contributions were many, and were definitely appreciated. 

Thank you to Ching-In and Alison and Angela and Deja and Judy for 
volunteering their time to sell books over the week.  The bookstore also 
warrants a thank-you too, for ensuring that we had books to sell, some well in 
advance of their actual release date!  Thank you too to Bonnie and Jie and Kaitlin 
for their thoughtful introductions as well.

Apologies in advance if I am forgetting anyone.  I am appreciative, but it's been 
an eventful week.  

A final development too: Because novelist Dolen Perkins-Valdez was snowed in 
this past week, I am looking to reschedule her reading for the spring, hopefully 
in May.  More information on this as it becomes available.  

All best,

Michael Jayme