[English-undergrad] Poet Natalie Diaz (Mojave) will be visiting the English Department for two events on May 28 in HMNSS 2212: Please RSVP!

[James Tobias]

Dear English Majors,

How is everything going? I hope everything’s going well as we all move towards the conclusion of the academic year.

And I’m beyond thrilled to share with you some really exciting news about our end -of-year events celebrating student success in the Department of English.

As you may recall, last year, on the theme of “Calling Out,” we hosted novelist Rabih Alameddine for our end of year celebration of student success in the English Department.

This year, on Thursday May 28, we will be celebrating student success in English with an event on the theme “Poiesis as Knowledge.” To that end, we will be welcoming poet and Pulitzer Prize winner Natalie Diaz (Mojave)! Natalie will be sharing her work as well as her thoughts on poetry along with some of her poetry writing techniques. 

Natalie Diaz is the perfect person for our event on Poetry as Knowledge. Her writing, I think, does not simply create evocative images and powerful emotional effects - although it does all of this, too.  But more powerfully, she writes poetry that somehow creates ways of knowing the self, of knowing the world around us. In Natalie's writing, language feels both capable of creating knowledge, but also of holding, or restoring, ways of knowing.

Natalie will be holding two exciting events with us on Thursday May 28.

The first event, 2:30 - 4 PM,  in HMNSS 2212, will be a poetry event demonstrating the "clockstopping” technque for writing poetry that Natalie has developed in her own teaching practice. Whether you are an experienced (or perhaps even published?) poet, or simply interested in gaining access to another way of knowing yourself, this event will be an amazing opportunity to create with, and gain writing insights from, an extraordinary writer.  

The second event, 4:30 - 6 PM also in HMNSS 2212, will feature Natalie reading and discussing her own work, including selections from works including "When My Brother was an Aztec" and "Postcolonial Love Poem," with faculty member Dr. Michelle Raheja moderating. Her reading will by followed by a Q&A with you, the audience. 

Finally, we will close the evening with an English Department reception to celebrate faculty, students, and staff, from 6 - 6:45 PM.

We look forward to your participation! 

As each event will be held in the (smallish) English Conference room, in HMNSS 2212, we need to plan ahead.  Please use this link to RSVP and let us know which events with Natalie Diaz you will attend.


https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe5lkL8hQw0amKBObIEU_cPinUyGTJTD3gvaW4ozXrLEW5aKg/viewform?usp=dialog
RSVP for Natalie Diaz Events May 28 2026
docs.google.com

And meanwhile, let me know how things are going. I'm looking forward to seeing you on May 28.

Take care,

jt


—
James Tobias, Ph.D.
Professor, Chair
Department of English
University of California
Riverside CA 92521
jtobias at ucr.edu

https://ucr.zoom.us/j/95465985946?pwd=Z1A4Yk1UZDhBTjY5UkJ5R1VQTWUvQT09

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