<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">Dear English Majors,<div><br></div><div>How is everything going? I hope everything’s going well as we all move towards the conclusion of the academic year.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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. </div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31);">Natalie will be holding two exciting events with us on Thursday May 28.</span></span></div><div><div style="caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31);"><br></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31);">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. </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31);"><br></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31);">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. <div><br></div><div>Finally, we will close the evening with an English Department reception to celebrate faculty, students, and staff, from 6 - 6:45 PM.<div><br></div><div>We look forward to your participation! </div><div><br></div><div>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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> let us know which events with Natalie Diaz you will attend.</span></div></div></div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div style="display: block;"><div style="-webkit-user-select: all; -webkit-user-drag: element; display: inline-block;" class="apple-rich-link" draggable="true" role="link" data-url="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe5lkL8hQw0amKBObIEU_cPinUyGTJTD3gvaW4ozXrLEW5aKg/viewform?usp=dialog"><a style="border-radius:10px;font-family:-apple-system, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;display:block;-webkit-user-select:none;width:300px;user-select:none;-webkit-user-modify:read-only;user-modify:read-only;overflow:hidden;text-decoration:none;" class="lp-rich-link" rel="nofollow" href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe5lkL8hQw0amKBObIEU_cPinUyGTJTD3gvaW4ozXrLEW5aKg/viewform?usp=dialog" dir="ltr" role="button" draggable="false" width="300"><table style="table-layout:fixed;border-collapse:collapse;width:300px;background-color:#DDDDDD;font-family:-apple-system, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" class="lp-rich-link-emailBaseTable" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="300"><tbody><tr><td vertical-align="center" align="center"><img style="width:300px;filter:brightness(0.97);height:157px;" width="300" height="157" draggable="false" class="lp-rich-link-mediaImage" alt="6bLfTFTvysCuyjbKZDPEnbUvuDG71yuHkyFxlzcnsot1DVqoF-W9ym9uGCE6MtGY7Tf-Vhzpaw3ad08=w1200-h630-p.png" src="cid:EC3A44B2-C393-4602-AFD7-EDB8FFA21F86"></td></tr><tr><td vertical-align="center"><table bgcolor="#DDDDDD" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="300" style="table-layout:fixed;font-family:-apple-system, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;background-color:rgba(221, 221, 221, 1);-apple-color-filter:initial;" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar"><tbody><tr><td style="padding:8px 0px 8px 0px;" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar-textStackItem"><div style="max-width:100%;margin:0px 16px 0px 16px;overflow:hidden;" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar-textStack"><div style="word-wrap:break-word;font-weight:500;font-size:12px;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;text-align:left;" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar-textStack-topCaption-leading"><a rel="nofollow" href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe5lkL8hQw0amKBObIEU_cPinUyGTJTD3gvaW4ozXrLEW5aKg/viewform?usp=dialog" style="text-decoration: none" draggable="false"><font color="#272727" style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.847059);">RSVP for Natalie Diaz Events May 28 2026</font></a></div><div style="word-wrap:break-word;font-weight:400;font-size:11px;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;text-align:left;" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar-textStack-bottomCaption-leading"><a rel="nofollow" href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe5lkL8hQw0amKBObIEU_cPinUyGTJTD3gvaW4ozXrLEW5aKg/viewform?usp=dialog" style="text-decoration: none" draggable="false"><font color="#808080" style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.498039);">docs.google.com</font></a></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></a></div></div><div style="display: block;"><br></div><div style="display: block;">And meanwhile, let me know how things are going. I'm looking forward to seeing you on May 28.</div><div style="display: block;"><br></div><div style="display: block;">Take care,</div><div style="display: block;"><br></div><div style="display: block;">jt</div><div style="display: block;"><br></div><br><div>
<meta charset="UTF-8"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-thickness: auto; text-decoration-style: solid; overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-thickness: auto; text-decoration-style: solid; overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div>—<br>James Tobias, Ph.D.<br>Professor,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Chair</div><div>Department of English<br>University of California<br>Riverside CA 92521<br>jtobias@ucr.edu<br><br><font size="1">https://ucr.zoom.us/j/95465985946?pwd=Z1A4Yk1UZDhBTjY5UkJ5R1VQTWUvQT09<br><br>"We at UCR would like to respectfully acknowledge and recognize our responsibility to the original and current caretakers of this land, water, and air: the Cahuilla, Tongva, Luiseño, and Serrano peoples and all of their ancestors and descendants, past, present, and future. Today this meeting place is home to many Indigenous peoples from all over the world, including UCR faculty, students, and staff, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to live and work on these homelands."</font><br><br></div></div></div>
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