American River College will host its sixth annual creative writing workshop SummerWords late this spring from May 25-28.
SummerWords is a creative writing festival that will feature panels, workshops, readings, and more from ARC professors and esteemed writers and poets.
The festival will feature ARC faculty members like Michael Spurgeon, Traci Gourdine and Christian Kiefer, along with prominent writers such as Jericho Brown, Ryan Finnerty, Naomi J. Williams and more.
Spurgeon explained why SummerWords is an important conference for ARC and its creative writing department.
“It showcases our exceptional creative writing program, but it also gives us an opportunity for the college to reach out to the community and provide additional academic and learning opportunity that fall outside of what the college offers,” Spurgeon said.
Spurgeon also talked about the importance of having programs on campus like the American River Review (ARR), and the AdLumen Press which allow students to get a more hands on experience.
“People who read literature are more empathetic and better citizens because of that empathy. I think that it’s important for the community to know that there is an exceptional program housed at American River College,” Spurgeon said.
Past keynote speeches over the years have been given by award winning poet Carolyn Forche, and bestselling authors Luis Alberto Urrea, and Edan Lepucki.
Renowned author Luis Alberto Urrea speaks to the crowd at #SummerWords pic.twitter.com/a188BFoZbn
— ARCurrent.com (@arcurrent) May 29, 2016
SummerWords is offering 30 full scholarships for students who were enrolled in the 2016-17 school year to attend the conference for free. Applications are due by May 17.
Passes for the three day event are $95 and can be purchased here.
