UC Riverside’s 46th Writers Week returns with live and virtual sessions in February – Press Enterprise

Writers Percival Everett and the late Mike Davis will receive lifetime achievement awards when the 46th annual Writers Week takes place at the University of California, Riverside on Feb. 13-17.

Poets Nathaniel Mackey and Jan Beatty were chosen to give the Stephen Minot Lecture and serve as the D. Charles Whitney Reader, respectively.

After two pandemic years with online programs only, Writers Week returns with a hybrid schedule this year. Most of the panels will remain virtual, though four – including both UCR Creative Writing/Los Angeles Review of Books Lifetime Achievement Awards events – will be held in person on the UCR campus.

Everett, who lives in South Pasadena and teaches at the University of Southern California, most recently published the 2022 novel “Dr. NO,” which landed on best-of-2022 lists by the New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR among other accolades. His previous two novels, “The Trees” and “Telephone,” were shortlisted or finalists for the Booker and Pulitzer prizes respectively.

Davis, who died in October, was best known for his non-fiction books about California, from his acclaimed “City of Quartz: Excavating the Future of Los Angeles” to his recent “Set the Night on Fire: LA in the Sixties.” His former UCR creative writing department colleagues, the novelists Susan Straight and Charmaine Craig, will host the Writers Week tribute to Davis.

Writers Week bills itself as “the longest-running and most diverse literary festival in California.”

“Diversity has been a central job for American literary culture over the past 150 years and Writers Week embodies that,” said festival co-director Tom Lutz in a written statement.

“Authors who join us during Writers Week bring about their unique voices, experiences, perspectives as an integral part of their art,” said Lutz, a distinguished professor and chair of UCR’s creative writing department, and publisher of Los Angeles Review of Books. “We hope the community joins us for another incredible year.”

All events are free. For more information, including the schedule and to register for the panels and programs, go to Writersweek.ucr.edu/schedule23.