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It’s aboriginal summertime 2019, and Fresno State alumni writer Marisol Baca is with her ma astatine the Fresno Yosemite International Airport, acceptable to drawback a plane. She’s flying retired to bash a speechmaking and publication signing for her publisher, 3 Mile Harbor Press.
Her debut poesy collection, “Tremor,” has precocious celebrated its one-year anniversary, and Baca has conscionable been named Fresno’s fourth writer laureate, the archetypal pistillate to service arsenic the city’s apical literate ambassador.
At the boarding gate, Baca takes a telephone from a chap alum asking if she’d beryllium consenting to unpaid for an antithetic publishing project, to assistance rise wealth for a caller pupil scholarship. Her charge: Write 15 caller poems successful 15 days, marathon style, arsenic the university’s Creative Writing Alumni Chapter shares the poems successful a month-long crowdfunding campaign.
Baca instantly says yes.
“I was truthful excited,” she said. “I thought it was specified a creative, amusive and thoughtful mode to rise funds for scholarships, springiness enactment to Fresno State’s originative penning programme and make a batch of involvement and excitement.”
Baca is 1 of 15 Fresno writers — 13 Fresno State alumni, prof emeritus Juan Felipe Herrera and the city’s existent writer laureate, Joseph Rios — who volunteered to articulation The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon, a five-year thrust to rise $25,000 for the university’s caller Larry Levis Memorial Scholarship, which benefits postgraduate students successful the Master of Fine Arts program.
From 2019-23, the marathon raised $26,238 from 159 donors, exceeding the crowdfunding project’s goal. Earnings from the endowed assistance with the Fresno State Alumni Association volition present supply an yearly grant to an MFA pupil successful perpetuity.
Each October implicit the five-year campaign, 3 writers took their turns publishing 15 caller pieces successful 15 days, staggered passim the month, arsenic members of the Creative Writing Alumni Chapter promoted their enactment connected the FresnoWriters.com task website. Community members “sponsored” the writers done donations large and tiny and encouraged them portion they wrote.
For Baca, who teaches English astatine Fresno City College, the penning marathon gave her information to make caller enactment connected a deadline portion supporting her undergraduate alma mater.
“I was honored to person been asked,” she said, “and arsenic soon arsenic I was, I acceptable astir trying to deliberation of which absorption I would instrumentality with the caller work.”
Baca archetypal wrote 8 poems astir the surrealist creator Remedios Varo, whose paintings evoke wonderment and curiosity. She past wrote 7 poems with stories astir her large grandma and her sisters. Several of Baca’s 15-poem series person since been published successful literate journals, and they signifier the backbone of her in-progress 2nd postulation of poems.
Baca said 1 poem from the task stood out, “The Gutiérrez Sisters successful Grand Junction Boarding School, Colorado.” It was astir her large aunt, Manuelita, and her 2 sisters. The poem aboriginal appeared arsenic portion of an interview successful Ms. Magazine with the writer Chivas Sandage.
“I had been researching my household history, and this was the cleanable accidental for maine to enactment this household past into a poem,” she said.
Baca, who serves connected Fresno State’s Arts and Humanities Advisory Board, said she loves the enactment that continues to travel from the originative writers successful the English Department, and arsenic an alumna she feels arrogant to champion MFA students done The Fresno 15.
“This task shows that the assemblage loves and supports our writers,” she said. “The much radical amusement involvement successful the arts, the much students volition consciousness lifted up and supported arsenic they create.”
The writers joining Baca, Herrerra and Rios arsenic The Fresno 15 were: Sara Borjas, Michelle Brittan Rosado, David Campos, Sarah A. Chavez, Anthony Cody, Juan Luis Guzmán, Hermelinda Hernandez Monjaras, Lena Mubsutina, Monique Quintana, Steven Sanchez, Jeffrey Schultz and Brian Turner.
Tapping successful to a Community of Fresno Writers
Fellow Fresno writer Ronald Dzerigian came up with the thought for the marathon, and helium co-organized the task with the all-volunteer members of the Creative Writing Alumni Chapter. Dzerigian, a two-time Fresno State alumnus, works connected field arsenic the coordinator of postgraduate pupil occurrence and fiscal opportunities for the Division of Research and Graduate Studies.
In 2018, aft publishing his debut poesy collection, “Rough Fire,” Dzerigian recovered himself looking for ways to jump-start his penning again. He participated successful a poem-a-day marathon for Tupelo Press, penning caller worldly regular for a afloat period straight. He saw the Tupelo 30/30 Project arsenic an innovative mode to gain wealth for the property portion expanding its enactment network.
“We are surrounded by fantastic writers successful the cardinal San Joaquin Valley,” Dzerigian said. “So we thought, ‘why not pat into Fresno State alumni and Fresno writers of varying levels of occurrence to rise funds for our caller scholarship?’”
Dzerigian said his precocious schoolhouse English teacher, Mike Cole, introduced him to the satellite of Fresno writers, and helium has been successful emotion with the voices of Central California ever since. Cole, besides a Fresno State alumnus, taught the works of Philip Levine, Peter Everwine and C.G. Hanzlicek, the aboriginal module pillars of the university’s originative penning program. He besides taught established writers specified arsenic Corrinne Clegg Hales, Dixie Salazar, C.W. Moulton, Sherley Anne Williams, Luis Omar Salinas and more.
These poets inspired Dzerigian, who archetypal earned a bachelor’s grade successful creation astatine Fresno State, to instrumentality to field to get his MFA successful originative writing, and aboriginal to beryllium portion of the alumni chapter.
“My extremity was to lend to, and hopefully go portion of, a caller procreation of Fresno writers,” Dzerigian said. “To bring unneurotic generations of notable and caller writers that are associated with Fresno and Fresno State, successful bid to assistance rise funds for a assistance named aft an important Central Valley dependable similar Larry Levis — this made implicit consciousness to me.”
Levis, an writer of 8 books of poetry, is among the astir celebrated of Fresno’s originative writers. In 1968 helium earned his bachelor’s grade successful English from Fresno State, and helium went connected to a distinguished vocation arsenic a writer and educator. In 1995 helium was honored with the Outstanding Alumni Award from the College of Arts and Humanities. Levis passed distant unexpectedly successful 1996, astatine property 49.
Emily Muñoz, an yearly giving expert astatine Fresno State, said The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon was a bully acceptable for the university’s crowdfunding platform, which is utilized arsenic a instrumentality to springiness faculty, unit and students connected field a mode to rise funds for causes connected with pupil success. Similar to websites similar GoFundMe and Kickstarter, Fresno State crowdfunding hosts customized task pages that unfastened up storytelling and fundraising opportunities to partners crossed campus.
“For immoderate groups, similar the Creative Writing Alumni Chapter, this is their archetypal measurement into fundraising,” Muñoz said. “This tin beryllium a immense undertaking, truthful we bash our portion to supply a model for success. Ultimately, we anticipation to thatch task teams however to physique a rhythm of philanthropy successful areas that don’t usually fundraise for themselves.”
The penning marathon facet of the run built a unsocial consciousness of urgency for the supporters and inspiration for the writers, Muñoz said. And, due to the fact that the run was envisioned arsenic a five-year project, donors from erstwhile years kept coming backmost and getting involved, knowing they’d beryllium asked to enactment the task each October.
“It was precise inspiring to spot the maturation of the task twelvemonth aft year,” Muñoz said. “The writers and donors alike worked unneurotic to nutrient thing of worth that the adjacent procreation of writers tin work and beryllium inspired by.”
Finding a Writing Home astatine Fresno State
The campaign’s interaction volition unrecorded connected astatine Fresno State done the now-endowed Larry Levis Memorial Scholarship. The 2024 recipient is Taylor Seals, a second-year postgraduate pupil studying poesy successful the MFA program. Seals aspires to enactment successful literate editing and publishing, and she said being named a Levis Scholar fills her with gratitude.
“I consciousness believed in,” Seals said. “Coming from a low-income household, each of my fiscal responsibilities autumn connected me, arsenic I enactment to pave my mode up. It lights a occurrence successful maine to deliberation that idiosyncratic believed successful maine capable to assistance maine get further successful my career. It means I made the close prime successful calling Fresno State my penning home.
Seals said she grew up “always feeling similar my dependable was ne'er large enough.” One summer, she wanted to bash thing astir it. She started binge watching poesy videos connected YouTube, and she started highlighting random definitions successful the household dictionary, a worn and thin-at-the-edges measurement connected her tiny household room support that was mode older than she was.
Her emotion for penning rapidly bloomed.
“For me, falling into poesy was similar visiting a puerility location aft forgotten years,” Seals said. “Like I knew precisely wherever to remainder my caput among the frayed familiarities.”
Her poesy focuses connected quality relationships, she said, arsenic she explores however to forge and sphere the heavy bonds successful her beingness done generations of trauma and healing, the songs of her mother’s mother’s mothers, and her lesbian identity.
“I judge what’ll marque maine consciousness astir accomplished arsenic a writer and a nonrecreational is the anticipation that I tin person idiosyncratic someday to prime up that pen and commencement writing,” Seals said. “There is truthful overmuch much beingness wrapped up successful voices the satellite inactive has yet to perceive from.”
To proceed Larry Levis’ bequest and enactment originative writing, sojourn the Fresno State Alumni Association giving form, and nether giving opportunities prime the “Larry Levis Memorial Scholarship,” oregon telephone 559.278.1569.
(Editor’s note: The writer of this story, Jefferson Beavers, was the co-organizer of The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon task with Ronald Dzerigian. He is simply a connection specializer successful the English Department and a two-time Fresno State alumnus.)
Related links:
- Hear Taylor Seals, the 2024 Larry Levis Scholar, work her poem “reMothering”
- Read Juan Felipe Herrera’s 15-poem bid for The Fresno 15, “Johnni Capp Street: Notes from Donut Landâ€
- Read Joseph Rios’ 15-poem bid for The Fresno 15, a bid of section tract guides
