Next Words Reading Series Kicks Off with ‘There Are No Important Mortals’

The CalArts MFA Program in Creative Writing launches its annual reading series, Next Words, with a reading at Skylight Books in Los Feliz on March 8.

The event, titled “There Are No Important Mortals,” features four graduating students reading from their respective works.

The MFA participants are Sydney Barile (Critical Studies MFA 15), a writer born and raised in Los Angeles, and whose works are inspired and influenced by the city; Michelle Cohen (Critical Studies MFA 15), a native Californian writer and poet based in LA; Anna Cruze (Film/Video BFA 10, Critical Studies MFA 15), a writer and artist whose fictional work focuses on the supernatural and uncanny, and whose YouTube channel You Nerd You discusses popular genre film, television and literature; and Regine Darius (Critical Studies MFA 15), a writer, associate editor and event planner for CalArts’ semi-annual literary journal Black Clock and blogger for My Story Matters.

The Next Words series takes place in various venues around LA to introduce the graduating class of the CalArts MFA Program in Creative Writing to the city’s greater literary community.

This year’s readings schedule follows:

• March 20, 7 pm at Elephant Art Space in Glassell Park
  Featuring: TM Semrad, Niela Orr and Carmelo Valone  
• April 1, 7 pm at Avenue 50 Studio in Highland Park
  Featuring: Gabriela Garcia Medina, Lorraine Bedros and Mychal Schillaci
• April 17, 7 pm at Pieter Performance Space in Lincoln Heights
  Featuring: Meg Whiteford, Atsuko Okatsuka, Allison Conner and Kit Edwards
• May 1, 7 pm at The Last Bookstore in Downtown Los Angeles
  Featuring: Sarah Leslie, Paul Christian, Stephanie Taglianetti and Lauren Artiles
• May 14, 8:30 pm at REDCAT in Downtown Los Angeles
  Featuring the entire graduating class of the CalArts MFA Program in Creative Writing