The Desert Nights, Rising Stars
Writers Conference

Join the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) for "Rewriting the Literary Landscape" a mixed-genre reading of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction with five current and former students from the IAIA's MFA in Creative Writing program, on Saturday, February 23, 2019 at 12:30 p.m. Featuring Jake Skeets, Lemanuel Loley, Joaquín Zihuatanejo, Carla Crujido, and Douglas Suano Bootes.

While encouraged, RSVPs are purely for the purposes of monitoring attendance, gauging interest, and communicating information about parking, directions, and other aspects of the event. You do not have to register or RSVP to attend this event. This event is open to the public and free.

About the Readers

Jake Skeets is Black Streak Wood, born for Water’s Edge. He is Diné from Vanderwagen, New Mexico. He holds an MFA in Poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Skeets is a winner of the 2018 92Y Discovery Poetry Prize and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His work has been published in Boston Review, Yellow Medicine Review, and elsewhere. Skeets’ first collection, Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers, was selected by Kathy Fagan as a winner for the 2018 National Poetry Series Open Competition and will be published by Milkweed Editions in 2019. He currently teaches at Dine College in Tsaile, Arizona. He also edits Cloudthroat, helps organize Saad Bee Hózhǫ́: A Diné Writers’ Collective, and organizes Pollentongue, a poetry salon and reading series.  

Lemanuel Loley is ‘Áshįįhi born for Tó Baazhní’ázhí; his maternal grandparents are the Tódích’íi’nii and his paternal grandparents are the Kiyaa’áanii. Lemanuel is from Casamero Lake, New Mexico and serves as an Adjunct Faculty in the School of Arts & Humanities at Navajo Technical University in Crownpoint, New Mexico. He received his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Kenyon College and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing-Fiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts. His work has appeared in the literary magazine HIKA, as part of Pollentongue: An Indigenous Poetry Salon and Reading,and is forthcoming in Red Ink. He is co-founder of Saad Bee Hózhǫ́: A Diné Writers’ Collective, co-founder and co-director of the Emerging Diné Writers’ Institute, chair of the advisory board to the Navajo Nation Poet Laureate, and contributing fiction editor for Cloudthroat, an online literary publication. His current projects include a novel titled They Collect Rain in Their Palms, which details the experience of an LGBT couple in the face of the Navajo Nation’s ban on same-sex marriage and a compilation of poems. 

Joaquín Zihuatanejo received his MFA in creative writing with a concentration in Poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His work has been featured in Prairie Schooner, Sonora Review, and Huizache among other journals and anthologies. His poetry has been featured on HBO, NBC, and on NPR in Historias and The National Teacher’s Initiative. He was the winner of the Anhinga-Robert Dana Prize for Poetry and his new book, Arsonist, was published by Anhinga Press in September of 2018. Joaquín has two passions in his life, his wife Aída and poetry, always in that order. 

Carla Crujido is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts. When she isn’t eating or thinking about eating, she is writing about it. The fruits of these reveries can be found in the articles she penned for the award-winning online publication Phoenix Bites. At present, she is working on a food-centric novel set in 1930s Seattle. Originally from San Francisco, she now calls Phoenix home. 

Enrolled in the MFA Creative Writing program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Douglas Suano Bootes is of Saponi-Catawba and Swiss-German descent. He is currently completing his first full-length poetry manuscript entitled "Shard."