The Desert Nights, Rising Stars
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Conference Schedule 2019

Conference Schedule 2019

Friday, February 22, 2019, 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

Writers Relationship to Reading with Tara Ison, Deborah Miranda, Patricia Colleen Murphy, Mark Athitakis

Date(s): Friday, February 22, 2019, 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
Location: Carson Ballroom, Old Main (view map)
Type(s): Panel
Genre and Form(s): 
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About the Session

Many of us come to writing through a love of reading: the strike of literary lightning, a certain line or phrase that stays with us for years. As we continue to grow as writers and participate in the community, our creative process evolves, being shaped and informed by the relationships we have with the works of others. Join authors Deborah Miranda, Patricia Murphy, and Tara Ison for a discussion on the intimate and necessary relationships we have with literature: what books woke them up for the first time, how active reading impacts their lives and their art, and how reading is part of their writing rituals. 

Meet the Presenter(s)

Picture of Tara Ison


Tara Ison

Tara Ison is the author of three novels: The List (Scribner), A Child out of Alcatraz (Faber & Faber), a Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Rockaway (Counterpoint/Soft Skull Press), featured as one of the "Best Books of Summer" in O, The Oprah Magazine, July 2013.

Learn more about Tara Ison

Desert Nights Rising Stars Writers Conference Faculty 2019 Deborah Miranda


Deborah Miranda

Deborah A.

Learn more about Deborah Miranda

Desert Nights Rising Stars Writers Conference Faculty 2019 Patricia Colleen Murphy


Patricia Colleen Murphy

Patricia Colleen Murphy founded Superstition Review at Arizona State University, where she teaches creative writing and magazine production. Her book Bully Love won the 2019 Press 53 Poetry Award. Her book Hemming Flames (Utah State University Press) won the 2016 May Swenson Poetry Award judged by Stephen Dunn, and the 2017 Milt Kessler Poetry Award.

Learn more about Patricia Colleen Murphy

Photograph of Mark Athitakis


Mark Athitakis

Mark Athitakis is a journalist and critic whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Humanities Magazine, and numerous other publications. His 2017 book, The New Midwest (Belt Publishing), is a critical study of contemporary fiction set in the region, and he has been a featured speaker on the subject for BBC Radio, the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, and other venues. A member of the board of the National Book Critics Circle, he lives in Chandler.

Learn more about Mark Athitakis