The Virginia G. Piper
Center for Creative Writing

The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing is proud to announce a partnership with the Pat Tillman Veterans Center and the Office for Veteran Military Academic Engagement to bring Veteran students and local Veterans a space to write together, workshop creative pieces, and share stories. This circle is Veteran led and Veteran focused. If you are not a Veteran or related to a Veteran we ask that you kindly refrain from attending. All skill levels and genres are welcome! Food provided!

Spirited conversations. Literary culture. Every first Thursday at Valley Bar. Get Lit.

This Month: Art and Activism with tanner menard

How can the arts be used to mobilize community? What does an authentically engaged, community-based arts practice actually look like? How do we design events and programs to create more meaningful connections and intentional conversation? How do we activate communities around calls to action and other social issues?

Getting into town early for the conference? Already live here? Looking for something literary to do before sessions begin? Kick-off this year’s Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference with an off-site social and writing groups on Thursday, February 20, 2020 from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at Changing Hands Phoenix (300 W Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85013)!

Presented as a public extension of the Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference in partnership with ASU Open Door, the Desert Nights, Rising Stars Literary Fair is a celebration of creative writing and literary arts in the local community.

What do editors truly want to discover and publish? Learn the do’s and don’t’s of submitting to literary journals with editors from Superstition Review and Hayden’s Ferry Review, two nationally-recognized literary journals based at ASU.

"Sometimes I talk a lot. Sometimes I don't. It's nice to sit at the table, hands busy, and let the conversation in flipping and shifting language just wash over and around me. Hard to pinpoint how, exactly, this heals. But it does. [ . . . ] The politics seem clear. These books are being written or were written in the past. We should read them." (Ryan's Testimony, Cartonera Collective Member)

Based in Airzona and Nevada, Tolsun Books is an independent, non-profit press publishing poetry, comics-poetry, short stories, hybrids, memoirs, photo stories, and other cool artistic book-type things. They're not fancy or formal. Their books look rad. See why they're putting the Southwest on the map with readings from Sarah Abigail Adleman, Angela M. Brommel, Michael Buckius, and Sarah Sala. 

Alice Walker once said “Poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness.” As the 2020 Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writer’s Conference draws to a close we hope that our attendees have shifted the ways in which they think about their writing and the power of their words. Whether you are a poet,  a novelist, or are just beginning to choose a path, we want to send everyone off with a final celebration of writing as we hear from some of our most beloved poets laureates of the Southwest.  

Journey into the mind and soul of Native America’s most celebrated author of poetry and prose with N. Scott Momaday: Words from a Bear, a feature-length documentary exploring the life of Pulitzer Prize winning author Navarro Scott Momaday on Monday, March 9, 2020 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at FilmBar (815 N 2nd St, Phoenix, AZ 85004)

There is much to be said about the relationship between composer Richard Strauss and his favorite librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the creators of Arizona Opera’s final production of the 19/20 season, Ariadne auf Naxos. Referencing Composers of the Nazi Era and A Working Friendship, Musicologist Sabine Feisst leads a compelling discussion on the numerous collaborations between the pair, despite surrounding conflicts during the rise of Nazi Germany. The discussion will be followed by a reception with light refreshments.