Mariah Young returns to her alma mater as this year's first 'Distinguished Writer'
Mariah Young returns to alma mater as year's first Distinguished Writer.
- September 21, 2012
Fiction writer Mariah Young will read from her debut collection, “Masha’alla and Other Stories,” when she returns to her alma mater, ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥, Monday, Nov. 5 as the first of this year's Distinguished Writers Series, presented by the English Department.
The 7 p.m. reading will be in the Biella Room of the University Library, on the university's Hayward Campus, 25800 Carlos Bee Blvd. Admission will be free, and the public is invited. A book signing will follow.
The native of San Leandro, who grew up in both the Bay Area and Lahaina, HI, earned her bachelor's degree in English, with a creative writing emphasis, and a minor in political science, in 2006 from CSUEB. She currently teaches writing and literature at Mount St. Mary's College and Southwest College, both in Los Angeles.
“I'm very much looking forward to coming back to campus, and eager to spread the word about the fantastic English faculty, which pushed me as an academic, and helped me cultivate my writing voice,” Young said.
"What a thrill to host, as the first writer in this year's series, our own alumna, Mariah K. Young, whose debut collection of short stories has been honored by Heyday with its first annual James D. Houston award," said Susan Gubernat, CSUEB professor of English and the Distinguished Writer's series program director for this year. "Mariah has put our creative writing program on the map yet again; her writing is urgent and lyrical, and altogether compelling. Anyone interested in the East Bay as a landscape for story-telling will find our region's new Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor in Mariah Young."
"Masha'allah and Other Stories," all of which is based in Oakland, is being released Nov. 1. The James D. Houston award for western literature, which Young has won, is named for the author of nine novels, who taught at several universities, including Stanford, the University of California, Santa Cruz; the University of Hawaii; and his alma mater, San Jose State University.
Young’s CSUEB undergraduate work, “Witness,” took first place in the R.V. Williams contest and was published in volume 22 of Occam’s Razor, published by annually by the CSUEB English Department. She also received an honorable mention for poetry in 2004.
CSUEB welcomes persons with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodation upon request. Please notify the event sponsor in advance at (510) 885-3151 if accommodation is needed.
Campus parking is $2 per hour – payable at kiosk machines in several parking lots on the campus.