Hello, everyone. It has now been just over one week since the second installment of The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon ended. While we did not meet our ambitious $5,000 goal, our alumni chapter is very pleased with the results: $3,380 in donations from 51 unique donors, or 67% of our goal. These funds will go directly toward building our Larry Levis Creative Writing Scholarship endowment.

We can't thank all of you enough!

Shouts out to our supporters from the last week or so of the campaign:

Becky Brown, Leticia Reyna Cano, Sirley Carballo, Honora Chapman, Ethan Chatagnier, Kathy Fagan, Marti Fredericks, Corrinne Hales, Sergio La Porta, Kate McKnight, Tanya Nichols, Michele Poulos, Robin Russin, Jackie Ryle, Tim Skeen, Brian Turner, Tom Uribes, and 2 anonymous donors.

Biggest thanks go to our three alumni authors -- Sara Borjas, Juan Luis Guzmán, and Sarah A. Chavez -- for sharing their incredible poetry and prose with us throughout the marathon. If you missed any of their work, visit FresnoWriters.com to enjoy it anytime.

We will be in touch with you again in the spring to give you our 2020 annual report. Thank you,

-- Jefferson Beavers, on behalf of the Creative Writing Alumni Chapter organizing committee

Hello, friend! Today, we enter the stretch run of The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon. The campaign ends this Saturday, Oct. 31.

The Creative Writing Alumni Chapter is excited to report that we've had 31 unique supporters make gifts to the marathon, for a total of $1,875. We are at 37% of our $5,000 goal. Hoping for one last big push this week!

Shouts out to our most recent project supporters:

Marisol Baca, Armen Bacon, David Borofka, David Brodie, Angela Chaidez Vincent, Steven Church, Kristen Lillvis, Larissa Mercado López, and 2 anonymous donors.

Our third alumni author, Sarah A. Chavez, is still producing incredible poems over at FresnoWriters.com in support of the marathon. Please go read her stuff, along with the incredible works of Sara Borjas and Juan Luis Guzmán.

And most importantly, PLEASE SHARE news of The Fresno 15 in your social media and email networks in the coming days. Let them know that YOU support the future generation of Fresno writers, and invite them to join us. Thank you,

-- CW Alumni Chapter organizing committee

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the third week of this fall's installment of The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon. We are at 25% of our fundraising goal! Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far.

This past Friday, we just posted the first piece by our third author, Sarah A. Chavez, and she will be writing through the end of the month. A poet, scholar, and educator, Sarah is a mestiza born in the Central Valley who now teaches creative writing and Latinx/Chicanx literature at the University of Washington, Tacoma. I've long been a fan of Sarah's intimate approach to poetry, especially her 2017 full-length collection, Hands That Break and Scar. She is also a veteran of "creative writing marathons" like ours, as a past participant in The 30/30 Project with Tupelo Press, which was the inspiration for The Fresno 15.

Our first author, Sara Borjas, has now finished her marathon. Our second author, Juan Luis Guzmán, is now past the midway mark of his marathon. Juan's posts will continue through Oct. 23. 

Visit FresnoWriters.com to follow the work of these extraordinary alumni writers.

Please share our posts in your social media and email networks! We'd be grateful for the help in spreading the word.

Thank you,

-Jefferson.

Hello, everyone! Today, we are at the 2-week mark of The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon.

The Creative Writing Alumni Chapter is excited to report that we've had 21 unique supporters make gifts to the campaign, for a total of $1,270. We are at 25% of our $5,000 goal. Feeling super grateful for all the love.

Shouts out to our project supporters so far:

Week 2 -- Casey Ballard, Lee Herrick, Liz Scheid-Blau, Brenda Venezia, and Cindy Wathen-Kennedy.

Week 1 -- Linnea Alexander, Jefferson Beavers, Anthony Cody, Esmeralda Gamez, Corrinne Hales, Charles Hanzlicek, Courtney Hughes, Gabriel Ibarra, Jane Jeffers, Peter Robertson, Brynn Saito, Mai Der Vang, Sally Vogl, and 3 anonymous donors.

If you know these folks, please give them a virtual pat on the back! We appreciate them. And please continue telling your friends about the project, through social media and 1:1 connections. We've got lots of great poetry to share through the end of the month.

-- CW Alumni Chapter organizing committee

Hello, readers! Welcome to the second week of this fall's installment of The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon. We are just past 20% of our fundraising goal!

Today, we just posted the first piece by our second author, Juan Luis Guzmán. A poet, playwright, community arts organizer, and educator, Juan is a literary dynamo. I'm so pleased that we can use this project to feature his creative works, which are on the cusp of wider prominence. I'm especially excited to share Juan's poetry, flash fiction, and tiny plays because he always gives so much of his heart to the local arts community -- through the Selma Arts Center, Fresno City College, LitHop, etc. It's great to put the focus on his own writing.

Our first author, Sara Borjas, has hit the midway mark of her marathon, and her poems will continue to post through Oct. 15. Her works have been fire! I can't wait for this next week, as both Juan and Sara's pieces publish side by side.

Visit FresnoWriters.com to follow the work of these alumni writers.

Thanks for checking in. Please share our posts in your social media and email networks! Our first round of shout-outs will be hitting the updates and our Facebook group page early next week. Thanks to everyone who has supported with a gift so far.

With respect,

-Jefferson.

Hello, everyone! Welcome to round two of The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon. I'm super excited to see what our alumni authors have in store for us this month!

We just posted the first poem by our first author, Sara Borjas, this morning. A poet, educator, Xicana, pocha, chingona -- Sara is the real deal. Based in Los Angeles but rooted in Fresno, her debut poetry collection, Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff, was published in 2019 by Noemi Press. The book just won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, a rare honor held by only a handful of Fresno writers all-time.

Sara's poems are wildly expansive; to me, they not only take on whiteness, colonialism, patriarchy, and the oppressive forces all around us and within us, but they also push past the boundaries of poetic form into their own visual territory. She will be posting poems from today (Oct. 2) through Oct. 16.

Visit FresnoWriters.com to follow Sara's work.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for sharing our posts. And big thanks to those of you who've supported the project so far.

With gratitude,

-Jefferson.