Hello, everyone. We did it! We have reached our five-year crowdfunding goal!

On behalf of the Fresno State Creative Writing Alumni Chapter, I wanted to take a moment to send one last update on this year's fifth and final installment of The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon.

In the end, we received 49 generous gifts for a total of $5,050. We hit the 101% mark of our $5,000 goal! The alumni committee is deeply grateful for your support of Fresno State students.

Many thanks to our supporters who made gifts to the marathon on its final three days: Michelle Brittan Rosado and Mario Rosado, and Cindy Wathen-Kennedy (who made a second gift). Many thanks again to our three marathon writers this year, the amazing David Campos, Hermelinda Hernandez Monjaras, and Juan Felipe Herrera.

Sometime in 2024, we will send you all a letter in the mail, updating you on our progress to finalize the Larry Levis Memorial Scholarship endowment. YOU are the reason this scholarship has reached the $25,000 endowment level. The endowment earnings will now provide annual scholarships for Fresno State MFA students in perpetuity.

Until then, we'd like to introduce you to this year's Larry Levis Scholar, the fiction writer Caleigh Camara. In the attached video, she shares the opening of her Y.A. novel in progress. We hope you enjoy hearing Caleigh’s work. (Link is below.)

Thank you, sincerely.

-Jefferson.

Hello, everyone. We now have just three days left for this fifth and final installment of The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon. Thank you for making a gift to support the next generation of Fresno writers.

Juan Felipe Herrera has two poems left, publishing Sunday and Monday, and both Hermelinda Hernandez Monjaras and David Campos have completed their marathons. You can read their exclusive new poems at FresnoWriters.com and share their incredible works with your friends.

Shouts out to our supporters who made gifts to the campaign from Oct. 22-28. Many thanks to: Will Freeney, Leticia Reyna Cano, and Jackie Ryle.

The Fresno State Creative Writing Alumni Chapter is now asking YOU to please tell others about this project NOW. We are at 94% of our $5,000 goal as of this morning—so close! Our alumni committee would really be grateful if you can help us, after five years of producing this project, to reach our goal to complete the Larry Levis Memorial Scholarship endowment. YOU are our best ambassador, and we need your help one more time.

We will share one final email update in a week or so, to wrap up the campaign. Stay tuned.

—Jefferson.

Hello! Today, we enter the stretch run of The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon. Our fifth and final campaign ends in 10 days, on Tuesday, Oct. 31.

We are beyond excited to report that at the 3-week mark of the marathon, we've received 44 gifts for a total of $4,595. We stand at 91% of our $5,000 goal. The full completion of our 5-year push to fully endow the Larry Levis Memorial Scholarship at $25K, providing scholarships for Fresno State MFA students, feels SO CLOSE now. This feels like our strongest campaign so far, and that’s all thanks to all of you.

Shouts out to our project supporters from Oct. 9-21:

Armen and Daniel Bacon, Diniz Borges, David Brodie, Mike Burnett, Andrea Mele and Steven Church, Karissa Ellison, Marti Fredericks, Esmeralda Gamez, Jorge and Irene Garcia, Charles and Dianne Hanzlicek, Soreath Hok, Courtney Hughes, David Hurst, David Kader, Phoua Lee, Alison Mandaville, Michael Mygind, Pamela Weiner and Tim Skeen, Solomon Tesfaye, Emma Trelles, Mai Der Vang, Liza Wieland, and 5 anonymous donors.

Our second and third writing marathoners, Hermelinda Hernandez Monjaras and Juan Felipe Herrera, are still producing mind-bending poems over at FresnoWriters.com in support of the campaign. Please go read their pieces, along with the incredible works of David Campos.

Please share news of The Fresno 15 in your personal networks in the coming days, to help spread the word one last time. Enjoy the poems, and invite folks to join our efforts. The Fresno writing community really knows how to come together to support its future generation of writers, and this is one of its greatest strengths.

Thank you,

—CW Alumni Chapter organizing committee

Hello, friends. We are now at the halfway point of this fifth and final installment of The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon! We currently stand at 43% of our fundraising goal. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far.

Today, we just posted the first piece by our third writer, Juan Felipe Herrera, and he will be writing through the end of the month. What can be said about the great Fresno State professor emeritus that has not been said? Juan Felipe is the most generous poet I’ve ever known, and he is especially generous in spirit and in creativity. His series of 15 poems is a series of “midnight moments, notes, conversations” from his time in San Francisco's Mission District back in the day, chopping it up with friends, playing with language, dreaming. I can’t think of a more perfect way to conclude The Fresno 15 than with his luminous pieces.

The 15th and final piece from our first author, David Campos, will publish late today, with one bonus post on Tuesday. Our second author, Hermelinda Hernandez Monjaras, is now just past the halfway mark of her marathon. Hermelinda’s posts will continue through Oct. 23. Visit FresnoWriters.com to read the latest work of these extraordinary writers.

Please share our posts in your networks! And as we now look toward the finish line of our campaign, we need YOUR help in spreading the word and getting us to our $5K goal.

Thank you,

—Jefferson.

Hello, readers! Welcome to the second week of this fifth and final installment of The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon. We are approaching 20% of our fundraising goal!

This week, we just posted the first two pieces by our second author, Hermelinda Hernandez Monjaras. A talented third-year MFA creative writing student at Fresno State, Hermelinda has been actively publishing since she was an undergraduate, and her poems and essays have already been published widely. Her work has been influenced by her time as a fellow in the Laureate Lab Visual Wordist Studio, as her poetry pushes across the intersections of art, words, and imagination. It’s a real gift to include the poems of an emerging writer like Hermelinda in this project.

Our first author, David Campos, has hit the midway mark of his marathon, and his pieces will continue to post through Oct. 16. His poems continue to expand! I'm looking forward to this next week, as both Hermelinda’s and David’s pieces publish side by side each day.

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

Thanks for reading. And please share our posts in your networks. Thanks to everyone who has supported with a gift and told your friends so far.

With respect,
—Jefferson.

Hello, everyone! Today, we are at the 1-week mark of The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon. Thank you for joining us for our fifth and final campaign.

The Creative Writing Alumni Chapter is excited to report that we've received 17 gifts so far, for a total of $755. We are at 15% of our $5,000 goal. We are feeling grateful for all the love.

Shouts out to our project supporters of the past week:

Linnea Alexander, Jessica Barrett, Jefferson Beavers, Angela Chaidez Vincent, Anthony Cody, Ronald Dzerigian, Corrinne Hales, Nou Her, Gabriel Ibarra, Yia Lee, Marisa Mata, Sharon McClain, Tanya Nichols, Peter Robertson, Brynn Saito, Carol Vitali, and Cindy Wathen-Kennedy.

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

-- CW Alumni Chapter organizing committee

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the fifth and final round of The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon. I'm excited to share with you some extraordinary new poems from this year’s featured writers.

We just posted the first two pieces by our first author, David Campos. David's first two books, Furious Dusk and American Quasar, are among my favorites in all of Fresno poetry for their lyricism. His latest series examines school segregation and integration in Fresno Unified through a stunning collection of visual poems, redactions, and re-imaginings. I can’t wait to see where David’s latest works take his poetry next.

New works by David will be posted from yesterday (Oct. 2) through Oct. 16. Visit FresnoWriters.com to follow David’s writing.

Thanks for reading. Please share our posts in your networks. And big thanks to those of you who've supported the project thus far.

With gratitude,
—Jefferson.