Newsroom

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon poet Cindy Williams Gutiérrez and fiction writer Justin Taylor will read at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 4, in the Valley Library Rotunda on the Oregon State University campus.

 A question-and-answer session and book signing will follow. The event is free and open to the public, and is part of the 2015-16 Literary Northwest series, which celebrates the burgeoning literary scene in the Willamette Valley and the Northwest.

 Gutiérrez brings poetry into communities and explores the boundaries between poetry, theater and art through experimentation with spoken word and visual media. Her poetry collection, "the small claim of bones," was a finalist for the 2015 International Latino Book Awards. She is a founding member of Los Porteños, Portland's Latino writers collective.

 Gutiérrez's poetry and reviews have appeared in "Borderlands," "Calyx," Harvard's Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México's Periódico de poesía, "Portland Review," and others.  She has won awards from the National League of American Pen Women, Oregon State Poetry Association and Washington Poets Association.

 Taylor is the author of "The Gospel of Anarchy," a dark and mesmerizing debut novel that explores the borders between religion and politics, faith and fanaticism, desire and need, and what happens when these borders are breached.

 He is also the author of "Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever," an imaginative collection of funny and dark short stories. He currently resides in Portland.

 The reading is sponsored by the MFA Program in Creative Writing with support from the OSU Libraries and Press; the OSU School of Writing, Literature, and Film; the College of Liberal Arts; Kathy Brisker and Tim Steele; and Grass Roots Books and Music.