Friday, June 12, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Skylight Books, Los Angeles
 CLICK HERE TO RSVP _**RSVP is recommended but not required. Entry and seating are first-come, first-served. RSVPs do not guarantee entry to a full event.**_ **Join us for a night of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction as we help UC Riverside's MFA program celebrate their graduating creative writing students!** **Miguel Aguilera** is a Honduran American fiction and poetry writer from South Los Angeles. His work explores community, migration, family, and the complicated ways people care for one another. Since taking his first creative writing class in seventh grade, he has been driven by a desire to humanize the lives too often simplified. When he isn’t working, he can be found forcing time for his latest project, what he thinks of as his “‘hood” novel. **Lenika Cruz** is a writer from Guam who writes about memory, inheritance, and identity. She worked as a journalist and magazine editor for more than ten years before attending UCR’s fiction MFA program. She is also the author of the memoir “Drown Sirena,” forthcoming from Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, in May 2027. **Liz DeWolf** is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles. Her fiction has appeared in The Missouri Review, The Common, and elsewhere, and her nonfiction has been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books. She is at work on a novel and a collection of short stories. **Zite Ezeh** is a Nigerian-Kenyan-American writer and musician who is fascinated by people that carve out slices of home for themselves in a world that has othered them. Zite’s work has been supported by MacDowell, the Vermont Studio Center, and The Mount. Zite's center lies with the people they love. **Milly Itzhak** is a multidisciplinary writer completing her MFA in Screenwriting. Her prose and screenplays have been supported by Ragdale, Bread Loaf, Lambda Literary, and PEN America Emerging Voices, among others. When not at her desk, she can be found exploring the outdoors or teaching undergrads about climate change and environmental justice. **Daniel Kuo** is a fiction writer from Berkeley, California. His work has appeared in Colorado Review, Red Rock Review, and elsewhere, and has received support from Community of Writers and the San Francisco Writers Grotto. Formerly an attorney, he is currently working on a novel. **Lauren Maldonado** is a fiction writer from Southern California. Her work explores moral ambiguity, human frailty, and the stories people tell themselves to justify their actions. She is currently at work on a collection of short stories. When she isn’t writing or teaching, she can be found spending time with her partner and three fur-babies. **Hanna Pachman** is a poet, whose work has been published by Rattle, Catamaran, Maudlin House, The MacGuffin, and others. Hanna was an Assistant Editor for the poetry magazine, Gyroscope Review for two years. She is currently attending UCR for an MFA in Creative Writing. **Ojaswi Sharma** is a fiction writer interested in language, evolution, queerness, and culture. She has previously worked in editing, journalism, social justice, and publishing. She reads anything she can get her hands on and has wanted to be a writer since realizing books weren't written by god. She is currently at work on both a novel and short story collection. **Adrian Villarreal** is a fiction writer from Los Angeles. He is at work on a collection of short stories that interrogate the rift and bond between immigrant elders and their American-born children. **Veronica Vo** is a Vietnamese American writer from Southern California. Her writing can be found in Electric Literature, The Offing, and elsewhere, and she is working on a memoir centered around memory, family, and identity. **Tatiana Yoon** is a writer whose fiction and nonfiction works have been published in Russian, English, and Estonian languages. Her work frequently delves into themes of immigration, loss, and intercultural experiences.