Writes of Spring Festival

The Writes of Spring Festival, Rio Hondo College’s annual two-day celebration of writers and writing, is held at the Wray Theater.

2019 Festival line-up: Wednesday, April 24

8:05 a.m. — Elias Castillo

Elias Castillo is a three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and has earned 13 journalism awards in a career that included reporting for the Associated Press and the San Jose Mercury News. Under a grant from National Geographic magazine, he led the first scientific exploration of Mexico’s vast Copper Canyon, a chasm that rivals the Grand Canyon in length and depth and is located in one of the most isolated areas of North America.

The Spanish missions of California have long been misrepresented as places of benign and peaceful coexistence between Franciscan friars and California Indians. In fact, the mission friars enslaved the California Indians and treated them with deliberate cruelty. In A Cross of Thorns, Elias Castillo reveals the dark and violent reality of Mission life. Beginning in 1769, California Indians were enticed into the missions, where they and their descendants were imprisoned for 60 years of forced labor and daily beatings. A Cross of Thorns has been taught at the University of California at Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, Monterey State University, Sonoma State University and Oklahoma State University and community colleges in California.

Castillo was born in Mexicali, Mexico, where his step-grandfather, Jose Severo Castillo, a renowned newspaper publisher, focused on exposing corruption in Baja California. As a journalist, Elias Castillo reported frequently on criminal organizations, politics and immigration issues in Mexico. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from San Jose State University. https://eliasacastillo.net/

9:40 a.m. – Ivy Pochoda

Ivy Pochoda is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Wonder Valley and Visitation Street. Wonder Valley won The Strand Magazine Critics Award for Best Novel and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Southern California Independent Booksellers Award, as well as the Grand Prix de Litterature Americaine in France. Visitation Street received the Page America Prize in France and was chosen as an Amazon Best Book of 2013 and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Ivy’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and Vogue. Her first novel The Art of Disappearing, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2009. She teaches creative writing at the Lamp Arts Studio in Skid Row. Ivy grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and currently lives in Los Angeles. http://www.ivypochoda.com

11:15 a.m. – Sehba Sarwar

Award-winning writer & artist Sehba Sarwar creates writings and art that tackle displacement, migration, and women’s issues. Her essays, stories, and poems have appeared in many publications, including New York Times Sunday Magazine and Neither Night, Nor Day: 13 Stories by Pakistani Women.

The 2^nd edition of her novel, Black Wings, was released in February. Spanning two continents, Black Wings is the story of Laila and Yasmeen, a mother & daughter, struggling to meet across the generations, cultures, and secrets that separate them. Their shared grief, as well as the common bond of unhappiness in their marriages, allows them to reconnect after 17 years of frustration, anger & misunderstandings.

In Houston, Sarwar initiated Voices Breaking Boundaries, a 20-year social justice arts organization funded in part by the NEA, through which she created art installations and offered workshops at universities, public schools, & community spaces. Sehba has also produced, directed, and created site-specific art installations & videos for Women Under Siege, a production that featured 8 artists from Houston and Karachi, Pakistan.

Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan in a home filled with artists and activists, Sarwar is currently based in Los Angeles, California with her husband and their teenage daughter, where she writes, teaches, and creates art. http://www.sehbasarwar.com

1:00 PM – River Deep Student Film Festival Screening RHC student films, in three categories.

2:30 PM – Student Reading and pizza party. River’s Voice: A Journal of Art and Literature (Vol. 20) book-release party. Come hear students read their award-winning works of fiction, poetry, memoir, and drama.

Thursday, April 25

8:05 a.m. – Lisa Alvarez

Lisa Alvarez grew up in Los Angeles. Her essays and short stories have appeared in numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Times and OC Weekly, Sudden Fiction Latino: Short Stories from the United States and Latin America; Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature. She co-edited Writers Workshop in a Book: The Squaw Valley Community of Writers on the Art of Fiction; she is co-director of the summer workshops at the Community of Writers.

Alvarez and her husband Andrew Tonkovish moved to Orange County more than two decades ago from notoriously liberal Santa Monica. Although skeptical at first, the couple was surprised by Orange County’s complexities and contradictions. They now call themselves county “boosters,” and their roots run deep. In their anthology, Orange County: A Literary Field Guide, the husband-and-wife team compile descriptions by more than 60 writers – some established, others emerging – of the county’s built and natural environments. Readers are invited to explore the culture and geography of an area that only 50 years ago was mostly orange groves, open fields and rolling hills. The literary tour begins at the coast and continues over the mountains, through the canyons and into the cities of Anaheim, Irvine and Orange.

Lisa is a graduate of UCI’s prestigious M.F.A. Programs in Writing (fiction), and is now an English professor at Irvine Valley College.

9:40 a.m. – Graziella Chabanel

A Swiss native, Graziella Chabanel has dedicated over thirty years to educating herself and others. With a relentless pursuit of knowledge, Chabanel honed her skills by attending teacher training programs and numerous seminars. She has earned multiple degrees, including two Bachelors in Education, a Certification in Health Promotion, and she is also a Certified Brain Gym© Instructor.

Armed with degrees and enthusiasm, Chabanel held the position of CEO of Formaxe SARL, a company dedicated to providing assistance to struggling and immigrant families, as well as providing support for the teachers helping them.

In 2011, it was her turn to become an immigrant as she left Switzerland for the United States. Graziella worked as a language teacher at The Alliance Française of Pasadena for several years, all the while discovering her new passion: writing. Chabanel’s undeniable talent as a writer enabled her to turn her stories of emigrating to Los Angeles into a memoir, Embracing the Unknown.

11:15 a.m. – Todd Zalkins

After losing his close friend Bradley Nowell of Sublime to a heroin overdose, Todd Zalkins fights for his life in what will become the worst drug crisis in American History, the Opioid Epidemic.

A highly sought-after addiction specialist, private counselor, interventionist, and public speaker, Todd Zalkins (CADC-I) is also a published author and award-winning filmmaker. Todd’s “All-In” Interventions have earned a reputation as one of the nation’s leading intervention and recovery developers. His team of specialists has over 60 years of experience helping families and their loved ones to get the help they need and recreate their lives.

His gripping memoir, Dying for Triplicate has sold more than 50,000 copies worldwide. Todd details his harrowing 17-year addiction to prescription painkillers, taking readers through his hellish experience in detox and into his first 18 months of recovery. The book, which continues to receive critical acclaim, has inspired thousands of sufferers worldwide to seek treatment.

In 2017, Todd brought his story to the big screen by releasing the award-winning documentary The Long Way Back: The Story of Todd ‘Z-Man’ Zalkins, a story of redemption and recovery. The film casts a long overdue spotlight on the unspoken stigma of prescription painkiller addiction and gives hope to those struggling to regain control. The film won the award for “Best Documentary” at the prestigious Phoenix Film Festival and the “Audience Choice Award” at the Reel Recovery Festival.

Todd is the Founder and CEO of Four Keys, Inc., an integrative enterprise that encompasses four major aspects of recovery: interventions, treatment recommendation, private counseling, and public speaking & education. He is also the co-founder of The Nowell Family Foundation and Bradley’s House, a non-profit treatment facility opening in 2018 for musicians suffering from opiate addiction who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford treatment. Todd is driven by the belief that everyone, regardless of their personal circumstances is capable of living a purpose-filled life, free from addiction. toddzalkins.com

1:00 PM – River Deep Student Film Festival Film awards presented and special guest speaker: Robert McGee, Casting Director

Robert McGee is a six-time winner of the Artios Award for Best Casting, the Casting Society of America’s highest honor. He has served as casting director for Rick and Morty, Transformers, The Cleveland Show, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the Emmy-winning series Wizards of Waverly Place starring David Henrie & Selena Gomez. His recent project, the new Addams Family movie, starring Chloe Grace Moretz, Charlize Theron, Oscar Isaac & Alison Janney, opens this fall just in time for Halloween. He is also working on the upcoming series Human Discoveries starring Zac Efron and Anna Kendrick. Some of his best known live-action film work includes World’s Greatest Dad (Robin Williams), Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss, and Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides starring Kirsten Dunst.

2:30 PM – Student Reading and pizza party. River’s Voice: A Journal of Art and Literature (Vol. 20) book-release party. Come hear students read their award-winning works of fiction, poetry, memoir, and drama.

Past festivals have featured:

Steve Abee, Lalo Alcaraz, alurista, Gustavo Arellano, Alice Bag (Alicia Armendariz), Tony Barnstone, Aimee Bender, Julian Bradley, Daniel Cano, Theresa Chavez, Brendan Constantine, Jill D’Agnenica, Marsha De La O, Tyler Dilts, David Dominguez, Robert Eisele, Alex Espinoza, Howard Fine, Montserrat Fontes, Darnella Ford, Jeff Garvan, Frank X. Gaspar, List Glatt, Mat Gleason, Reyna Grande, Suzanne Greenberg, Jack Grisham, Stephen D. Gutierrez, Jean Hegland, David Hernandez, Shirley Impellizziri, Seil Ju, Ron Koertge, Gerald Locklin, Josefina Lopez, Marisela Norte, Scott Odom, Lupe Ontiveros, PES/Adam Pesapane, Phranc, Lissa Price, Sam Quinones, Tracy Roberts, Saara Saedi, Ellen Sandler, Dahlia Schweitzer, Michele Serros, Soledad St. Hilaire, Taco Shop Poets, Victor Villaseñor, Marcos Villatoro, Helena Maria Viramontes, Charles Harper Webb, Andrew Wood, Mariano Zaro, and many more.