Humanities Week, Oct. 15-20, 2023

Humanities Week, Oct. 15-20, 2023

From October 15-20, ASU will be hosting The College’s Humanities Week with over 20 in-person and virtual events.

Events are open to students, faculty, staff and community members. Enjoy free food, swag, and speakers. The current event schedule is listed below, but updates can be viewed on the Humanities Week website.


Sunday, Oct. 15

‘Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion’ Book Launch by Pulitzer Prize Winner Mitchell S. Jackson in Conversation with Marc J. Spears

7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. | Phoenix Art Museum

Join us for the release of Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion by Mitchell S. Jackson. This sumptuous, colorful book celebrates NBA fashion and the decades of cultural and political phenomena that bring it into being.

The author will be in conversation with renowned veteran NBA reporter Marc J. Spears. 

Learn more


Monday, Oct. 16

TikTok and Tarot: Imagining Ethical Futures for Social Media

1 p.m. to 2 p.m. 

The Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics invites students and faculty to play, experiment, and discover using our Humane Tech Oracle Deck to explore our relationships with “the algorithm;” a mystifying black box we interact with every time we use our smart technology or engage in social media.

We will also be sharing about our newest research project, Understanding Algorithmic Folk Theories: Tracing Community-Based Knowledge on TikTok, which was recently awarded a grant by the NEH Dangers and Opportunities of Technology program.  

Learn more.

Humanities Week SILC Café: German

1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. | Durham Hall Lobby

The School of International Letters and Cultures invites anyone who is searching for a place to come and get to know people from across the world or surround themselves with languages from around the globe. 

SILC Café will be every day during Humanities Week with a different language department hosting each one — and a Sun Devil Rewards secret word each day! 

Learn more.

Arming Students for Good: Youth Activism to Prevent Violence

3 p.m. to 5 p.m. | Walton Center for Planetary Health (Room 107 and Atrium)

Join the Humanities Lab at Arizona State University for a late afternoon event designed to elevate youth voices in collective efforts to prevent violence. 

Hear from public figures, scientists and students about what we know about school shootings. Participate in interactive activities designed to demonstrate the urgent need for innovative solutions.  

Learn more.


Tuesday, Oct. 17

Open Mic hosted by Hayden’s Ferry Review and Thousand Languages Project

12 p.m. to 1 p.m. | Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing or Online

Come share your creative work at this open mic event hosted by Hayden’s Ferry Review and the Thousand Languages Project.

We welcome poets, short story writers, and song writers/musicians and a microphone will be provided. Participants may share up to 3 minutes. Walk-ins may still sign up to participate. 

Learn more.

ASU Worldbuilding Initiative Distinguished Lecture with Connor Alexander

1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. 

The ASU Worldbuilding Initiative invites you to join us during Humanities Week to welcome our Fall 2023 Worldbuilding Distinguished Lecturer, Connor Alexander, lead designer of the award-winning tabletop roleplaying game Coyote & Crow.

In this interactive lecture and workshop, Connor Alexander will first introduce the world of Coyote & Crow, a sci-fi and fantasy tabletop role playing game set in a First Nations alternate future where colonization never happened, detailing the inventive and collaborative work that went into the game’s design and launch.

Afterward, he will lead participants in a character creation workshop where students and other audience members can make their own Coyote & Crow characters to take home with them, working in collaboration with Connor Alexander, the Akinana Circle live play team, and other members of the audience. 

Learn more.

Humanities Week SILC Café: Japanese

1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. | Durham Hall Lobby

The School of International Letters and Cultures invites anyone who is searching for a place to come and get to know people from across the world or surround themselves with languages from around the globe. 

SILC Café will be every day during Humanities Week with a different language department hosting each one — and a Sun Devil Rewards secret word each day! 

Learn more.

An Evening with Eddie Glaude Jr.

7 p.m. to 8 p.m. | Armstrong Hall (Room 101)

Eddie Glaude is a passionate educator, author and political commentator. He has authored a number of books on Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States and the challenges we face as a democracy. He has also written award-winning books on religion and philosophy.

He is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and Chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University and a contributor on programs like Morning Joe and Deadline Whitehouse with Nicolle Wallace. He also regularly appears on Meet the Press on Sundays and is a columnist for TIME Magazine. 

Learn more.


Wednesday, Oct. 18

Film and Media Studies Humanities Week Open House

11 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Ross-Blakley Hall (Room 117)

Film and Media Studies in the Department of English at ASU invites all to our Fall 2023 Humanities Week Open House.

We’ll showcase work from FMS students and faculty, talk about upcoming courses, and provide opportunities for students and potential students to speak with FMS faculty and staff.

Learn more.

Hear Our Voices: Why We Need Historians to Write Children’s Books in the Wake of a Banned Books Movement

2 p.m. to 5 p.m. | Hayden Library (Room 236)

Join the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies and the ASU Libraries for visiting historian Radhika Natarajan’s discussion of her first children’s book, Hear Our Voices: A Powerful Retelling of the British Empire in 20 Stories. 

Students will have the opportunity to create book ban and censorship awareness buttons via the library MakerSpace, as well as explore the Censorship Collection, a new curated collection of books and media that focuses on debates over censorship and free-speech.

Learn more.

Shakespeare at 400: Scenes From and Discussion of ‘The Book of Will’ by Lauren Gunderson

5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. | Old Main, Carson Ballroom or Online

In the case of “The Book of Will” by Lauren Gunderson, historical fiction illuminates historical fact. Discover how history was made with the publishing of Shakespeare’s Complete Works. Arizona State University presents scenes from “The Book of Will” by Lauren Gunderson, a modern, comedic look at how the Bard’s plays became the First Folio.

Historian Helen Cam has said: “Historical fiction is not only a respectable literary form; it is a standing reminder of the fact that history is about human beings.”

Learn more.


Thursday, Oct. 19

Public History Student Poster Show

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Coor Hall Room 4403

The School for Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies invites you to engage one-on-one with our current students and recent graduates who have been making an impact in public history research!

Students will showcase their projects by creating and presenting poster-sized visual representation of their findings, including the social and cultural significance of their work. The posters will be evaluated by a committee of faculty who will award fellowships to the winning students.

Learn more.

ASU Book Group: ‘The Circle That Fits’ by Kevin Lichty

12 p.m. to 1 p.m. | Piper Writers House or Zoom

The book group is open to all in the ASU community and meets monthly from noon–1 p.m. with two different options for attendance: either in-person at the Piper Writers House or virtually on Zoom. Registration is required for online attendance. In-person attendees are invited to join the author for lunch after at the University Club, no-host.

Learn more.

Humanities Week SILC Café: Arabic

1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. | Durham Hall Lobby

The School of International Letters and Cultures invites anyone who is searching for a place to come and get to know people from across the world or surround themselves with languages from around the globe. 

SILC Café will be every day during Humanities Week with a different language department hosting each one — and a Sun Devil Rewards secret word each day! 

Learn more

Mining the Deep: Speculative Fictions and Futures

Please join us for the 2023 Environmental Humanities Initiative Distinguished Lecture by Elizabeth DeLoughrey, Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles: “Mining the Deep: Speculative Fictions and Futures.”

The lecture examines the oceanic turn in the humanities, particularly what Gaston Bachelard once termed the “depth imagination.”

Learn more.

Social Cohesion Dialogue 2023 – Public Dialogue

6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. | Marston Exploration Theater or Online

Jonathan Daniel Wells, author of “The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War” and Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, author of “Children of the Land” will be in conversation with communities in and beyond ASU. 

Join us as we reflect on vulnerability, borders, resistance, history, love, advocacy and justice.

Learn more.


Friday, Oct. 20

So, what are you going to do with that?

11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Armstrong Hall (Room L1-30) or Online

“So, what are you going to do with that?” English majors, history majors, language majors and more have heard the question a million times. The truth is that you can do a lot with a humanities degree.

Join a panel of alumni from the humanities division at The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to hear their stories of where their humanities degrees took them and how their studies have positively influenced their careers.

Learn more.

Humanities Week SILC Café: Spanish

1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. | Durham Hall Lobby

The School of International Letters and Cultures invites anyone who is searching for a place to come and get to know people from across the world or surround themselves with languages from around the globe. 

SILC Café will be every day during Humanities Week with a different language department hosting each one — and a Sun Devil Rewards secret word each day! 

Learn more.

Distinguished Visiting Writers Series Features Norma Cantú & Denice Frohman

Distinguished Visiting Writers Series Features Norma Cantú & Denice Frohman

The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing holds a series of free events open to the public to ensure all individuals have the ability to participate in the literary arts. Visiting authors host small workshops in partnership with the Piper Writers Studio, engage in intimate craft talks with students, visit ASU classes, and participate in other meaningful activities.

This month, the Piper Center, in partnership with the Hispanic Research Center at ASU, welcomes Norma Cantú and Denice Frohman. The event will offer a rare opportunity to hear from two acclaimed Latinx writers talking about mentorship, ancestry, and how we leverage the past to create something new.

About the authors:

Norma Cantu

Norma Elia Cantú, the Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, is a folklorist, scholar, poet, and novelist. She served as the President of the American Folklore Society between 2019 and 2021. She is Professor emerita in English at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is a co-founder of CantoMundo, a national organization that celebrates Latino/a poets and poetics. Her most recent publications include the novel, Cabañuelas, and Meditación Fronteriza: Poems of Love, Lifeand Labor and the co-edited anthologies, Teaching Gloria E. Anzaldúa: Pedagogies and Practices for our Classrooms and our Communities and meXicana Fashions: Politics, Self-Adornment, and Identity Construction.

Denice Frohman

Denice Frohman is a poet and performer from New York City. A Pew Fellow and Baldwin-Emerson Fellow, she’s received support from CantoMundo, Headlands Center for the Arts, the National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures and Millay Colony. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The BreakBeat Poets: LatiNext, Nepantla: An Anthology for Queer Poets of Color, ESPNW and elsewhere. A former Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, she’s featured on hundreds of national and international stages from The Apollo to The White House. She lives in Philadelphia.

Hear from these talented writers on Thursday, September 21, 2023 from 6:30-8 p.m. MST.

The event will be held on the Tempe Campus in the Alumni Lounge in the Memorial Union. RSVP to save your spot for this exciting literary event.

Desert Nights, Rising Stars Conference Returning to ASU in October

Desert Nights, Rising Stars Conference Returning to ASU in October

The Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference is returning to ASU’s Tempe campus on October 12-14 after several seasons away.

The “literary event of the year,” hosted by Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, will feature 70 craft talks, workshops, panels, and readings from some of the industry’s most influential voices, including Superstition Review’s founding editor Patricia Murphy.

The conference spans a variety of genres and forms: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, memoir, screenwriting, young adult, and picture books.

Sessions will discuss editing, publishing, the business of writing and the writing life. Discussion topics include travel writing, climate change, graphic novels, translation, disability studies, hybrid forms, social justice, and more

“I’ve been to lots of writing conferences in my time, and I’ve always learned something really vital about the art of writing, the practice of writing by being at conferences. It isn’t only the presentations and workshops and readings but also the chance meetings and conversations you have along the way,” says Sheila Black.

This year’s lineup includes more than 60 presenters, such as keynote speaker Joy Harjo who served three times as the U.S. poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natalie Diaz. Attendees will have an opportunity to intimately engage with these voices in group readings.

“We went big this year and sent out invitations to all of the major writers we wanted, and not one person turned us down,” says Sheila Black, assistant director of the Piper Center. “The depth of talent at this year’s conference is amazing and will cover multiple genres.”

Black continues, “I think what makes a writing conference particularly valuable is the opportunity to get up close and personal with a number of different writers (including fellow attendees) and learning through hearing about their lives: how they made the books they made, what tricks and tips (often hard-won) they picked up along the way.”

View the schedule and the list of conference faculty. Find more information here.

Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference for 2023 is sold out, but please check out the faculty and schedule and think about joining next October for the 2024 conference. 

Letter Review Prize Launches for July-August

Letter Review has launched their bimonthly Short Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and Manuscript Prize for July-August. The contest has a total prize pool of $3800, and includes publication for the winners.

In each of the four categories, there are three winners who are published, promoted across social media channels, and split the prize pool.


Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction
Three winners are announced who are published, accompanied by an attractive original commissioned artwork. Winners share in the $1000 total prize pool. Twenty writers are longlisted and ten writers are shortlisted. All entries are considered for publication, and for submission to the Pushcart Prize and other anthologies.
Entry Fee: $20 for one submission, $35 for two submissions ($5 in savings), and $45 to enter three ($15 in savings).
Dates: Open now, closing August 31 11:59 p.m. ET.
Word Length: 0 – 5000 words.
Details: Open to anyone in the world. There are no genre or theme restrictions.

Letter Review Prize for Nonfiction
Three winners are announced who are published, accompanied by an attractive original commissioned artwork. Winners share in the $1000 total prize pool. Twenty writers are longlisted and ten are shortlisted. All entries are considered for publication, and for submission to the Pushcart Prize and other anthologies.
Entry Fee: $20 for one submission, $35 for two submissions ($5 in savings), and $45 to enter three ($15 in savings).
Dates: Open now, closing August 31 11:59 p.m. ET.
Words: 0 – 5000 words.
Details: Open to anyone in the world. All forms of nonfiction are welcomed including: Memoir, journalism, essay (including personal essay), fictocriticism, creative nonfiction, travel, nature, opinion and many other permutations.

Letter Review Prize for Poetry
Three winners are announced who are published, accompanied by an attractive original commissioned artwork. Winners share in the $800 total prize pool. Twenty writers are longlisted and ten are shortlisted. All entries considered for publication, and for submission to the Pushcart Prize and other anthologies.
Entry Fee: $15 to enter one poem, $27 to enter two (save $3), and $35 to enter three (save $10).
Dates: Open now, closing August 31 11:59 p.m. ET.
Lines: 70 lines max per poem.  
Details: Open to anyone in the world. There are no style or subject restrictions.

Letter Review Prize for Manuscripts
Three winners are announced who have a brief extract published, receive a letter of recommendation from the judges for publishers, and share in the $1000 total prize pool. Twenty writers are longlisted and ten are shortlisted.
Entry Fee: $25 to enter one submission, $45 to enter two (save $5), and $60 to enter three (save $15). 
Dates: Open now, closing August 31 11:59 p.m. ET.
Words: Please submit the first 5000 words of your manuscript, whether it be prose or poetry.
Details: Open to anyone in the world. The entry must not have been traditionally published. All varieties of novels, short story collections, nonfiction and poetry collections are welcomed. Manuscripts which are unpublished, self published, and some which are indie published will be accepted. Review full entry guidelines for further details. 

The judges will be Ol James and Kita Das.

All entries are marked blindly to ensure fairness for all writers. All contest entries are considered for publication, and for submission to the Pushcart Prize and other anthologies. Read some previous submissions here.

Entry is open to anyone. To enter, visit https://letterreview.com/information/.

The contest closes August 31 11:59 p.m. ET.


Letter Review is a literary magazine with a mission to publish new work, foster a supportive creative community, and help writers with all matters related to being published, performed and produced. Letter Review promises to pay writers professional rates and seeks submissions from writers across the globe. Letter Review is a proud member of CLMP and adheres to the CLMP Contest Code of Ethics. Letter Review features interviews with professional writers, publishes helpful information, runs competitions with monetary prizes, and remains open to unsolicited submission of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

A photo of Matt Bell. Description: He is white, with short salt-and-pepper hair. He's wearing a plaid button-up.

Coffee & Craft: Free Revision Lecture by Matt Bell

On Saturday, April 22nd at 10:30 AM AZ time, Matt Bell will lead a revision workshop “Refuse to Be Done,” named after his own book on revising novels. The workshop will take place in room LC369 inside the Language & Communication building located on Scottsdale Community College’s campus. Participants will learn Bell’s own process for breaking down revision into manageable steps and meet other aspiring writers of all skill levels.

Bell’s award-winning writing has appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, American Short Fiction, and other publications. His novel In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods was a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award and an Indies Choice Adult Book of the Year Honor Recipient, and was selected as the winner of the Paula Anderson Book Award. Both In the House and Scrapper were selected by the Library of Michigan as Michigan Notable Books.

Coffee & Craft is a new, recurring series of Saturday morning creative writing workshops at Scottsdale Community College. The first was on poetry and led by Scottsdale poet laureate Lois Roma-Deeley. The workshop is free and open to the public. Seating is first come, first serve, and subject to limited capacity. Learn more about Matt Bell at his website. A map of Scottsdale Community College’s campus can be found here. A map of the Language & Communication building itself can be found here.

A photo of Matt Bell. Description: He is white, with short salt-and-pepper hair. He's wearing a plaid button-up.

ASU Worldbuilding Initiative Workshop with Matt Bell: Imagining New Ways of Making Community


On Monday, March 27, at 4:00 PM AZ time, Matt Bell will be leading a worldbuilding workshop that examines “democracy, consensus, and communal problem solving” in imagined worlds. These workshops invite audience members to “engage in worldbuilding… inventing new ways of imagining and interacting with the world around us.”

The ASU Worldbuilding Initiative is hosted by the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics.

Matt Bell is the author of numerous books, the two most recent being Appleseed (a New York Times notable book) and Refuse to Be Done, a craft guide on writing, rewriting, and revision. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, Tin House, Fairy Tale Review, American Short Fiction, Orion, and elsewhere. Originally from Michigan, he now teaches creative writing at Arizona State University. Read more about him on his website.

This event will take place online. It’s free and open to the public, although it does require registration. Go here to learn more.

Stellar Alumni Series: Bojan Louis and Sara Sams


On Thursday, March 23, at 7:00 PM, the Creative Writing Program at ASU presents a reading by Bojan Louis and Sara Sams.

Bojan Louis is Diné of the Naakai dine’é, born for the Áshííhí. He’s written a variety of poetry and fiction, published in Alaska Quarterly, Ecotone, Colorado Review, and elsewhere. He’s published two books: Sinking Bell: Stories and Currents, which received an American Book Award. To learn more, visit his website.

Sara Sams is a writer and translator from Oak Ridge, Tennessee. She’s written a variety of poetry and nonfiction in Blackbird, Now and Then, Waxwing, and elsewhere. She’s published Atom City, her fist book of poems. To learn more, visit her website.

Read Bojan Louis’s interview in Issue 20 of Superstition Review.

Sara Sams advised on and helped to create Issue 22 of Superstition Review.

This event is free and open to the public! To learn more and register, go here.

Share Where You Write: Enter Our Giveaway!

Share Where You Write: Enter Our Giveaway!

Do you have a great writing workspace? Share a picture of the space that allows your creativity to flow to win an exclusive Superstition Review mug! Messy, orderly, or out of the ordinary workspaces are all invited to apply. To do so:

  • -Post a photo of your workspace on Twitter
  • -Mention @SuperstitionRev in your post

The contest will run from March 25th to April 3rd. We look forward to seeing all of the creative workspaces where masterpieces are born! You can view entries from our previous Workspace contests here.

A black and white photo of Richard Shelton

Celebration for Richard Shelton


On Saturday, March 4th, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, the University of Arizona Poetry Center will be celebrating the life of Richard Shelton, renowned poet, memoirist, and activist. He wrote 11 books of poetry and established a writers workshop in the Arizona State Prison at Florence. He was also an emeritus Regents Professor of Creative Writing and a founding faculty member of the University of Arizona MFA Program in Creative Writing.

This event is free, open to the public, and available online. To learn more, go here.

An interview with Richard Shelton appeared in Issue 10 of Superstition Review.