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SEE OUR NEW WEBITE:
Fall 2025
Workshop happens
First two weekends of October:
October 4-5, and 11-12,
9am to 1pm Pacific Time
Save the date!
Applications open!
Fall 2025 Instructors
Lorna Dee Cervantes, Juan G. Berumen, Ernesto Mireles, Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl, Ernest Hogan, Estella Gonzalez, and M.M. Olivas.
Fall 2025 Presenters
Presentations happen to all participants the first hour of the workshop with topics on craft and Xicanxismo. The first day is orientation with no presentation.
Amalia Ortiz, author of The Canción Cannibal Cabaret
Ernesto Mireles, author of Insurgent Aztlán
Angel Dominguez, author of Desgraciado
Fall 2025 Classes Offered
October 4-5, and 11-12
Comics con Corazón y Comunidad
With Dr. E C Dukes and Ronnie Dukes
This workshop centers the voices of Xicanx and BIPOC creators, bringing together storytelling, drawing, and community. Through guided writing and art prompts, participants will clear the mind, spark fresh ideas, and craft comics that celebrate identity and amplify our collective voice. Together, we’ll explore how comics can be a tool for creativity, self-expression, and activism. No experience needed—just bring your corazón.
With Dr. E C Dukes and Ronnie Dukes
This intensive poetry workshop presents the whole enchilada of writing like the "best" Chicana poets, according to Indigenous New Mexican Chicana poet & literary critic, Prof. Cordelia Candelaria. Divided into the 4 phases of the Creative/Critical Process (GENeration/ SELection/ RE-Vision/ CRITical Evaluation) each session will introduce and explore Candelaria's four "I/ eye/ ¡ay!/ hay"s of a "good" Chicana poem. Focus will be on our work. All levels. Simon que sí es bilingual. (You need not be.) Be prepared to write. Be Brave. Be Real. Be Critical. Be There. Anywhere. ¿Y qué?
The Monstrous Queer with M.M. Olivas, a craft seminar on horror as a modality that centers queer indigeneity and diasporic experiences, with the intention of opening avenues to more diverse, cross-genre narratives. This seminar will focus on engaging with genre tropes, how to utilize the symbolism of them, their short hands, and how to subvert them. Olivas will also discuss her practice in translating the languages of other mediums into her fiction, such as the visual storytelling of cinema, to create unique ways to approach prose and voice. There will be generative exercises!
If you were to journey through the borderlands, what stories would you encounter? Would they be of curanderas driving lowriding hovercrafts exorcising those possessed by The Curse of El Mal Ojo?
For our gente, speculative fiction allows us the freedom to tell similar stories unfiltered without fearing the straitjacket while also envisioning wildly new worlds and possibilities
Crafting Nonfiction for Liberation
with Dr. Ernesto Mireles
Dive into the transformative world of resistance literature and the fight for national liberation in the Insurgent Aztlán Workshop. Based on Ernesto Todd Mireles' work, this interactive session explores the role of cultural production in reclaiming identity, challenging oppression, and shaping revolutionary movements. Participants will examine how Xicana/o/x literature, film, music, and art confront colonial narratives, and foster collective will toward liberation. Through writing prompts, group discussions, and creative exercises, attendees will learn to connect cultural heritage to political identity, explore the principles of decolonization, and craft narratives that amplify resistance. Whether you're a writer, activist, or scholar, this workshop offers tools to deepen your understanding of insurgent culture and inspire impactful change. Join us as we analyze key thinkers like Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral, and learn to reframe history, ignite self-determination, and envision a liberated future. No prior experience required—just bring your passion for storytelling and transformation!
Comunicaciones Ancestrales: Escritores Multidimensionales
Ancestral Communications: Multidimensional Writers
(Class is conducted in Spanish)
with Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl
Comunicación Celestial:
Escritores Multidimensionales
Por medio de una serie de meditaciones, participantes aprenderán a abrir y a limpiar sus chakras o "totonalcayos" en el mundo de Nahualísmo. Ya alineados los totonalcayos, participantes aprenderán a conectarse con sus ancestros: revelando sabiduría ancestral, al femenino divino: desbloqueando la energía fundamental de la creación y la creatividad, y al masculino divino: descubriendo fuerza interior y aumentando auto-confianza. Al abrir las mentes y los corazones, participantes podrán viajar por una sin fin de mundos llenos de colores y visiones con el fin de capturar estas experiencias, iniciando nuevas escrituras - escrituras multidimensionales.
Celestial Communication:
Multidimensional Writers
Through a series of guided meditations, participants will learn how to open up and clear their chakras, or "totonalcayos" in the school of Nahualísmo. Once the totonalcayos have been aligned, attendees will learn how to connect with their ancestors: revealing ancestral wisdom, the divine feminine: unlocking the fundamental energy of creation and creativity, and the divine masculine: unveiling one's inner-strength and building our self-confidence. By opening the heart and clearing the mind, participants will be able to travel through an array of worlds filled with visions and vibrant colors all with the underlying purpose of documenting these experiences - the starting point for creating unique and personalized, multidimensional writings.
Gonzo Science Fiction, Chicano Style
With Ernest Hogan
Ernest Hogan was born in East L.A. during the Atomic Age and his mother’s maiden name is Garcia. His 40 years of writing and publishing science fiction and other strange things have caused some call him the Father of Chicano Science Fiction, though there has not yet been a DNA test.
Come, learn his gonzo techniques to use the weirdness of the Latinoid Continuum in your writing, and how to market yourself to the Anglo-centric publishing industry, use the social media for self-promotion, as well as hear outrageous--sometimes hair-raising--firsthand anecdotes of living a professional writer’s life.
He will also answer your questions, wants this to be an interactive experience, hopes to learn a few things himself, and maybe even get his mind blown.
During the course of the workshop, he will start and write a story, sharing how he does it (it will get gonzo), and help the students do the same.
Then we will all set our creations loose on an unsuspecting world . . .
Conception, Gestation and Vibration: “Birthing”, Nurturing and Publishing Chicanx Fiction
With Estella Gonzalez
This workshop will focus on helping Chicanx writers immerse themselves in their fiction and use their life experiences and cultural touchstones to find their voices. Through journal entries, generative prompts, and presentations on effective fiction technique such as robust points of view for strong storytelling, Chicanx writers will explore the literary possibilities for their prose. The final session will focus on constructive peer/group review, finding supportive publishers and sustaining a Chicanx writing community to “voice” (publish and peer-review) their fiction.