Experience a Dynamic Literary Community.

The Contemporary Writers Series at Mills College features monthly readings and talks by renowned and emerging writers. Graduate students produce and promote the series, which brings the Mills community and San Francisco Bay Area audiences together to enjoy an intimate evening followed by a reception. All events are free, open to the public, and held in the Mills Hall Living Room, unless otherwise indicated.

Fall 2018 Literary Series

Tommy Pico

Tuesday, September 11, 2018 | 5:30 pm | Mills Hall Living Room

• Tommy Pico's critically acclaimed books of poetry include IRL and Nature Poem. Originally from the Viejas Indian reservation of the Kumeyaay nation, he now lives in Brooklyn where he co-curates the reading series Poets With Attitude (PWA) with Morgan Parker, co-hosts the podcast Food 4 Thot, and is a contributing editor at Literary Hub. Pico's many honors include a Whiting Award and fellowships with Lambda Literary, Queer/Arts/Mentors, and New York Foundation for the Arts.

Koa Beck

Tuesday, September 25, 2018 | 5:30 pm | Mills Hall Living Room

• Mills alumna Koa Beck is the editor-in-chief of Jezebel. Beck's literary criticism and reporting on gender, LGBTQ+ rights, culture, and race have appeared in the Atlantic, the New York Observer, the Guardian, Esquire, Vogue, and Marie Claire. Her short stories have appeared in Slice, Kalyani Magazine, and Apogee Journal. Her writing has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and she serves on the board of directors of Nat.But, an art and literary magazine.

 Judy Grahn

Tuesday, October 16, 2018 | 5:30 pm | Mills Hall Living Room

• Judy Grahn is internationally known as a poet, writer, and cultural theorist. Her writings helped fuel, globally, second wave feminist, gay, and lesbian activism, as well as women’s and queer spirituality. Grahn is the author of fourteen books, including a memoir, A Simple Revolution: The Making of an Activist Poet. Her newest release is Hanging On Our Own Bones, a collection of signature nine-part poems including “A Woman Is Talking to Death,” and “Mental.”  Forthcoming are stories in two anthologies, Strange Attractors, and Spoon/Knife 3, stories of creatures and neurodivergence.

Dickson Lam

Tuesday, November 6, 2018 | 5:30 pm | Mills Hall Living Room

• Dickson Lam is author of Paper Sons: A Memoir. Lam’s work has appeared in StoryQuarterly, the Kenyon Review Online, Hyphen Magazine, the Normal School, PANK, the Good Men Project, the Rumpus, and Kartika Review. He is a VONA alum and has been a resident fellow at the Millay Colony for the Arts and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. Lam is an assistant professor of English at Contra Costa College and lives in Oakland.