Fresno native Tim Z. Hernandez will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Young Writers Conference (YWC) on April 21.

About 200 Central Valley high school students are expected to gather Wednesday morning to see Hernandez, an award-winning author, read from his new novel Breathing in Dust. He is currently working in tandem with UCLA’s Center for Book and Poets and Writers Inc.

This will be the 30th annual Young Writers Conference held on the campus.

The participants are encouraged to submit their works for Spectrum, a journal-length anthology of student work that can be used in classrooms on campuses across the valley.

The conference has solicited creative writing submissions from high schools all over the Central Valley for submissions.

A board consisting of Master’s of Fine Arts (MFA) students evaluated the submissions and selected winners for at least 14 separate awards, which will be presented during the conference.

Hernandez’s collection of poetry, Skin Tax, won an American Book Award in 2006 and he will also be reading from this if time allows.
“This year’s journal is excellent,” conference coordinator Tanya Nichols said.

Nichols said the conference has many useful applications, for educators and students alike.

The students who attend the conference will have the opportunity to participate in creative writing workshops where their work will receive feedback from Fresno State MFA students.

“I have had students in my college courses tell me that attending the conference and having a story published in our journal helped them gain acceptance to college,” Nichols said. She said the two Pulitzer Prize winners have come from Fresno, and that supporting the creative writing arts in high school is an important task.

“The Young Writers Conference showcases the valley’s terrific literary potential and Fresno State’s commitment to the arts,” said Timothy Skeen, an English professor of poetry at Fresno State.

“This event encourages the appreciation and study of creative writing, especially important when public schools are cutting support of the arts,” Nichols said. “Fresno is an area that has a rich history of producing great writers. The YWC is an excellent opportunity for high school students to get a taste of university life as well as a chance to get feedback on their writing. In addition, teachers of writing are able to network with other teachers from both the high school and university levels.