is the organizing force behind the 27th annual Writer’s Week at UC Riverside. The event, billed as “the longest–running free literary event in California,” features talks and readings by fiction authors, non–fiction writers and poets Tuesday, Feb. 3 through Saturday, Feb. 7. “I look forward to the poetry readings because impassioned readings of poetry always inspire me in my own fiction writing —the lyrical language, the rhythms, the concise imagery,” says Straight. “I love Chris Abani’s work, set in his native Nigeria, and especially can’t wait to hear John Espinoza, a native of Indio, who writes about that desert landscape and the people who work in it so well. He once wrote a line about a burrito being put by a gardener ‘in the dashboard microwave,’ which I’ve never forgotten.” Read more.