UCR Newsroom

Palm Desert, Calif. -- www.palmdesert.ucr.edu -- Renowned poet and author Juan Felipe Herrera will talk about his own formation as a nationally known writer-artist, community builder and arts educator in a presentation titled “Desert Flowers of the Night,” at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 21, at UCR Palm Desert.

The public talk is part of the “Imagining the Future” lecture series offered at UCR Palm Desert, 75-080 Frank Sinatra Drive. Admission is free but reservations are suggested and can be made by calling (760) 834-0597.

Herrera, a professor of creative writing at UCR, will speak of his coming of age in California, his migrant farmworker family, and his emergence as a poet and children’s book writer and novelist. He will display an album of digital images, landscapes and recorded voices to illustrate journeys into various indigenous communities in Mexico as he discusses the discovery or art in places seldom recognized.

Author of 21 books, Herrera's publications during the past ten years include fourteen collections of poetry, prose, short stories, young adult novels and picture books for children. His literary endeavors have garnered him the Ezra Jack Keats Award, the Hungry Mind Award of Distinction, the Americas Award, and the Focal Award. Herrera is also a community arts leadership builder with youth-at-risk and migrant communities, and an actor with appearances on film and stage.

Herrera holds the Tomás Rivera Chair at UCR. He is chair of the Creative Writing Department and director of the Barbara and Art Culver Center for the Arts — a multimedia space in the making in Riverside’s downtown walking mall.

UCR Palm Desert is a satellite campus of the University of California, Riverside. UCR Palm Desert sits at the heart of the Coachella Valley offering a Master’s of Business Administration program in Entrepreneurial Management through its Richard J. Heckmann International Center for Entrepreneurial Management. The Educational Center offers a Master’s of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts. Visit www.palmdesert.ucr.edu or call 760-834-0800 for more information.

The University of California, Riverside (www.ucr.edu) is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment of about 18,000 is expected to grow to 21,000 students by 2020. The campus is planning a medical school and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Graduate Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion.

A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.