Karina Cardenas, library special collections and archives assistant in the Special Collections Research Center, was selected for the Smithsonian's Latino Museum Studies Program Graduate Fellowship. Her summer fellowship will contribute to the project "Unleashing the Accessibility of Latina/o/x, Afro-Latina/o/x, and Mestiza/o/x Archival Documentation" at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Working collaboratively with the interim director of the Rinzler Archives, Cardenas will contribute to the stewarding of more than 5,200 cubic feet of papers, photographs, audiovisual media, and a rapidly expanding footprint of digital archives that make up some of the world’s most important ethnographic documentary materials, including the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, original field research and special projects conducted across the country.

Venita Blackburn, English faculty, had her book “How To Wrestle a Girl” named as a finalist in lesbian fiction for a Lambda Literary Award.

Steven Church, English faculty, was interviewed for the Fresno’s Best Podcast.

Randa Jarrar, English faculty, was interviewed by author Roxane Gay for the podcast The Roxane Gay Agenda. In conversation with author Mychal Denzel Smith for Lit Hub’s Open Form podcast.

Yia Lee, English lecturer, was interviewed by author K-Ming Chang for The Normal School magazine.

Dr. Alison Mandaville, English faculty, reviewed the Gulbahar Haitiwaji and Rozenn Morgat nonfiction book “How I Survived a Chinese ‘Reeducation’ Camp: A Uyghur Woman’s Story,” and the Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura nonfiction book “We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration” for World Literature Today. Published the poem “Sana’a: Girl and Soldiers in Spring” in Grub Street Literary Magazine. Wrote the preface and served as co-editor and English translator for the “Anthology of Young Azeri Poets” from Vakxikon Publications.

Brynn Saito, English faculty, published an essay on the works of Adrienne Rich, “First Loves, Remembered,” for the Poetry Society of America. Published the poems “What exists outside the frame” on the Denshō blog, The Catalyst; and “Thirteen Ways of Looking At a Teacher Resource” in The Volta.

Hector Tapía III, English lecturer, was accepted into a summer residency with Aesop scholar Dr. Laura Gibbs on a “proverb recipes” project, with the goal to create a proverbs book for Latin, Spanish and English learners, where students are taught how to read and write proverbs in each respective language.

Mai Der Vang, English faculty, had her book “Yellow Rain,” named as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry; finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; finalist for the California Book Award from the Commonwealth Club; and finalist for the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry from PEN America. News coverage of the Pulitzer recognition included stories from Valley Public Radio, ABC30, and The Fresno Bee. Interviewed about the book by Sydney Van To for the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network. Published the poem “Disfigures” in the Adroit Journal. Won a 2022 Promising New Faculty Award from interim Provost Dr. Xuanning Fu.

Dr. Lisa Weston, English faculty, published the article “‘Wyrd’ Poetics: Collapsing Timescapes and Untimely Desires in ‘The Ruin’” in the open access journal Humanities, a special issue on Old English poetry and its legacy. Presented the paper “Seeing in Dark Time: Old English Uht and the Embodied Ecology of Visionary Experience” at the annual conference of the Medieval Association of the Pacific.