Released: February 2, 2024
SFCC and IAIA creative writing programs have partnered for the free online readings and creative sessions
Manny Loley will read at 6 p.m. Feb. 21 and lead a creative session at 6 p.m. Feb. 28
Register for link at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WritingGenSpring24
The Santa Fe Community College Library announces Diné storyteller Manny Loley, Ph.D., will be the next speaker in The Writing Generation Series with an online reading at 6 p.m. Feb. 21 and a follow-up creative session at 6 p.m. Feb. 28. The series is being produced through a collaborative partnership with SFCC’s Creative Writing program and the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) undergraduate Creative Writing Program.
This free online series is open to the public and consists of two types of events: Readings by writers and creative sessions when attendees will be given writing prompts and time to write. Featured speaker Manny Loley, Ph.D., will read a selection of his writings on Feb. 21 and will follow-up with a creative session on Feb. 28. Register at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WritingGenSpring24. Registrants will receive a Zoom link the morning of the event.
Manny Loley bio:
Manny Lopez, Ph.D., Diné storyteller
Manny Loley is a Diné storyteller. He earned a Ph.D. in English and literary arts from the University of Denver, and an M.F.A. in fiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Loley is an inaugural In-Na-Po Fellow, and a member of Saad Bee Hózhǫ́: Diné Writers’ Collective. Since 2018, he has served as director of the Emerging Diné Writers’ Institute at Navajo Technical University. His work has found homes in Poetry Magazine, Pleaides Magazine, the Massachusetts Review, the Santa Fe Literary Review, Broadsided Press, the Yellow Medicine Review, and the Diné Reader: an Anthology of Navajo Literature, among others. His writing has been thrice nominated for Pushcart Prizes. Loley is at work on a novel titled, “They Collect Rain in Their Palms.”
As a Diné storyteller, Manny Loley writes in multiple genres including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and sometimes in photographs. His poetry is written in both English and in Diné bizaad (Navajo language), which engages with ancestral and contemporary Diné experiences. Loley’s fiction pieces include short stories and excerpts from his novel in progress. His fiction blends genres to tell Diné stories that spans the cultural beauty, depth, grit, and complexity of Diné life. Central to Loley’s writing practice are the stories and teachings passed on to him by his grandparents, his mother, and his family. These stories and teachings are focal points in his creative nonfiction as he attempts to write thought provoking pieces that explores themes of storytelling praxis, what it means to be gay in Diné culture, and much more.
Bá Yáti’: Translating Our Worlds
Creative Generative Writing session on Feb. 28
Loley writes about the session, “In Diné thought, the storyteller can be viewed as a conduit for stories. While the storyteller may have autonomy to tell a variety of stories, there also exists a symbiotic relationship between human beings and the natural world. In fact, these two groups are not mutually exclusive but variations of people. Personhood, in Diné thought, extends beyond human beings to include the vast network of communicators that exist in the natural world. More than anything, it is recognized the natural world is a relative.
“To be in kinship as a storyteller is to honor this familial relationship through the act of translation, not only of languages but also of experience. How do we translate saad (i.e., words, language, speech, sound)? How do we translate experience? What are the possibilities of translation? These are some of the ideas and questions we’ll be thinking and writing about in this generative session.”
Manny Loley’s events are the second in the Generative Writing Series. Janna Lopez, Santa Fe Poet Laureate Ambassador, led the first two sessions in January. Later in the semester Serena Rodriguez will read at 6 p.m. March 20 and lead a creative session at 6 p.m. April 3.
On May 1, the first semester of the series will conclude with an online reading for participants from the previous events, as they get the chance to share their work.
Registration for all Writing Generation Series events is online at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WritingGenSpring24. Registrants will be notified of additional series events as they are added. All events are online. Zoom links will be sent to participants who register the morning of each event. Other writers participating in the series and the dates of their events will be announced in 2024.
The Writing Generation Series is sponsored by the SFCC Creative Writing program, the SFCC Library, and the IAIA Creative Writing Program. For more information on The Writing Generation Series, please contact SFCC Library Director Valerie Nye at valerie.nye@sfcc.edu or 505-428-1506.
The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is the only college in the world dedicated to the study of contemporary Native American and Alaska Native arts. IAIA offers undergraduate degrees in Cinematic Arts and Technology, Creative Writing, Indigenous Liberal Studies, Museum Studies, Performing Arts, and Studio Arts; graduate degrees in Creative Writing, Studio Arts, and Cultural Administration; and certificates in Broadcast Journalism, Business and Entrepreneurship, Museum Studies, and Native American Art History. The college serves approximately 500 full-time equivalent (FTE) Native and non-Native American students from around the globe, representing nearly a hundred federally recognized tribes. Named one of the top art institutions by UNESCO and the International Association of Art, IAIA is among the leading art institutes in our nation and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC).
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