Special Section: Hays Press-Enterprise Lecture

Authors will discuss the trials and triumphs of the writing process next week when UC Riverside hosts its annual Writers Week.

"This is our 33rd year - it's the longest-running literary event in Southern California," said Michael Jayme, assistant professor of creative writing at UCR and director of Writers Week.

The aim of the week is to engage university students and the local community with well-known authors from a variety of genres, including fiction, poetry, nonfiction and journalism. Authors read and discuss their works, sign books and talk to their fans.

Janet Fitch, author of the novels "White Oleander" and "Paint It Black," will give the keynote address on Wednesday. "White Oleander" was an Oprah's Book Club selection and was made into a motion picture in 2000.

Lawrence Wright, staff writer for The New Yorker, will deliver this year's Hays Press-Enterprise Lecture on Thursday.

Wright is a playwright and the author of a history of al-Qaeda, "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9-11." Now in its 42rd year, the Hays lecture was founded by former Press-Enterprise editor Howard "Tim" Hays.

New this year, Writers Week will include a focus on science fiction. Three sci-fi authors will make their presentations in the UCR library, home to the J. Lloyd Eaton Collection. "It's the largest public repository of science fiction in the world," Jayme said.

Rob Latham, associate professor of English, worked on that aspect of the event. "One of his areas of specialization is science fiction. He did the legwork," Jayme said.

Event organizers also tweaked the schedule, starting events earlier in the day in hopes of attracting lunchtime crowds. "Some years we have stronger turnouts than others," he said. "The night events have been really well attended."

Last year's Hays Press-Enterprise lecture drew several hundred people. "You bring really diverse audiences. It's a good mix of energy in that room."

Two UCR alumni will be featured this year. Rebecca O'Connor wrote a memoir of her experiences as a falconer. Victoria Patterson is the author of "Drift," a novel that has been nominated for the 2009 Storey Prize.

Heidi Durrow is another award-winning author. Her coming of age novel "The Girl Who Fell From the Sky" won the 2008 Bellwether Prize for fiction. UCR's Writers Week marks the kickoff of her book tour.

While the authors talk about the writing process, poet Tim Geiger is going to demonstrate the production side of publishing as well. He will do a printing demonstration using the small presses in the university library's collection.

"It's going to be a lot of fun - it's going to be a good week," Jayme said.