There was a time when Rachelle Cruz, M.F.A. ’12, had all but given up on getting her poetry collection published. A 10-year labor of love, she recalled sending out “ God’s Will for Monsters ” 20-25 times before taking a two-year break from her attempts. As a last-ditch effort, Cruz submitted her collection to Inlandia Institute’s second annual...

“The Wilderness” by Maurya Simon is now available. (Jaime Clifford) RIVERSIDE, Calif. ( www.ucr.edu ) — How do you encapsulate several decades of your life? That was the question for Maurya Simon , professor emerita in the Department of Creative Writing and professor of the Graduate Division at the University of California, Riverside, while putting...

As of March 8, there have been 14 school shootings so far this year . Since the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., 756 copycat threats have been made targeting schools across the country. For author Susan Straight — and many others around the nation — the topic of school shootings and gun violence has been...