Stellar Alumni Reading Series: Bojan Louis and Sara Sams

The Creative Writing Program in the Department of English at ASU presents a reading by two of its star graduates: fiction writer / poet Bojan Louis (MFA 2009) and poet Sara Sams (MFA 2013). The event takes place on Thursday, Mar. 23, 2023 at 7 p.m. in the Pima Auditorium (room 230) of the Memorial Union on ASU's Tempe campus.

Bojan Louis is Diné of the Naakai dine’é, born for the Áshííhí. He is the author of the short-story collection "Sinking Bell" (Graywolf Press 2022), the poetry collection "Currents" (BkMk Press 2017), and the nonfiction chapbook "Troubleshooting Silence in Arizona" (The Guillotine Series 2012). His work can also be found in "Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers," "When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry," "Native Voices Anthology," and "The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature." His honors include a MacDowell Fellowship and he is the recipient of a 2018 American Book Award. In addition to teaching at the Institute for American Indian Arts, Louis is an assistant professor in the Creative Writing MFA and American Indian Studies programs at the University of Arizona.

Sara Sams is a writer and translator from Oak Ridge, Tennessee. She currently works as an assistant professor in the University of Arizona’s Creative Writing program. In addition to her MFA from ASU, she is a graduate of Davidson College (BA) and has received teaching fellowships from the Ministry of Education of Spain and the National University of Singapore. She believes all poetry is an act of translation, a belief she holds fast to in her role as Poetry Editor for Identity Theory. Her first book of poems, "Atom City" (Finishing Line Press 2021), has been described by poet Cynthia Hogue as a collection that “documents government duplicity and the revisionist history of developing the atomic bomb” and by poet Diana Marie Delgado as “brilliant debut collection, [in which] she proves herself to be a poet of immense personal and historical depth.”