Stellar Alumni Reading Series: Katie Berta and David Martinez

The Creative Writing Program in the Department of English at ASU presents a reading by two of its star graduates: poet Katie Berta (MFA 2011) and nonfiction writer David Martinez (BA 2013). The event takes place on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, at 6 p.m. in Ross-Blakley Hall (RBHL), room 196 on ASU's Tempe campus. 

The event is part of the celebration of 2024 ASU Humanities Week. All are welcome.

Katie Berta’s debut poetry collection, "Retribution Forthcoming," won the Hollis Summers Prize and was published by Ohio University Press in March. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, The Cincinnati Review, The Yale Review, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Southeast Review, and Sixth Finch, among other magazines. She has received residencies from Millay Arts, Ragdale, and The Hambidge Center, fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, and an Iowa Review Award. She’s worked as an editor of The Iowa Review and Hayden’s Ferry Review, and has taught at the University of Iowa, ASU, and Ohio University. She currently teaches poetry at Oberlin College.

David Martinez earned his BA from ASU and his MFA from UC Riverside Palm Desert. He is a dual citizen of the United States and Brazil and has lived all over both countries as well as in Puerto Rico. His debut memoir, "Bones Worth Breaking" (MDC), was listed as one of the best memoirs of 2024 by Esquire and one of the best New Nonfiction books by Poets & Writers. He currently teaches English and creative writing in the Maricopa County Community College district.