Readings under the trees

The arboretum and the Department of English call it “Opening Night,” readings under the trees by the creative writing faculty at the beginning of the new academic year.

This year’s “Opening Night” is scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct. 15 on the Wyatt Deck, next to the redwood grove; admission is free and open to the public. In the event of rain, the program will move to 126 Voorhies Hall.

“Please join us for a starlit evening of fiction and poetry ... this year with hot cocoa (byo sweater!),” organizers said.

On the program: Lucy Corin, Joshua Clover, Pam Houston, Joe Wenderoth and Alan Williamson, and special guest Salvador Plascencia, who is teaching in the Creative Writing Program this year.

A Poetry in the Garden session, free and open to the public, is coming to the arboretum at noon Nov. 12 on the Wyatt Deck. (This event was originally scheduled for an earlier date.)

The featured poets: emerita Sandra Gilbert, Distinguished Professor of English, the author of seven collections of poetry, a memoir and an anthology of elegies; and Kel Munger, book editor, Sacramento News & Review, and author of the poetry collection The Fragile Peace You Keep.

A conversation with ...

... Alan Cheuse, whose latest book is To Catch the Lightning: A Novel of American Dreaming. He is due to participate in the Conversations With Writers series, presented by the University Writing Program, at 4 p.m. Oct. 13 in 126 Voorhies Hall. The conversation is free and open to the public.

Cheuse, a novelist, essayist and story writer, has appeared weekly on National Public Radio since the early 1980s, and is a longtime teacher of writing at George Mason University.

Library offers ARTstor class

The General Library announced a free class on ARTstor, an archive of more than 1 million high-quality digital images for use in teaching and research.

Organizers said the class will offer instruction in searching for and saving images in ARTstor, with a special focus on finding relevant images for the arts, humanities and social sciences.

The class is scheduled from 10:30 a.m. to noon Oct. 16 in the Instruction Lab, 165 Shields Library. Registration is required: lib.ucdavis.edu/classes.