Two very different memoirs are the subject of upcoming author programs. The literary calendar also includes another installment of Poetry in the Garden and an author event with English professor Elizabeth Freeman.

In addition, the University Writing Program announced the fourth biannual Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, a one-day training opportunity for all UC Davis faculty members.

All of the programs are free and open to the public.

Poetry in the Garden: Aung Aung Taik — Born in Burma and now living in San Francisco, Aung Aung Taik has published many poems and essays, a novel and a cookbook, and his work has appeared in such publications such as The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Poetry USA. He is also one of Burma’s pioneering modern painters, and has had numerous solo exhibitions in the United States, Japan and Burma. Noon-1 p.m. Wednesday, April 13, Wyatt Deck. In the event of rain, this program will move to 146 Environmental Horticulture.

Conversations with Writers: Ryan Van Meter — Sponsored by the University Writing Program, which declared that Van Meter reinvented the memoir in his recently released book, If You Knew Then What I Know Now, a collection of 14 linked essays that reconstruct the middle-American experiences of coming of age and coming out.

Van Meter is an assistant professor of creative nonfiction at the University of San Francisco. His essays have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Indiana Review, Gulf Coast, Arts & Letters and Fourth Genre, among other publications, and have been selected for such anthologies as Best American Essays 2009.

He grew up in Missouri and studied English at the University of Missouri-Columbia. After graduating, he lived in Chicago for 10 years and worked in advertising. He holds a Master of Arts degree in creative writing from DePaul University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa.

The Van Meter conversation is scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 20, 126 Voorhies Hall. For more information, contact Karma Waltonen, kjwaltonen@ucdavis.edu.

Author events at the bookstore — Two UC Davis authors are scheduled to give talks, answer questions and sign books next week, in the lounge at the main bookstore in the Memorial Union.

• Elizabeth Freeman, professor of English — Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories, described as a powerful argument that temporal and sexual dissonance are intertwined, and that the writing of history can be both embodied and erotic. Challenging queer theory’s recent emphasis on loss and trauma, Freeman foregrounds bodily pleasure in the experience and representation of time as she interprets an eclectic archive of queer literature, film, video and art. She examines work by visual artists who emerged in a commodified, “postfeminist,” and “postgay” world. Yet they do not fully accept the dissipation of political and critical power implied by the idea that various political and social battles have been won and are now consigned to the past. Noon-1 p.m. Wednesday, April 13.

• Amy Block Joy, faculty member and Cooperative Extension nutritionist — Whistleblower, about her reporting (in August 2006) of suspected irregularities in the UC Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program, at that time administered through the UC Davis Department of Nutrition. She touched off a string of events that eventually would reveal $2.3 million in misused state and federal funds, result in the conviction of a former nutrition department staffer for embezzlement, and prompt major procedural changes in the program’s financial oversight. Noon-1 p.m. Thursday, April 14. Earlier coverage: "Whistleblower writes memoir about UC Davis case," Dateline UC Davis (Jan. 28, 2011)

Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum Conference — Bringing together regional experts in student writing. Among them: UC Davis Professor Dana Ferris, associate director of the University Writing Program, who will deliver the keynote address, titled “Facilitating Success for Language Minority and At-Risk Students: What I Learned from George.”

The University Writing Program is a co-sponsor with the Writing Across the Curriculum Program at California State University, Sacramento.

The conferebnce is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday, April 22, in the Foothill Suites in Sacramento State's University Union.

People planning to attend are asked to RSVP by e-mail, wac@csus.edu.

More information, including the complete program.

UC Davis contact: Carl Whithaus, associate professor, University Writing Program, cwwhithaus@ucdavis.edu.