Registered for our event but can’t find the zoom link?
Email development@redhen.org or call 626-406-1205 now!
We invite you to join us for Red Hen’s first-ever virtual gala!
The event will run from 12 p.m.–1:30 p.m. on October 25, 2020, via the Zoom platform. We are providing an immersive digital experience, using breakout rooms to give guests time with our featured authors. The regular programming will showcase Red Hen’s place in the literary community with performances from local students, a silent auction, and readings by these presenting authors:
Allison Joseph 
Aimee Liu 
Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Allison Joseph
Allison Joseph lives in Carbondale, Illinois, where she is a professor of English and director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Southern Illinois University. She serves as poetry editor of Crab Orchard Review. Her books include My Father’s Kites (Steel Toe Books), Trace Particles (Backbone Press), Little Epiphanies (NightBallet Press), Mercurial (Mayapple Press), Mortal Rewards (White Violet Press), Multitudes (Word Poetry), The Purpose of Hands (Glass Lyre Press), Double Identity (Singing Bone Press), Corporal Muse (Sibling Rivalry Press), and What Once You Loved (Barefoot Muse Press). Her most recent full-length collection, Confessions of a Barefaced Woman, was published by Red Hen Press in June 2018.
Aimee Liu
Sponsored by Ann Beman
Aimee Liu is the bestselling author of the novels Flash House, Cloud Mountain, and Face and the memoirs Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders and Solitaire. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, published as a Literary Guild Super Release, and serialized in Good Housekeeping. She’s received a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, a Bosque Fiction Prize, and special mention by the Pushcart Prize. Her essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Los Angeles Times, Poets & Writers, and many other periodicals and anthologies. A past president of the national literary organization PEN Center USA, she holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Bennington College and is on the faculty of Goddard College’s MFA in Creative Writing Program at Port Townsend, WA. She lives in Los Angeles. More at www.aimeeliu.net
Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Sponsored by Francesca Bell
Maurice Carlos Ruffin is the author of We Cast a Shadow, which was published by One World Random House. The novel is a New York Times Editor’s Choice. Ruffin is the winner of several literary prizes, including the Iowa Review Award in fiction and the William Faulkner–William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition Award for Novel-in-Progress. His work has appeared in the Oxford American, Garden & Gun, and Kenyon Review. A New Orleans native, Ruffin is an assistant professor of creative writing at Louisiana State University, and the 2020-2021 John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at Ole Miss.
Featured host authors*:
- Francisco Aragón — Sponsored by James R. Wilson
- Richard Bausch
- Brendan Constantine
- Janet Fitch – Sponsored by Cindy Ballard
- David Francis
- Judy Grahn – Sponsored by Paula Verrette
- Donna Hemans
- Major Jackson – Sponsored by Nancy Boutin
- Ellen Meeropol – Sponsored by Linda Horioka
- Honor Moore – Sponsored by Nicole Foos and Jacqueline Tchakalian
- Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Jason Schneiderman
- Susan Straight — Sponsored by Bianca Richards and Ron Koertge
- Kristen Millares Young — Sponsored by Andrew Seiple
- Afaa Weaver
- Tom Lutz & Laurie Winer
*We will update this page as more authors join our event.
Additional Event Sponsors:
- Gina Knox — Gold Sponsor
- Linda Kunik — Bronze Sponsor
- Rosanne Ziering — Program Sponsor
- Tracy Don Daugherty — Book Sponsor
- Jen & David Risher — Book Sponsor
- Josh Sapan — Book Sponsor
Sponsorship Packages and Tickets
Individual Tickets – $50
- 1 admission to Red Hen’s virtual gala
- Red Hen gift bag mailed to your home at no extra cost
Gold Sponsorship – $5,000
- 10 admissions to the virtual gala
- Invitation to a separate virtual room with one of our featured readers: Allison Joseph, Aimee Liu, and Maurice Carlos Ruffin
- A gift package—delivered ahead of the event—to you and each of your guests
- 3 broadsides featuring each presenting author’s work, designed in-house by Red Hen cover artists and hand-signed by their respective authors
- Autographed books by the author mailed to you and each of your guests
Silver Sponsorship – $3,000
- 10 admissions to the virtual gala
- Invitation to a separate virtual room with one of our host authors: Francisco Aragón, Richard Bausch, Brendan Constantine, Janet Fitch, David Francis, Judy Grahn, Donna Hemans, Major Jackson, Ellen Meeropol, Jason Schneiderman, Susan Straight, Kristen Millares Young, Afaaa Weaver, and Tom Lutz & Laurie Winer
- Autographed books by the author mailed to you and each of your guests
- A gift package—delivered ahead of the event—to you and each of your guests
- Full-page ad in the event’s tribute book
Bronze Sponsorship – $1,800
- 10 admissions to the virtual gala
- Invitation to a separate virtual room with one of our amazing Red Hen authors
- A gift package—delivered ahead of the event—to you and each of your guests
- Half-page ad in the event’s tribute book
Other Sponsorship Opportunities
Press Sponsor – $5,000
- Inclusion on Red Hen’s donor wall, to be displayed at the front of its Pasadena office
- Become an official sponsor of one of Red Hen’s programs: Arktoi Books, Crooked Hearts Books, DJS Books, Pighog Press, Story Line Press, Xeno Books, Letras Latinas, Quill Publishing, Writing in the Schools, and the Hen House Literary Center
- Sponsorship noted on our website, tribute book, and at the event
- Full-page advertisement in this year’s tribute book
Program Sponsor – $2,500
- Become an official sponsor of one of Red Hen’s programs: Arktoi Books, Crooked Hearts Books, DJS Books, Pighog Press, Story Line Press, Xeno Books, Letras Latinas, Quill Publishing, Writing in the Schools, and the Hen House Literary Center
- Sponsorship noted on our website, tribute book, and at the event
- Half-page advertisement in this year’s tribute book
- Available Program Sponsorships
- Arktoi Books
- Crooked Hearts Press
- DJS Books
- Pighog Press
- Story Line Press
- Xeno Books
- Letras Latinas
- Quill Publishing
- Writing in the Schools
- Hen House Literary Center
Book Sponsor – $1,000
- Sponsorship noted on our website, tribute book, and at the event
- An optional choice of acknowledgment inside an upcoming Red Hen title
How to Sponsor the Benefit
Use the form below to confirm your sponsorship. Please remember to enter the level of sponsorship and your selected featured host and/or program in the comment section, if applicable.
For example, “Gold Table, Maurice Carlos Ruffin,” or “Program Sponsor, Writing in the Schools”
Contact Us
Please call Nicolas Niño (626) 406-1205 or email benefit@redhen.org to request additional information about this event or make a table purchase.
Past Benefits
