The School of Social Science, Humanities, and Arts and the UC Merced Library are collaborating to launch a writer in residence program in the 2025-26 academic year, with San Joaquin Valley native Marx Arax. A best-selling author and award-winning journalist, Arax has spent decades chronicling the soul of California through essays, history, biography, and investigative reporting. The program opens with a public lecture in the fall, features a second open house event in the spring, and includes a monthly workshop series to support undergraduate learning experiences in the humanities and arts, with attention to professional writing topics, sustainability themes, and community-engaged research approaches. Associated activities include the development of an oral history archive for long-term access and research enrichment.
Mark Arax has been called a “21st Century John Steinbeck” for his books that pry open the soul of California. A writer of essays, history, biography and journalism, he is a two-time winner of the California Book Award and a recipient of Stanford University's William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. His most recent work, The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California, a national bestseller, has been hailed by critics as one of the most important books ever written about the West. The New York Times has named The Dreamt Land and one of Mark’s previous books, The King of California, to a short list of California’s best literature over the past 150 years.
Mark Arax’s opening lecture will address how the Golden State tries to be a world leader in the fight against climate change but pursues the very policies of growth, extraction and AI that endanger the environment and humanity.
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