The olive is among the oldest known cultivated trees in the world, grown before the written language was invented. In California, there are many isolated trees or fragments of old groves, such as the trees that still stand on the Woodbury campus. Traditionally, after harvest, oil was pressed in screw or hydraulic presses. The paste was subjected to increasingly high pressures with subsequent degradation in the flavor of the oil. Thus, the “first press” of oil was considered the most flavorful and desirable. ~ the Olive Oil Source, 2018

The FIRST PRESS READING SERIES ran as part of the extended programming of MORIA Literary Magazine at Woodbury University for seven years, from 2017 to 2024. It is no longer active. Please enjoy this catalogue of our past readers and the dates they were featured:

ARCHIVE :: PAST FEATURES IN THE FIRST PRESS READING SERIES, 2017-2024

Susan Rich and Brynn Saito, April 2024

Margaret Elysia Garcia and Tricia Lopez, November 2023

multiple poets at Giovanni’s Room, DTLA, April 2023

Toni Ann Johnson, February 2023 (WORDSHOP)

Chloe Martinez, November 2022

Chekwube Danladi, September 2022

Eliza Smith, May 2022

traci kato-kiriyama, March 2022

José Hernandez Diaz, November 2021

Scott Broker, September 2021

Darnell L. Moore, April 2021

Nikia Chaney and Shareen K. Murayama, February 2021

Genevieve Kaplan, November 2020

F. Douglas Brown and Geffrey Davis, September 2020

Lynne Thompson, April 2020

Richard Garcia, February 2020 (WORDSHOP)

Lory Bedikian, November 2019 (WORDSHOP)

Douglas Manuel, September 2019 (WORDSHOP)

Heidi Seaborn and Reuben Ellis, April 2019

Suzanne Lummis, February 2019 (WORDSHOP)

Désirée Zamorano, November 2018

Brendan Constantine, October 2018 (WORDSHOP)

Naoko Fujimoto and Angela Narciso Torres, April 2018 (WORDSHOP)

Chiwan Choi, April 2018

Linda Dove, February 2018

Neil Aitken and Mike Sonksen, November 2017