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Telling stories about books by campus scholars

colorful conceptual design of UCSB's sneak peek promotion of it's annual community reading program

Sneak peek: UCSB Reads announces 2026 shortlist

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Courtesy
Author Louis Bayard is adapting his novel "The Wildes," which explores Oscar Wilde’s family life, for a staged reading at UCSB’s LAUNCH PAD Summer Series on July 10.

Louis Bayard brings ‘The Wildes’ to UCSB’s LAUNCH PAD series
US map breaking apart
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iStock

Could America break apart? UCSB expert explores the possibility
man with grey and black shoulder length hair and tattoos on his arms
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Jeff Liang
Artist and professor Kip Fulbeck creates spaces for people to define themselves and be seen as they are.

What does it mean to be ‘Hapa?’ Artist Kip Fulbeck reflects on 25-year identity project
color photograph of professor Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky
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Matt Perko
Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky, December 2024

Hamed-Troyansky’s “Empire of Refugees” wins multiple book prizes
Closeup of 'The Book of Delights' with a library and people in the background
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Courtesy UC Santa Barbara Library

Author Ross Gay caps off UCSB Reads 2025 with appearance on campus
a scuba diver floating near a colony of soft corals in Fiji
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Melody Jue
A scuba diver pictured with a colony of soft corals in Fiji, 2020

‘Coralations’ Q&A with author Melody Jue
A set of hands holding up champagne flutes in a cheers at night
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iStock

Alcohol marketing ushered in a golden age of drinking in America
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Giovanni Batz wins book prize for 'The Fourth Invasion'
Two adults facing each other, surrounded by yellow flowers
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Matt Perko
The sum total of our daily communication comprises our “social biomes.”

Improve your life by embracing everyday, even mundane, conversations? Research says yes.
woman in dark light and shadow with red streaks of light
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Matt Perko
Jane Ward is a professor and chair of UCSB's Department of Feminist Studies

How feminist witch studies redefine magic and power
man of East Asian descent in stadium with dramatic light
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Jeff Liang
Professor Sameer Pandya at UC Santa Barbara's Harder Stadium

In Sameer Pandya’s ‘Our Beautiful Boys,’ teenage secrets are the dark heart of suburbia
illustration of a group of hands holding up the symbol for female

Abortion rights backlash and globalization
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