Open Ceilings Events

Summer 2022: Lemonade Pre-Sale

May 16 - May 20, 2021

Open Ceilings issue 5: Lemonade is now available for pre-sale until the official launch date, May 20th.

With Lemonade, we hope to draw on the sentimentality and contrasting flavors associated with this quintessential summer drink. This issue unites stories which ask us to consider the relationship between sweet and sour, hardship and happiness, through a series of distinct and unique perspectives. Through this lens, we can reminisce on past experiences while also looking to future opportunities. In this issue of Open Ceilings, each piece represents a dichotomy of emotion and experience. In “Salt and Pitch” we confront the stagnancy of a fishing town with wondrous mermaids, while in “Alabama” we reconcile difficult histories with the importance of solidarity and community. We implore you to consider the complexities of friendship and love in “The Less We Say About It The Better,” to examine visual art of patchwork faces and family dynamics, and to confront your own relationship with color after reading “Oh, To Be a Brown Crayon.”

See the link below to pre-order your own issue of Lemonade! All orders will ship on May 21st.

Cross Campus Virtual Gala

Friday, April 8, 2022
Zoom Meeting ID: 920 4870 2896
6-8 pm

Join us for our second, cross campus, collaborative event! Come hear a series of curated readers from publications at four UC Campuses -- Berkeley Fiction Review (UC Berkeley), Spectrum (UC Santa Barbara), Westwind (UCLA), and Open Ceilings (UC Davis). We are so excited to reunite with our extended creative community and share a night of literary fun!

Winter 2022: Salt Pre-Sale

November 5 - November 19, 2021

Open Ceilings issue 5: Salt is now available for pre-sale until the official launch date, November 19th.

In this issue of Open Ceilings, you will sleep in all-night pharmacies, traverse highways and film sets, pick blackberries, climb kaleidoscopic stairways, and, we hope, pause to consider the looming dichotomies of our cover. That is a lot to handle. Every piece is distinct and requires a fresh soul and heart. Yet we encourage you to consider the sameness amongst the differences. A shared joy winds every word and paint drop—so we ask that you find, feel, and know it for yourself.

See the link below to pre-order your own issue of Salt! All orders will ship on November 19th.

Winter 2022: Salt Launch Party

Friday, November 19, 2021
Putah Creek Lodge, Davis
7-9 pm

Our fifth issue, Winter 2022: Salt, will launch on November 19th! To get your issue in person and celebrate our published contributors and their amazing work, join us in the Putah Creek Lodge from 7 to 9 pm on Friday. The night will feature a series of curated readers and visual artists presenting their pieces, and will close with the announcement of our scholarship winners. This party is a celebration of our wonderful community and all the work that went into creating this issue. Our launch event is open to general public and we encourage you to invite your friends and family to celebrate with us!

Sunset Open Mic

Friday, May 14, 2021
Central Park, Davis
5-6pm

Join us for our first in-person event in nearly two years! This open mic is for all forms of creative writing including, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Come unwind from the stress of midterms to share your work and hear others read theirs as the sun sets in Central Park.

Zoom Meeting ID: 975 4849 2578

Summer 2021: Waiting Room Launch Party

Friday, May 14, 2021
6-8 pm

Our fourth issue is finally here! Join us in celebrating our published contributors and their amazing work featured in our Summer 2021 Issue: Waiting Room. A series of curated readers will share their stories and poems while visual artists will present their work, describing their intentions and processes behind creating each piece. In celebrating the launch of this issue, we hope you will come to love this collection of writing and art as much as we do.

Zoom Meeting ID: 962 8590 9631

[Re]connection Reading and Open Mic

Friday, April 30, 2021
6-8 pm

Join us for a night of reminiscent readings and an open mic. A series of past, published contributors will share their work and take us through time to revisit select, previous issues. Following their readings, we will open the floor to our audience for an open mic where our community is encouraged to come together and share their work.

Zoom Meeting ID: 975 4849 2578