Ricardo Cruz describes his writing as that of a disc jockey. If you imagine turntables on the right and left playing at the same time with the sounds blending together, then you have the feel of what he is trying to say with his writing, which he describes as a collage of sound.

It is something I would call a violent, slangy flow of text, he said. It is a very in-your-face, rapid-fire type of writing.

Cruz is an Assistant Professor in English at SIUC and is one of the guest lecturers at the University Lecture Series tonight at 7:30. He said the program was initiated so individual authors and lecturers could come and give readings, or lecture about their work and meet with the students.

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It is a chance to expose students to a variety and multitude of different writing and text perspectives in an attempt to boost the creativity of our own students, he said.

Cruz, who publishes his work under the name Ricardo Cortez Cruz, will appear with Curtis White to read a collection of their short works of fiction. Readings will also come from Cruz’s second book, Five Days of Bleeding, which came out in September.

My writing tends to be a little more surreal, Cruz said. I want to get the reader, or listener, to question his or her definition of reality.

One of the ways Cruz blends surrealism with his literature is to combine different concepts of music with literature, as well as toying with the idea of having a person’s name describe their personality.

The book is about misogyny, which is the hatred against women, he said. I wanted the work to be socially conscious, but remain free-flowing in the process.

Cruz attended college at Illinois State, and White was one of his professors.

One of the things Curtis taught me was the idea that a narrative should be very open-ended, he said. It challenges a reader to go back and look for some meaning in the story so that it doesn’t totalize it.

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Cruz describes his writing as free-flowing, liberal and bold. He said he wants to play with language so there is always some kind of different meaning and something never reads the same twice.

The word I use to categorize my writing is slanguage’, he said. It is a cross between slang and language, which goes back to the turntable idea where I blend two different sounds into one.

Along with passages from Five Days of Bleeding, Cruz will also read passages from his third book he is currently working on, a collection of short stories.

This is a chance for students to come and hear a good sample of cultural works, Cruz said.

The lecture is tonight at 7:30 in the Student Center Ballroom C.