MFA Writing Program

Faculty

All of our award-winning faculty members have multidisciplinary practices, and together represent a wide range of experience in writing, publishing, editing, reviewing, criticism, scholarship, translation and collaboration.  Writing Program students receive individual mentoring in each semester of their residency.  In CalArts' unique environment, Writing students also have the opportunity to work with faculty and students in the Schools of Art, Music, Film, Theater and Dance.  

Curriculum

Our distinctive curriculum combines the rigors of training in established genres with opportunities to explore the fertile territories between and beyond genres.  In addition to workshops in Poetry, Nonfiction, Short Fiction and the Novel, we offer courses such as Contact/Assemblage, Adaptation and Appropriation, Narrative Structure, Parafiction, Experiments in Nonfiction and Ekphrastic Writing. Students can also take courses that explore a particular theme or trend in contemporary writing, such as the Poetics of Indigeneity, Writing Bodies/Embodied Writing, Tiny Press Practices or Testimony and Magical Realism.  In addition, MFA Writing students may take elective courses throughout the Institute. Writing sudents with a profound interest in interdisciplinary study are encouraged to pursue Interschool degrees or participate in the Integrated Media program - two exciting options that exist only at CalArts.

Environment

Throughout the academic year, the Writing Program maintains a vibrant slate of readings, conferences and professional development panels, which introduce students to a broad spectrum of voices in writing today. In addition, our nationally renowned literary journal Black Clock hosts a number of public readings annually. Beyond the program, writing students have access to the impressive roster of visiting artists, composers, musicians, filmmakers, directors and choreographers to be found on campus and at REDCAT, CalArts' exciting Frank Gehry-designed theater in downtown Los Angeles. 

Opportunities

Writing Program students have the opportunity to teach composition to undergraduate students as paid teaching assistants; to learn the ins and outs of publishing (for academic credit) as Black Clock interns; and to curate two readings series: the on-campus "Sprawl" and the off-campus "Next Words," designed to introduce graduating students to LA's lively literary scene.  They also have the opportunity to participate in the CalArts Community Arts Partnership, teaching creative writing to underserved youth in venues around Southern California.

Recent Visiting Writers

Daniel Alarcon, Bill Berkson, Bernard Cooper, Mark Danielewski, Monica De La Torre, Latasha N. Diggs, Heidi Durrow, Danielle Dutton, Brian Evenson, Thomas Glave, Myriam Gurba, Wayne Koestenbaum, Rachel Kushner, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Ali Leibegott, Joseph McElroy, Honor Moore, Eileen Myles, D.A. Powell, Leonard Schwartz, Abdellah Taia, Catherine Wagner, Rebecca Wolff, Young-Hae Chang/Heavy Industries, Jodi Dean, Johanna Drucker, Charles Gaines, Kenneth Goldsmith, John Keene, Mary Kelly, Mark McGurl, Steve McCaffery, Julie Patton, Vanessa Place, Juliana Spahr, Brian Kim Stefans, Heriberto Yepez and Shanxing Wang.

Recent Black Clock Guests and Contributors

Don DeLillo, Richard Powers, Joanna Scott, Jonathan Lethem, Aimee Bender, Rick Moody, Lynne Tillman, Greil Marcus, Samuel R. Delany, Susan Straight, William T. Vollmann and David Foster Wallace.

Recent Visiting Faculty

Brian Blanchfield, Wanda Coleman, Harry Dodge, Amy Gerstler, Veronica Gonzalez, John Haskell, Anthony McCann, Claire Phillips, Salvador Plascencia, Michelle Tea, Lisa Teasley, David L. Ulin.