Antioch University MFA Program

Alums, submissions in all genres (poetry, fiction, CNF, screenwriting/playwriting) sought for the third annual AULA MFA Alumni Circle Dorland Arts Prize. One winner will receive a week-long stay at a Dorland Mountain Arts cottage in Temecula, California. Apply by July 15. First-time application: $20; no fee to applicants from previous years. Link to apply in bio. Email questions to [email protected].

On this episode of Antioch MFA Program’s LitCit, host Jenna Ray chats with BookEnds Literary Agency agent, Allegra Martschenko. Allegra’s client list represents a dynamic range of thoughtful, funny, ambitious and propulsive reads across speculative and romance genres. Following a career in scholarly publishing with presses including Princeton University, The University of Colorado and Cornell University, they are also an author under pen names and an artist. Jenna and Allegra discuss the publishing landscape for authors, life as a literary agent, their manuscript wishlist and advice for authors and MFA students. This episode was produced by Justin Clarel and mastered by Jenna Ray.

Link to the episode can be found in our linktree!

We're excited about our June Residency! One of our special guests is Kathy Pories, special guest editor.

Kathy Pories joined Algonquin Books as an editorial intern while finishing herPh.D. in Renaissance Studies and teaching undergraduate literature. She acquires a broad range of fiction, primarily literary and upmarket, and select nonfiction. She has been with Algonquin for over two decades, during which she acquired and edited Gabrielle Zevin’s NYT bestselling The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, Oscar Hokeah’s PEN/Hemingway winner Calling for a Blanket Dance, Lauren Grodstein’s Jenna Book Club Pick We Must Not Think of Ourselves, Thrity Umrigar’s Reese Book Club Pick Honor, Gabriel Bump’s Ernest J. Gaines Award winner Everywhere You Don’t Belong, Lisa Ko’s National Book Award finalist The Leavers, and Whiting Award winner Jaquira Díaz’s Ordinary Girls among others. Her authors’ books have been finalists or winners of numerous prizes including The Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Kirkus Prize, the National Book Award, and the Thomas Wolfe Award. For seventeen years, she worked alongside Barbara Kingsolver as a judge for and editor of the winners of the PEN/Bellwether Prize.

And we're already accepting applications for December. Learn more about how to apply at link in bio.

Come visit us at Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Booth 206, to learn about our program. We are accepting applications for June until May 10th! Our beloved mentor and alum Reyna Grande has a box of her new book to giveaway and sign! See slide 2 for the full schedule of our amazing alums selling books and signing them!

Come visit us , Booth 206, to learn about our program. We are accepting applications for June until May 10th! Our beloved mentor and alum Reyna Grande has a box of her new book to giveaway and sign! See slide 2 for the full schedule of our amazing alums selling books and signing them!

Curious about pursuing an MFA focused on Poetry or Dramatic Writing? We’re accepting applications for June!

Join us for a live virtual Q&A panel on Zoom, Saturday April 11th, 10 AM PT, featuring current and graduating Antioch MFA students who are writing their manuscripts in these dynamic genres, and the faculty who teach them.

Hear firsthand how students are crafting powerful poetry collections, writing for the stage and screen, and shaping their creative practice within Antioch’s supportive and rigorous MFA community. Panelists will share insights on their writing process, workshop experiences, mentorship with faculty, and the unique creative growth that comes from immersing yourself in Antioch's unique writing program.

The panel will be facilitated by award winning faculty, Cathy Linh Che, Antioch MFA's core poetry faculty, and Colette Freedman, Dramatic Writing Teaching faculty.

Register here: https://antioch.my.salesforce-sites.com/events/TargetX_Eventsb__events #/esr?eid=a1RUN000009ywLh2AI

We’re so excited to announce the lineup for our June 2026 Antioch MFA residency! We are accepting applications! Study Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Writing for Young People, Playwriting, Screenwriting, Literary Translation, or do a dual-genre concentration. You can attend the residency in person at our Los Angeles campus, online, or a combination of both. Scholarships are available. Learn more about our faculty and program at https://www.antioch.edu/academics/creative-writing/creative-writing-mfa/

Congrats Cathy! If you want to study poetry with Cathy Linh Che and other amazing poetry faculty, we're accepting applications for June! To learn how to apply go to https://www.antioch.edu/academics/creative-writing/creative-writing-mfa/

Cathy Linh Che, Antioch University MFA Program Faculty, recently received the Asian Pacific American Award for Literature (APALA) in the category of Asian American Poetry for her book, Becoming Ghost.

The APALA honors and recognizes individual works by Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pasifika authors that highlight Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pasifika cultures and experiences.

Find a full list of winners here:
https://www.apalaweb.org/2026-asian-pacific-american-awards-for-literature-winners/

Join us on Zoom on February 21st, to get a taste of our MFA Program! We're accepting applications for June!

Private Pain, Public Testimony: The Story as Activism, With Affiliate Faculty Reyna Grande 11:00AM-12:15PM PT.

To get more info. about this seminar and to register, go to https://antioch.zoom.us/meeting/register/_IMR1N03S-ad3ZyIw2ivTQ #/registration

This week, our Writer Wednesday Spotlight goes to one of our special guest editors for the upcoming December Residency, Hedi El Kholti!

Born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1967, Hedi El Kholti moved to Los Angeles in 1992, working in the film industry for five years before earning a BFA degree at Art Center College of Design. In 2000, he co-curated an exhibition of the work of fan photographer Gary Lee Boas and coedited Starstruck: Photographs from a Fan, a collection of candid celebrity snapshots taken by Boas during the 1960s and 1970s. The book dovetailed with El Kholti’s personal interest in pop and celebrity culture. Over the years, he developed an intimate collage practice that materialized in a series of books and smaller fanzines. Sometimes glossy and sometimes Xeroxed but always nonhierarchical, they quote visually from various cultural eras, pulling from movies, art publications, gay magazines, and book covers. The collages may seem opaque—time capsule–like conflations of pop-cultural moments and figures sometimes organized in taxonomies and other times an unfettered stream of consciousness—but they are in reality deeply personal, even autobiographical. Through his colorful and eclectic compositions, El Kholti drafts arguments about insecurities regarding queerness, fear of illness and virality, and feelings of alienation from his provenance. Since 2004, he has been a coeditor at Semiotext(e) (alongside Chris Kraus and Sylvère Lotringer), where he created the publication Animal Shelter, an occasional journal of art, s*x, and literature. His work was exhibited at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, and Reena Spaulings Fine Art, Los Angeles (both 2019). Hesse Press published A Place in the Sun, a monograph of his writings and collages, in 2017.

Want to learn from this writer? We’re accepting applications! Learn more at the link in our bio.

Antioch University Los Angeles