CalArts MFA Writing Program

05/13/2025

The final reading of the CalArts Creative Writing cohort of 2025 is coming soon, on May 15 at 3 pm. Join us at the REDCAT Theater in downtown Los Angeles for a presentation of the work we've created and polished over the last two years. Our thesis projects range from short stories, to novels, to poetry, to memoir, to experimental multimedia, and all of them are sure to blow you away. After the showcase, there will be a fully catered reception. We'll also be selling copies of our anthology, May You Find What You're Looking For, so if you like what you hear, you can take a piece of the event home with you and support our work! The event is free, but REDCAT suggests reserving a ticket, which you can access here: https://www.redcat.org/events/2025/ca-writers-showcase .

05/27/2024

Come mark the 205th birthday of Walt Whitman with a virtual poetry reading riffing on Whitman’s obsessions with Death, Afterlife and the American State.

Join poets Dorothea Lasky, abbi page and Anthony McCann, as they reckon with Whitman’s complex legacy, and with alternate poetic notions of Death and Afterlife.

Big thank you to Wave Books () who have provided a code in honor of this event “HAPPY_BIRTHDAY_WW” which gives readers 20% off Anthony’s I am the dead, who, you take care of me and Dottie’s The Shining at checkout!

Scan the QR code to register for the zoom event or go to https://apply.calarts.edu/register/odeath

Friday, May 31st 6pm PST.

02/26/2022

Congratulations to our alum Candrice Jones, finalist for the Yale Drama Series Prize for Emerging Playwrights!

EXCLUSIVE: The prestigious Yale Drama Series Prize for emerging playwrights has announced eight contenders selected for its first-ever short list. Prize organizers opted this year to announce the s…

01/28/2022

So proud and excited for alum Carribean Fragoza, who is a finalist for the PEN American award for first short story collection!

This morning, PEN America announced the finalists for their 2022 Literary Awards. The list includes 54 authors and 11 translators who published works in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essa…

11/03/2021

MFA Creative Writing Program alum Atsuko Okatsuka on late night!

Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka entertains the Late Late Show audience with her thoughts on marriage and how the mystery of life can get you out of any sticky situa...

06/20/2021

Congrats to Writing Program alum Sarah Wang on receiving the PEN Writing for Justice Fellowship!

Meet the 2020-2021 Writing For Justice cohort, and learn about their accomplishments.

04/29/2021

The MFA Creative Writing Program at CalArts is excited to partner with REDCAT to host the 2021 Next Words MFA Writing Showcase, which presents the grit, style and perspectives of sixteen imaginative emerging writers to a wider public.

Next Words is a reading series and publication produced by the CalArts MFA in Creative Writing Program and featuring its graduating students. Usually taking place in the spring at venues across Los Angeles—bookstores, music and art spaces, and even a permanent movie set—the 2021 Next Words series extends into June in a special hybrid in-person/remote edition, kicked off by this event at REDCAT.


This year's NextWords anthology, entitled Elysium is Empty, with gorgeous cover art by graduating writer Rhea Iyer, will be available for purchase in June—featuring a selection of fiction, poetry, nonfiction and genre-fluid works. The anthology and the showcase offer a range of experiences in new literary works that are uniquely CalArts—the results of this creative writing program’s lively explorations alongside and across film, video, music, performance and visual art.

The CalArts Next Words MFA Writing Showcase is free and open to the public. Reservations can be made here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScI0Z85Mvg3h3zQTe8t5pXhLHmXZsKiSJTuyhccCzklLva5oQ/viewform?gxids=7628.

For more information about CalArts' unique interdisciplinary MFA Creative Writing Program, visit writing.calarts.edu.

Please share far and wide, and hope to see you there!

04/19/2021

A q***r sequel to Groundhog Day? We’re here for it! Check out program alum Henry Hoke’s upcoming book events.

04/16/2021

Congratulations to program alum Emily Woodworth, Oregon Literary Fellow!

Literary Arts is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2021 Oregon Literary Fellowships. Literary Arts received 408 applications from writers and 17 applications from publishers for the 2021 fellowships. Out-of-state judges spent several months evaluating these applications, using literary excel...

04/12/2021

Join us on Thursday to celebrate alum Carribean Fragoza’s new book!
RSVP here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe5jc6jCia20TYfjiHheSWf1S5gEcI_i7mUWq5MiIwxhoRdMw/viewform?edit_requested=true&usp=embed_facebook

04/10/2021

Beautiful piece on DMX from program alum Nijla Mu’min.

DMX's vulnerability showed my generation a new way of understanding the world we would soon enter.

04/10/2021

Experiments in Dissonance Symposium continues tonight, 6pm PST, with Douglas Kearney's Bagley Wright Lecture, "You Better Hush: Blacktracking a Visual Poetics"! Come through!
RSVP: BIT.LY/EXDIS
Symposium goes through tomorrow, and features Lillian-Yvonne Bertram and Michael Leong!

Schedule is here: https://sites.google.com/alum.calarts.edu/exdis2021/presenters