How Tos Archives

January 22, 2019October 5, 2023

10 creative writing graduate degree programs in Los Angeles (PhD, MFA, MA)

The issue of whether or not writers should get an MFA is one fraught with controversy — and I won’t tackle that here. But if you’re interested in getting a graduate degree in creative writing — without leaving the beach, the palm trees, the great weather, and diverse population of this city — here are 10 local programs to consider.

For this list, I defined Los Angeles widely — and included programs that you could conceivably drive to while living in the city of LA proper. That said, I left out San Diego — despite the fact I actually commuted there from the westside to teach a graduate fiction class at San Diego State University one semester.

I tried to give some idea of the funding available (fully funded means the school will cover your tuition and give you a stipend — either in the form of fellowships or teaching assistantships — for the duration of your time in the program) — but I didn’t list actual tuition costs, which vary very widely. I also tried to distinguish core faculty (full time and dedicated to the program) from adjunct or visiting faculty that teach one-off courses — but in the case of the low-residency programs, pretty much all instructors are just teaching a course or two — something you may want to keep in mind as you make your choices.
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University of California, Irvine, MFA in Writing. With alums like Michael Chabon and Aimee Bender and faculty members like Ron Carlson and Amy Gerstler, UCI’s MFA program is one of the best known and most respected writing programs in the country — and is fully funded, offering “three full years of financial support to all domestic students.”

Length: 2-3 years
Concentrations: Fiction, Poetry

University of Southern California, PhD in Creative Writing and Literature. USC, my alma mater, offers the only PhD writing program in the area — which is actually a dual-emphasis degree in both literature and creative writing, arguably helpful in landing an academic job, if that’s the path you plan to pursue. Recent Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen teaches here, as does Aimee Bender and other literary luminaries — and a recent student, Robin Coste Lewis, won the National Book Award for her first book of poems last year. This program too is fully funded.

Length: I took 7 years (I went in without a masters), but I hear students are now pushed to finish in 5.
Concentrations: Fiction, Poetry

CalArts, MFA in Creative Writing. This program especially attracts students interested in experimentation and cross-genre work. Janet Sarbanes and Matias Viegener teach here. This partially-funded program lists Margaret Wappler and Douglas Kearney among its alums.

Length: 2 years
Concentrations: A “liberated, non-tracking curriculum” encourages cross-genre / hybrid work — but most students seem to define themselves as poets, fiction writers, or both.

University of California, Riverside. MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts. UCR’s program is a big one, with more than 20 full-time faculty members and programs in nonfiction and screen/playwriting as well as the usual fiction and poetry — though as I write this I fear I’m opening a can of worms, since a bunch of local film schools also offer screenwriting degree programs but will not be covered here. Faculty for this partially-funded program include Laila Lalami and Susan Straight.

Length: 2-3 years
Concentrations: Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Screenwriting, Playwriting

Cal State University Long Beach, MFA in Creative Writing. Full-time faculty here include Charles Harper Webb and Suzanne Greenberg. Financial help comes only in the form of smaller scholarships and awards, but Golden state residents can take advantage of the in-state tuition rates.

Length: 2 years
Concentrations: Fiction, Poetry

Otis College of Art and Design, MFA in writing. This program takes both full and part time students — but only full timers can get partial academic fellowships. Faculty include Marisa Silver (adjunct) and Guy Bennett.

Length: 2 years
Concentrations: Students don’t need to declare a genre, but the degree culminates in “a creative thesis in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, or literary translation.”

Antioch University Los Angeles, MFA in Creative Writing. Each semester of this low-residency program is designed as “an intensive 10-day on-campus residency, followed by a five-month online project period.” Faculty include Victoria Patterson and Francesca Lea Block.

Length: 2 years
Concentrations: Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Writing for Young People

UCR Palm Desert, MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts. This low-residency program is structured as “seven quarters of online study and five 10-day residencies over a period of two years.” Faculty include David L. Ulin and Gina Frangello.

Length: 2 years
Concentrations: Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Screenwriting

Mount St. Mary’s University Los Angeles, MFA in Creative Writing. This program’s like a semi low-residency program, “meeting every other weekend, six times per semester” — and is designed to be “ideal for working adults.” Another unique feature is the inclusion of bilingual Spanish/English courses! Some small scholarships are available to students; core faculty include Lisa Fetchko and JoAnna Novak.

Length: 2 years
Concentrations: The program is described as developing “writers in multiple genres,” but the thesis must be Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Play, Screenplay or Teleplay

Cal State Northridge, MA in English — Creative Writing option. Dorothy Barresi and Kate Haake are among the faculty in this partially-funded program. California residents can take advantage of the in-state tuition rates.

Length: 2-3 years
Concentrations: Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Playwriting

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For those wondering why Cal State Los Angeles‘ MA in English is no longer on the list: You can still get an MA at CSULA, but the creative writing concentration is no longer offered — even if the un-updated website still says it is — due to lack of faculty to teach the courses.

Did you go through any of the above programs? Let me know in the comments if there are details I should add — or opinions you’d like to share.

Also read: 5 best writing workshops and classes in Los Angeles

Originally posted 11/23/16; last updated 6/8/19

October 12, 2016October 6, 2023

11 reasons to attend the Tin House Winter Workshops

Thinking about a writer’s getaway this winter? Read on to see if the Tin House Winter Workshops — which I attended early this year — might be a good fit for you.

1. You need a vacation. A weekend away spent on a gorgeous beach sounded like a dream to me. And at $1300 for the hotel, all breakfasts, a five-course dinner, plus cocktail parties in the evenings — not to mention the actual writing program itself!! — the price felt alright (I realize opinions will differ on the reasonableness of the price).

2. You’d like to see the Oregon Coast. Once I got to the Tin House offices in Portland, I quickly met the other workshop participants — before we piled into a van and headed up up to Newport. There, we were dropped off at the hotel, located on a gorgeous 45-foot bluff overlooking the Pacific.

3. The idea of staying at a literary-themed hotel makes you happy. Each of the 21 rooms at the Sylvia Beach Hotel are individually themed around a famous author. I got the Dr. Seuss room! Most of the rooms are more — sedately decorated — if the bright yellow’s too much for you.

4. You want some feedback on your writing. Well before the workshops began, all the participants submitted a short story — then got copies of the stories of all the other writers in the workshop group. We read and wrote up a page or two of feedback for each of the stories — then arrived in Oregon ready to discuss the stories during the morning workshops.

5. You want to learn from writers you admire. I’d enjoyed Wells Tower’s short story collection Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, and was psyched to be in his workshop, which met for about 3 hours each morning. It was great to hear Wells’s take on my story — as well as those of my fellow workshop members —

6. You like parties. Each night there was a social event of sorts, whether a multi-course dinner party plus book exchange, or a cocktail party at the nearby Hemingway House (owned by Tin House’s editor), or a karaoke fest at a nearby divebar that drew a strange and eclectic crowd.

7. You love seafood. The seafood is fresh and delicious here! One evening we even got a chance to visit the best seafood restaurant in town — though the name now escapes me.

8. You’re curious about Tin House. I enjoyed getting to know the Tin House staff members who came along on the trip, sharing info about how the editorial process at Tin House works. One of the highlights of the weekend was Meg Storey’s talk about her work as an editor for Tin House books. She ran through the process for acquiring one Tin House book, from showing us the first pages of the initial manuscript she rejected, to the detailed editorial letter she wrote to the author about why the manuscript was rejected and how it could be improved, to the first pages of the much revised and finally accepted manuscript. It was really illuminating!

9. You like bookish freebies. My Tin House welcome tote came with an issue of Tin House plus a Tin House book.

10. You enjoy meeting other writers. The workshop group ran the gamut, from young women just out of MFA programs to older women retirees. Why did I just say women twice? Because in terms of gender, the workshop is not diverse. There was one brave guy in our cohort of about 20! I’ve noticed that writing workshops and programs in general tend to be women-heavy; I don’t know why that is but I would be curious to hear your theories.

In any case — I made some great new friends at this workshop, and though we’re scattered all over the country now, we keep in sporadic touch via Facebook and email — and cheer on each others’ literary successes.

11. You’d like to hang out in Portland. I’d actually never been to Portland before, so I tacked on a few extra days after the workshop to walk around Portland, visit Powell’s Books and hang out with Kevin Sampsell (above), and drink lots of good coffee.

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Interested in taking part in the workshops? This year, the fiction faculty members are Kevin Barry, T. Geronimo Johnson, and Michelle Wildgen — and I have to admit I’m not familiar with their work! If you’re thinking about applying to attend, I recommend reading each of the faculty members’ books, then asking to be placed in a workshop with the author whose work you feel most attuned to.

Tin House will run three different sessions in early 2017: Fiction from Jan. 20-23, creative nonfiction from Jan. 27-30, and poetry from March 3-6.Get your application in by Oct. 19 to be considered for a scholarship! The general application deadline is Nov. 7. Tin House also runs summer workshops, a longer, more in depth program with more people and more events — but applications for that program won’t be open for some months.

September 21, 2016October 6, 2023

5 important resources for women writers

Every year we see articles bemoaning the dearth of women writers — on award lists, bestseller lists, magazine bylines, and more. But feminist lit groups are working to change that! Here are five moving things forward to get involved with:

Bindercon. Described as “the conference and community for women and gender noncoforming writers,” Bindercon hosts two conferences a year — one in NYC, one in Los Angeles. The two-day events are full of keynotes and panels, tackling everything from basic writing advice (how to pitch articles) to larger political issues (writing about reproductive rights and justice).

I moderated a panel on creating a writing community at Bindercon LA earlier this year, and loved taking part in the exciting and warm conference. The next conference happens in NYC Oct. 29-30, and is currently seeking volunteers!

VIDA: Women in Literary Arts. This feminist nonprofit’s best known for its annual VIDA count, a report that studies who’s getting published in literary journals and whose books are getting reviewed — then crunches the numbers to give us some concrete stats showing current gender imbalances in publishing.

The group’s larger mission is to draw attention to literary gender disparities — and to address them by amplifying marginalized voices. VIDA has a nice list of resources for women writers — including a list of women-run presses.

Women Who Submit.. This action-oriented group was actually inspired into existence by the VIDA count! The founders of WWS saw the lackluster numbers in the count — then decided to change them — by getting more women to submit more often to literary publications!

To that end, WWS hosts “submission parties” — where women congregate with their labtops at a local bar or member home and submit their creative work for a few hours, all while cheering each other on. Events happen around the country! The next LA submission party happens Oct. 8 — and I’ll be speaking there, pre-submission blitz, about how to find a literary agent. More details soon — Hope to see you!

Hedgebrook. For women who seek a room of their own, Hedgebrook offers writing residencies on Whidbey Island, near Seattle. This feminist organization basically offers selected residents a free space to live and write!

Hedgebrook also hosts other events and workshops, its goal being “Equality for women’s voices to achieve a just and peaceful world.” The next application deadline for residencies is in July 2017. Earlier. 5 things to look for in a writing residency and My Writing Residency at the Anderson Center.

Money for Women. Known also as the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Money for Women basically awards writing grants to women writers and artists. The grants range from $500 to $1500, and are intended to help women artists finish works in progress. Applications are due each year in January.
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Know of other great literary resources for women? Share them in the comments —

Photo courtesy of Kenji Liu / Women Who Submit

August 15, 2016October 6, 2023

5 must-read self-help books for writers that aren’t about writing

There are hundreds of books out there about improving your writing — but if you’re like me, the challenge comes a little before that, in getting yourself to write in the first place. It is strange: Why do I so often resist doing that which I say I really want more time to do?

I have friends who marvel at the fact that I read 100+ books each year, but the main reason I read so much is because it’s my favorite “productive” way of procrastinating on writing. In fact, I read a lot of self-help books, which I used to be kind of embarrassed about but have now just learned to embrace by calling them personal development books.

Here are five fantastic personal development books that are NOT directly about writing — but that nonetheless got me to write more, edit more, submit more, and just generally do more of the writerly things I really do want to do:

1. The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp.

The title kind of reveals why this book might be relevant to creative writers. Twyla Tharp, dancer and choreographer extraordinaire, argues in this book that creative success comes less out of innate ability than out of hard, consistent work. And in order to do that work, you must set up firm habits — the kind of habits you don’t think about or deviate from.

For example, after a meal, I don’t have a big debate with myself about whether or not I’m going to brush my teeth. I just do it out of habit. The same thing needs to be true about my writing habit. It needs to be something I just go and do every day because that’s just what I always do at that time. If I have to have a big internal debate with myself and “convince” myself to sit down and write every day, it’s much less likely that the writing will happen.

2. Rejection Proof: How I Beat Fear and Became Invincible Through 100 Days of Rejection by Jia Jing.

I picked up this book after hearing Jia’s interview on The Portfolio Life — and loved it. Basically, this guy decided to get over his fears of rejection by devising creative ways to get rejected (e.g. asking a stranger for $100, asking a Dunkin’ Donuts employee to make him donuts in the shape of Olympic rings — here’s the full list, along with YouTube videos). As strange as his asks were, he pretty quickly started getting a lot of yeses!

In the process, he learned a lot about rejection — and about how to increase the chances of not getting rejected too. The book’s a hilarious and inspiring read. It taught me about how to reduce, manage, and deal with the many inevitable rejections I get as a writer — and it actually encouraged me to live more courageously in general.

3. The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan .

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all you feel you need to do to be a writer — and feel that the only way to be a successful writer is to pile more and more on, this book will give you some relief. The authors argue that the key to success isn’t simply squeezing more things onto your to-do list. In fact, they argue the opposite — that you need to pare things down and focus on just ONE thing.

The question to ask yourself is this: What’s the ONE Thing you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary? (Hint: If you’re a writer, this one thing would be writing) Sound too simple to be helpful? Read the book — It’s pretty convincing. It gave me a lot of clarity and focus I sorely needed.

4. The Lifelong Activist: How to Change the World without Losing Your Way by Hillary Rettig.

This one is a really great time management book disguised as an inspirational book. Hillary’s main argument is that lots of activists burn out and quit doing activist work, primarily due to overwhelm, fear, and, most of all, bad time management skills. Thus, the book is dedicated to helping activists learn to properly manage time, combat procrastination, and address feelings of fear and overwhelm.

If it helps, imagine the title is “The Lifelong Writer,” and while reading, replace the word “activism” with writing. I especially found her advice about ending procrastination helpful. According to her, I should “approach my work with a light touch” so it feels “safe, easy, and fun.” She has a lot of great tips for overcoming psychological hurdles.

5. You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero.

I picked up this book because Jen and I share the same agent — and I’m glad I did. Not sure yet you have what it takes to pursue your writerly dreams? This book will teach you otherwise — and give you some tools to pursue those dreams too.

It’s a nice mix of law of attraction stuff tied to hard work and action-taking — with a good dose of humor. This book encouraged me to take more risks — to just go for things. I get her occasional emails now and they’re like a pop of motivation in my inbox every time.
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Have you read any of these books yourself? Have more to add to the list? Share your thoughts in the comments.

July 18, 2016August 1, 2016

5 things to look for in a writing residency

Life getting in the way of your writing? If you’ve been thinking, “My book would be finished already, if I could just get away somewhere quiet and write for a few weeks — away from work, responsibilities, everyone I’ve ever met, sushi restaurants, Pokemon Go….” — then it might be time to consider a writing residency.

Writing residencies, for those unfamiliar with them, basically give you a place to get away from your regular life for a little while, so you can focus on your writing. To get a residency, you generally need to put together an application with a writing sample, artist’s statement, work proposal, CV, and/or other materials. There are hundreds of different writing residencies offered around the world (Poets & Writers keeps a good, if incomplete, list), and they all have different application processes. Each application requires time, effort, and money (there’s usually an application fee) on your part — So it’s a good idea to pick wisely the places you decide to apply.

I’m actually in the middle of a writing residency at The Anderson Center at Tower View right now — in a tiny town called Red Wing in Minnesota! Here, I’m living in a big, historic house with two other writers — Kim Todd (author of Chrysalis — a biography of Maria Sibylla Merian — and two other books) and Kendra Atleework (read her essay in The Best American Essays 2015!) — and two visual artists, all of us working on our creative projects. I asked Kim and Kendra what they looked for when considering a residency. Here are their tips, combined with mine:

1. Consider the cost. Residencies run the gamut. There are the coveted ones that make you feel like a pampered rockstar because everything’s covered. You get a private room of your own, a writing studio, chef-cooked meals, and other nice amenities — so all you pay for is your plane ticket there. The Anderson Center is one of these. Kim says Macdowell goes even a step farther; when she was there, her lunches were delivered to her studio door.

Others call themselves writing residencies but are basically like vacation rentals or bed and breakfasts targeted towards writers. For these, you pretty much just pay to get away — usually in the form of a weekly or monthly fee. A bunch of residencies fall somewhere in between, offering partial scholarships, reduced fees or small stipends to help writers out.

So if you’re on a budget like most writers, cost is an important factor to consider — which is why I’m listing it first.

2. Like the location.. Kim says she likes to do residencies in places that are “totally gorgeous” — which isn’t surprising, since she writes primarily about nature and the environment. The Mesa Refuge got a big thumbs up from her for this reason (among others).

I have my own location-related quirks — which actually keep me from applying to residencies that are have, um, too much nature. Some residencies — like national park residencies that have you live on a campsite or trailer out in the middle of nowhere — would not make for a productive time for me, since I really like modern amenities and am scared of bears!

If you love camping though, these kinds of residencies may be right up your alley. And overall, the weather, the size of the town, and recreational opportunities might be things you want to consider.

3. Pick a length of time. Residencies generally run between a week and two months, most falling between two and four weeks, some longer ones running on for several months. So think about how much time you can get away — and how long you want to get away.

For Kim, two weeks is about as long as she can stay at a residency, with two young kids at home. I’m staying at The Anderson Center all of July; if my little window cactus at home dies from neglect, so be it.

4. Know your (future) neighbors. Most residency websites list bios of current and past residents. I think it’s a good idea to check these out before you apply, so you have a sense of the caliber and seriousness of the work your fellow residents will be doing. Kim says that when she was at Macdowell, “The level of work people were doing was astounding.” She felt inspired by their output.

Some residencies are just for writers; others invite artists and scholars working in a variety of fields. In addition, some residencies focus on or give special consideration to specific population groups. Hedgebrook, for example, is an all-women residency program.

Other residencies court writers from specific states, backgrounds, or life circumstances. The Anderson Center, for example, is generally open to all, but dedicated last month to deaf American artists. This month, The Anderson Center is hosting a writer from the University of Minnesota’s MFA program — which is how Kendra, recent MFA grad, got a spot here.

And some residencies just host one resident at a time. This might work well for you if you really, really want to get away from everyone. If you think, though, that writing all alone for weeks at a time will end up creating a situation like The Shining for you, you might want to stick to the group residencies.

5. Think about your resume. Getting a prestigious, competitive residency means you can then list said residency on your CV — which can be helpful, especially if you work in academia or teach (or want to teach) writing. How do you know a residency is prestigious? You’ll often hear their names mentioned by other writers. Beyond that, I’ve found that the prestige of a residency is often related to its cost — meaning that the most prestigious, competitive residencies tend to be the ones that also cover most or all the costs of your stay.
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Of course, once you pick out which residencies you’d like to go to, you’ll need to put an application together to actually get in to those residencies. My poet friend Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo recently wrote a post about just that — specifically targeted to help emerging writers. And if you’re looking for individual help to get your applications into shipshape, my friend Sarah Cypher, a.k.a. The Threepenny Editor, offers polishing reads.

A final note: Just so you know if you’re considering a residency here at The Anderson Center, while you’ll be able to escape from most distractions (I don’t have wifi in my room, which has been a blessing!), you will not be able to escape Pokemon Go. Since that game launched, many a Red Wing resident have come wandering through the Center’s sculpture garden and nature walk, cell phones in hand. I don’t know what they’re looking for exactly, because so far, I’ve resisted the game. I’m here to write!