Category: MFA in Creative Writing

Faculty Deborah Brevoort and Stephanie Salzman have been awarded a grant from the Anna Sosenko Assist Trust for Crossing Over, their Amish Hip Hip musical.  The trust was founded in 2001 to assist musical theatre writers launch new projects. The grant will help pay for a demo recording of the musical.​ Jan Clausen has just published Part II of… Continue reading June, July and August 2015 Achievements

Faculty Jan Clausen‘s poem “The Wave That Is the Motion of the World” appears in Drunken Boat 20. Her book, Veiled Spill: A Sequence, is now available from SPD and Amazon.  Better yet, order directly from GenPop Books, which is a great way to support to an adventurous independent publisher.  Jan will be reading from the… Continue reading November and December 2014 Achievements

Writer, Director and Producer Todd Haynes has received numerous honors for directing and writing all of his films.  “Far From Heaven” garnered Academy Award, Golden Globe and WGA nominations for Best Screenplay as well as nominations from the Chicago Film Critics Association, European Film Awards, London Critics Circle Film Awards, Satellite Awards, and the Venice… Continue reading Todd Haynes

Tracie Morris, one of the country’s most exciting and popular spoken word poets, has worked steadily over the last decade to redefine the limits of what poetry, and a poet, can be. While she is the author of two poetry collections—Intermission and Chap-T-her Won—and has been anthologized in a host of literary volumes, an important part of… Continue reading Tracie Morris

Frances McCue, artistic director and co-founder of Richard Hugo House, is a poet, art reviewer, essayist, teacher and an arts instigator. Frances was a winner of the Barnard New Women Poets Prize in 1992, and her book, The Stenographer’s Breakfast, was published by Beacon Press. She has published in magazines fromMS to Poetry Northwest. Frances has an M.F.A… Continue reading Frances McCue

Mark Doty, the only American poet to have won Great Britain’s T. S. Eliot Prize, is the author of seven books of poems, including Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems (2008, Harper). The first, Turtle, Swan,appeared in 1987. His third collection, My Alexandria (1993), received both the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.… Continue reading Mark Doty

Betsy Amster is president of Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises, a literary agency in Portland.  Before opening her agency in 1992, she spent ten years as an editor at Pantheon and Vintage. She has been described in the L.A. Times as “a dogged prospector of…literary talent” and celebrated in a profile in the American Society of… Continue reading Betsy Amster

Matthew Quick earned his BA through La Salle University and his MFA through Goddard College. His debut novel The Silver Linings Playbook (Sarah Crichton Books / Farrar, Straus & Giroux) was lauded by People, The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, Publishers Weekly, and others. The movie rights for The Silver Linings Playbook have been optioned by The Weinstein Company,… Continue reading Matthew Quick

Susan Jonas is a relentless dramaturg, by day masquerading as a civil servant or arts analyst in the Theatre Program at the New York State Council on the Arts, where she apologizes for not being able to give bigger grants to worthy artistic organizations. She also teaches at whatever university will have her– most recently… Continue reading Susan Jonas

Peter Trachtenberg is the author of the nonfiction books 7 Tatoos: Memoir In The Flesh (1997) and The Casanova Complex: Compulsive Lovers and Their Women (1988) He has taught writing and literature at the New York University School of Continuing Education, the Johns Hopkins University School of Continuing Education, and the School of Visual Arts and is a frequent… Continue reading Peter Trachtenberg

Kiara Brinkmangrew up first in the Midwest and then some more in California. She graduated from Brown University and earned her MFA from Goddard College. Her writing has appeared inMcSweeney’s, One Story, Pindeldyboz, and Failbetter.com, among other magazines. She has worked as a teacher, a tutor, and a nanny, and currently lives in San Francisco. Her book, Up… Continue reading Kiara Brinkman

Born and raised in Canada, David Rakoff is the author of the bookFraud (Doubleday hardcover; Broadway paperback). A regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine, Outside, and Public Radio International’s This American Life, his writing has also appeared in GQ, Salon, Details, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Wired, New York Magazine, and The New York Observer, among others. He has appeared on “The… Continue reading David Rakoff

Karen Essex is a novelist, screenwriter, and award-winning journalist. She is the author of the national and international best-selling novel, Leonardo’s Swans (Doubleday 2006), about the rivalries among the powerful women painted by the great master when he was employed by the Duke of Milan. She has also written two acclaimed biographical novels about the queen of… Continue reading Karen Essex

Betsy Lerner is a literary agent with Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. Previously, she worked as an editor at major trade publishers including Simon & Schuster, Houghton Mifflin and finally as Executive Editor at Doubleday. Lerner was been the recipient of a Tony Godwin Publishing Prize, the Thomas Wolfe Poetry Prize, and an Academy of American… Continue reading Betsy Lerner

Jacqueline Woodson is the author of a number of books for children, young adults and adults including If You Come Softly, I Hadn’t Meant To Tell You This, Autobiography of A Family Photo, From The Notebooks of Melanin Sun, and The Other Side. She is the recipient of two Coretta Scott King Honors, two Jane Addams Peace… Continue reading Jacqueline Woodson