Category: Master’s Degree

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

Marilyn Chin is the author of Dwarf Bamboo, and The Phoenix Gone, The Terrace Empty. Her new book, The Ballad of the Plain Yellow Girl, was published by Norton in 2002. Her books have become Asian American classics and are taught in classrooms nationally. She has won numerous awards for her poetry, including two NEAs, the Stegner Fellowship,… Continue reading Marilyn Chin

Patricia Marx writes comedy because she is too shallow to do anything else. She writes for film and television; she also writes books and magazine pieces. Patricia Marx’s television credits includeSaturday Night Live and Rugrats. Among her books are: How To Regain Your Virginity, Blockbuster, You Can Never Go Wrong By Lying, and several children’s books illustrated by New… Continue reading Patricia Marx

Lynda Barry has worked as a painter, cartoonist, writer, illustrator, playwright, editor, commentator and teacher and found they are very much alike. She is the inimitable creator behind the seminal comic strip that was syndicated scross North America in alternative weeklies for two decades, Ernie Pook’s Comeek featuring the incomparable Marlys and Freddy, as well… Continue reading Lynda Barry

Rick Moody’s first novel, Garden State, was the winner of the 1991 Editor’s Choice Award from the Pushcart Press and was published in 1992. The Ice Storm was published in May 1994 by Little, Brown & Co. Foreign editions have been published in twenty countries, and a film version, directed by Ang Lee, was released by Fox Searchlight in… Continue reading Ricky Moody

Jose Rivera is a recipient of two OBIE Awards for Playwriting — forMarisol and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, both produced at The Joseph Papp Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival.  His screenplay, The Motorcycle Diaries, (directed by Walter Salles) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a British Academy of Film and Television… Continue reading Jose Rivera

Dickey Nesenger began her work in the film business in 1973 as a documentary and commercial film editor in New York. After moving to Los Angeles in 1978, she worked as a script supervisor on films, television series, commercials and music videos, and alongside such luminaries are Orson Welles and John Frankenheimer. Her screenplay, Commercial was sold… Continue reading Dickey Nesenger

Christian Parker is the Associate Artistic Director at the Atlantic Theater Company, where he has worked since the fall of 2001. His world premiere production of Leslie Ayvazian’s Make Me will run from May-June, 2009 at Atlantic Stage 2. Most recently at Atlantic, he directed the New York premiere of Tina Howe’s play Birth and After Birth. In 2006,… Continue reading Christian Parker

Marisa Smith is the owner and publisher (with her husband Eric Kraus) of Smith and Kraus Publishers in Hanover, New Hampshire. Smith and Kraus has over 500 theatre books in print and publishes 35 new theatre titles annually.  Marisa is also a playwright; her plays have been produced at Yellow Taxi Productions, Parish Players, the… Continue reading Marisa Smith

Dorianne Laux is the author of three collections of poetry from BOA Editions, Awake (1990), introduced by Philip Levine, What We Carry(1994), finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Smoke(2000). She is also co-author, with Kim Addonizio, of The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry (W.W. Norton, 1997). Recent work has appeared in The Best American… Continue reading Dorianne Laux