Spring 2024 Residency Schedule Announced (2024)

Below is the daily schedule for our upcoming Spring 2024 Residency. If you're interested in applying and would like to visit for a day, please contact Kathryn McGee at Kathryn.McGee@ucr.edu or 760-834-0939.

Daily Schedule

Friday, June 7
3:00 – Check In
4:00 – Faculty & Staff meeting in Salon 6
5:00 – New Student Orientation in Salon 5
*Required for New Students
6:00 – Opening celebration on Sunrise Terrace.

Saturday June 8
8:00 Breakfast
9:00: All Student Orientation in Salon 5
*Required for ALL students & faculty & staff

10:30: Guest Faculty Lecture: Boris Kachka & Amara Hoshijo in conversation with David Ulin (All)
The Book Industry: In Peril or Perpetuity?
Join the former books editor of the LA Times Boris Kachka and Saga senior editor Amara Hoshijio in this discussion about where the industry is headed. (Salon 4)

10:30:Guest Faculty Lecture: Celeste Holben Pecar in Conversation with Joshua Malkin (S)
Writing for A Director
What’s it like developing a project for a top director? How does that relationship work? What kinds of projects are right or wrong? In this conversation, we’ll get down to the bottom of all these big questions from a development exec working directly with a big name director. (Salon 5)

10:30: Faculty Lecture: Jill Alexander Essbaum (P/F)
In Pursuit of Style and Substance or, Jill's Top-Ten List of sh*t You Should Either Fix or Do or Stop Doing or Push Against or Experiment With or Even Just for One Freaking Nanosecond CONSIDER Fixing or Doing or Whatevering That Will Make Your Writing About One Trazillionty Times Better.
(Salon 6)

1:15 Main Genre Workshops
Birnbaum -- Plumeria
Crane/Ulin – Begonia
Essbaum/Roberge -- Gardenia
Goldberg – Lavender
Malkin – Hibiscus
Pochoda – Lantana
Rabkin – Jasmine
Schimmel - Iris
Smith – Primrose
Ulin/Crane -- Begonia

4:30: Graduate Lecture: Chris Lacroix (F)
Lights, Camera, Disatisfaction! Hollywood: the ultimate frontier for those seeking fame, fortune, love, and validation. Hollywood is also the ultimate setting for writers looking to explore the pitfalls of the American Dream. Join Chris Lacroix, a true Hollywood geek, as he looks at the work of literary stars like Nathanael West, F.Scott Fitzgerald, Joan Didion, Jacqueline Susann, Matthew Specktor, and others as he attempts to answer the questions "Why is everyone in Hollywood such a hot mess?" and "Why are these books so freaking good?"

5:15: Graduate Lecture: J Schuberth (F)
You Kill Like a Girl: Crime Fiction’s “Violent Woman Problem”
Crime fiction has seen a proliferation of female characters who commit violence, and while some authors challenge the gender binary, many reinforce it by falling into crime fiction’s tropes of the violent woman as victim, sociopath and/or fighting f*ck toy. I will look at how these generic tropes rob female characters of their agency, and the literary techniques some authors use to subvert these tropes and give their female characters the same narrative freedom to express themselves through violence as is given to male characters.

8:00: Special Evening Program: Alex Espinoza in conversation with Tod Goldberg
Followed by a booksigning.
Join us for the return of Alex Espinoza on the occasion of the release of his first novel in a decade, The Sons of El Rey!

Sunday June 9
8:00: Breakfast

9:00-10:30: Guest Faculty Lecture: Sarah Tomlinson (F/NF)
The Art of the Ghost
In this talk, we’ll learn all about the business of ghost-writing – from how to get the jobs to how to do the work and how not to lose your mind in the process.
(Salon 4)

9:00-10:30: Guest Faculty Lecture: Susan Straight (F)
The Polyphonic Novel: Writing in Multiple Points of View
Along with some of my favorite writers, Louise Erdrich, Ernest J. Gaines, Helena Maria Viramontes, and Dennis Lehane, my novels are set in complicated communities, with many characters. How do we make our people vivid, including main and secondary characters? How do we create dialogue and narrative voices to carry the plot or memoir forward?
(Salon 5)

9:00-10:30am Guest Faculty Lecture: Adam Deutsch (P/F/N)
Forms as a Tool for Revision
Sometimes when we’re in the process of editing, rewriting, and revising, we can get stuck with pieces that sprawl and meander in all kinds of ways. One practice we might consider is taking a draft that’s still trying to find direction, and placing it into a form. Whether working on poetry or prose, processing our writing through the fresh framingss of a traditional structure can give us new ways to look at the work we’re shaping and trying to discover. Please be sure to bring some work—a poem, story, whatever—to tinker with in a communal conversation.
(Salon 6)

10:30-12:00 Guest Faculty Lecture: Rachel Howzell Hall (F)
What I Did Last Summer (and last fall, last winter and just yesterday) or Ten Things I Learned Writing My First Romantasy
Believe it or now, fantasy novels are more than dragons, magic and lore, and require following real-life rules. Learn how to write otherworldly pages—from worldbuilding and character creation to theme and pacing—in your quest to write explosive and page-turning, cinematic stories that reach a wide audience of readers. Bestselling mystery-crime novelist Rachel Howzell Hall shares all the lessons she learned while writing The Last One, the first of her romantasy series with Red Tower, publisher of the No. 1 international bestselling romantasy series in the world, Fourth Wing and Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros.
(Salon 4)

10:30-12:00 Faculty Lecture: Mickey Birnbaum (PL)
To Dream the Impossible Dream If your play calls for a rabid boar to eat the protagonist, is that an impediment to production? Probably not. We'll look at a series of impossible characters, settings and stage directions in several fantastic plays and try to figure out how they did it, why they did it, and what inventive theatre artists are capable of accomplishing. Then we'll try to come up with some our own impossible characters, settings and stage directions to excite directors and actors and give artistic directors heart attacks. No more kitchen sink theatre, kids, unless the kitchen sinks are dancing and talking!
(Salon 5)

10:30-12:00 Guest Faculty Lecture: David Holben Pecar with Joshua Malkin (S)
The Importance of Audience
A Q&A with David Pecar about the importance of Audience (with a capital ‘A’) and approaching the audience from the studio’s perspective. Also, how considering the audience can/should matter to a screenwriter too. (Salon 6)

12:00-1:00pm: Lunch

1:15-4:15 Cross-Genre Workshops
Birnbaum – Plumeria
Crane – Begonia
Essbaum – Gardenia
Malkin – Hibiscus
Pochoda -- Lantana
Rabkin – Jasmine
Roberge – Lavender
Schimmel – Iris
Smith -- Primrose
Ulin – Larkspur

4:30: Graduate Lecture: Hailey Schneider (PL)
Exploring the Evolution of Theatrical Form Through Female Perspectives
We are witnessing a shift in our perceptions of what theatrical form can be. But what is the driving force behind these shifts? In this lecture, we’ll unravel the dynamic interplay between societal influences and the evolution of theatrical form, using the feminine perspective to guide us. From the pioneering works of female playwrights in the early 20th century to contemporary masterpieces, we'll delve into how their bold perspectives have revolutionized the theatrical landscape, and take a look at how the diverse voices of today are working to shape the future of theatre. Come listen as we explore the exciting landscape of creative innovation in theatrical form and how we can use our own unique perspectives to create new, bold work.

Dinner

Special Event! A staged reading of Hailey Schneider’s play directed by Katie Gilligan
7:00: Doors (with lite refreshments!)
7:30: Performance
UCR Palm Desert
75080 Frank Sinatra Drive
Palm Desert, CA 92211

Monday June 10
8:00: Breakfast

9:00-10:30: Guest Faculty Lecture: David Martinez (NF)
Utilizing your MFA toolbox for writing after grad school
What you do and how you interact with your writing after grad school can depend in part on how you utilize the tools given to you through what you learn, your friendships, and your mentors. I thought the novel I was working on as a grad student was my only shot at a writing career. I was wrong. I was terrified that without deadlines and workshops I’d stop writing. I was wrong again. What I learned as an MFA student taught me to recognize when my novel wasn’t working and gave me the foundation I needed to write my memoir that ultimately was published seven years after I graduated. The friends I met in the program helped give me the courage to write and helped me through some of my most difficult moments on my path. My mentors, along with guidance and support, have helped me navigate post publication. The program is set up to help you after you time here is done. Here’s my perspective on how.
(Salon 4)

9:00-10:30 Guest Faculty Lecture: Guest Faculty Lecture: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (NF/F)
Hard to Explain
How do you take big, weighty topics – like, say, theoretical physics? – and make it easy to digest for the average reader? In this talk, Dr. Prescod-Weinstein, whose book on theoretical physics won the LA Times Book Prize, will show you how to tell any tale in a way that gets through to the audience that needs it most. (Salon 6)

9:00-10:30 Guest Faculty Lecture: Duncan Birmingham (S)
PRE-WRITING YOUR SCREENPLAY or YOUR LOGLINE AS YOUR ROAD MAP. I'll teach a method to use the classic pithy two or three sentence Hollywood logline (often utilized AFTER you write your screenplay to try to sell it) as a way to START, brainstorm, refine and organize the idea for your screenplay. It’s a great way to come up with a new idea for a screenplay or rethink a screenplay you're stuck on. This working logline will act as your road map or north star as you journey into the heart of screenplay darkness! We'll go through different components of a strong logline (starting simple with stuff like a "hero" and a "goal" and getting into more complex concepts like “irony” and “stakes” and “why now”) and students will craft their own new loglines/screenplay summaries as we go along. It can be interactive with me calling on volunteers to read out their in-progress loglines or not. I'll reference popular movies, indie films and my own journey with my film, Who Invited Them.
(Salon 5)

10:30-12:00 Faculty Lecture: Bill Rabkin (S)
THE NEW TELEVISION MARKETPLACE: HOW TO SURVIVE THE CREATIVE APOCALYPSE
The last decade has been a golden age for television writers. For the first time in history, when they said they wanted new voices and new visions, they really meant it. And then the strikes hit. And Wall Street hit. And now everybody’s afraid to buy anything from anyone. But of course, they still need new shows. They’re going to have to buy something. It’s just that what they want to buy may not match up with what you want to write. And the days when buyers care about what you want to write are gone, maybe forever. I’ve been a TV writer for close to forty years, and I’ve never seen a market for new projects as bad as it is now. If you want to have any chance at all to set up a project anywhere, you need to understand what the studios, streamers and networks are willing to buy in this suddenly panic-driven marketplace. This lecture will explore the kinds of shows that have a chance to be bought, the genres that are going to be thriving in the next couple of years, and how to take your own stories, characters and themes and adapt them into concepts that can fly in the current market. (Salon 5)

10:30-12:00 Guest Faculty Lecture: Gideon Pine & Jud Laghi (F/N)
Secret Agents
We’ll sit down with two agents and find out the deep dark secrets required to get their attention. (Salon 4)

10:30-`12:00 Tiffany Colli Moon (PL)
Tiffany Colli-Moon & Mickey Birnbaum in conversation Tiffany Colli-Moon, literary manager of the Ojai Playwrights Festival, and program producer for the Library Foundation, will talk with Mickey Birnbaum about the current state of plays and playwriting, including best strategies for emerging playwrights to get their work read, what theatres and audiences want and need in the post-pandemic theatrical landscape, how to combine grand theatrical gestures with emotional depth, and what's next in the evolution of theatre.
(Salon 6)

12:00pm-1:00pm: Lunch

1:15-4:15: Main Genre Workshops

4:30: Graduate Lecture: Jesenia Chavez (NF)
Latine Memoirs: Remembering as an act of resistance!
We will explore how recent Latine Memoir writers, are expanding the narrative of what it means to be Latina/e/x in this country. Some weave their personal stories providing history and context. All of them show how our bodies are sites of battles, how our stories are erased, yet if we can remember collectively, we can build something new where we can thrive in community. Some make you laugh; some make you cry, and most make your rage bubble up, inspiring you to take action. There is room on the page for “speaking non-English” y todo. As Maria Hinojosa eloquently writes, “this hatred and suspicion of the other is a sickness that is spreading everywhere. Every one of us is responsible for trying to stop its expansion and dissemination; that much is within our control.” These writers urge us to remember look beyond what is in front of us and imagine a place where our stories and our bodies matter

5:10 Graduate Lecture: Brian Hooper (F)
NAVIGATING BLACK STEREOTYPES IN FICTION: "I ain’t afraid of no trope."
Look, I am not saying you should finish writing that Magical Negro story that has been in your drafts. And that white-identified non-threatening, asexual, black ,domestic worker character in your book? She’s a Mammy. We certainly don’t need another book-to-screenplay idea where the white person comes to the ‘hood and fixes all the poor, helpless black folk.But when is it ok to engage with black tropes? Is it even possible to avoid writing them? Where do they come from in the first place? If there ever was a reason to buy a ticket to the black part of Tropetown (Shoutout to Redlining) and, if you do, how do you not wind up on the express train to Cancel City (Population 1 Million and counting). Brian Hooper invites all you jive turkey suckas (black, white, brown, and yellow) to participate in this kinda uncomfortable conversation.

Dinner

8:00: Evening Program: The Student Reading in the R Bar hosted by the Coachella Review with featured reader Alex Reiser!

Tuesday June 11
8:00 Breakfast

9:00-10:30: Faculty Lecture: Yennie Cheung (All)
The Coachella Review Editors Meeting & Info Session
(Salon 4)

9:00-10:30 Guest Faculty Lecture: Jennie Webb (PL)
Is This a Play? Pushing the Boundaries of What Belongs Onstage
What makes us want to put a story on stage? How do we take advantage of the open space that is theater? Why do audiences need to invest in a character’s dramatic journey? And while there’s certainly a place for “well made plays” and traditional, Aristotelian structural demands (conflict, climax, resolution), let’s talk about the unique, collaborative nature of live theatre. And the fact that it sometimes cries out for breaking the rules and, perhaps, even investigating the potential of… multiple climaxes? (Yes, Aristotle was a man.)
(Salon 5)

9:00-10:30 Guest Faculty Lecture: Maggie Downs (NF)
Writing the Nonfiction Proposal
You have a brilliant idea for a nonfiction book. But do you need to actually…write it in order to sell it? Yes. And no. Sometimes. Much of the time, what you’re going to need is a kick-ass proposal that will get you the book deal and the money and time to write.
(Salon 6)

10:30-12:00 Guest Lecture: Blaise Zerega (F/NF)
The Elements of Classic Magazine Writing ...with a dash of the cross-over between creative writing and reporting.
In this talk with Alta’s editor Blaise Zerega, we’ll examine the elements that make for a great feature story in the magazine and also how to leverage your creative skill set to truly make their piece shine.

(Salon 5)

10:30-12:00 Guest Faculty: Chris Wiley (PL)
Writing the Short Play
You won’t always have two hours to tell a great story. You might only have fifteen minutes. In this talk, we’ll examine the elements needed to pull off that most elusive beast: the short play.
(Salon 6)

10:30-12:00 Guest Faculty: Natashia Deon (F)
Launching Your Story From Line One
Your first line is your gold; not spare change, or a warmup to riches. Worth more than your last line, it’s your contract with readers, your promise. Don’t waste it. (Salon 4)

12:00-1:00pm: Lunch

1:15-4:15 Cross-Genre Workshops

4:30: Graduate Lecture: Liz McClintock (S)
Breaking In is an Inside Job: How Accomplished Screenwriters Master the Mental Game of Navigating Hollywood’s Career Labyrinth. Come discover the common mindset traits shared by acclaimed screenwriters like Julia Cox, Don Handfield, and Nancy Fichman. Through in-depth analysis of screenwriter interviews, I’ve mapped the psychological traits successful screenwriters develop as they navigate the notoriously unpredictable world of working in the entertainment industry. In this interactive lecture, you’ll not only get the opportunity to learn about these traits, but discover your own psychological strengths and limitations as an aspiring screenwriter. You’ll leave with a personal mindset roadmap to help guide you on your own career path.

5:10: Graduate Lecture: Melinda Lee Holm (NF)
When Words Aren’t Enough. In the opening of her memoir The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson tries and fails to find adequate language to describe her identity. She laments “How can the words not be good enough?” then goes on to fill in the gaps where words fail her using other means. We’ll talk about how Nelson accomplishes this and then look at how other memoirists solve similar issues around the limitations of language to find how we can discover our own ways of expressing what cannot be spoken, and see how we already are.

8:00: Evening Program: A special screening of The Great 14th: Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama In His Own Words produced by John Schimmel. “Through intimate conversation and previously unreleased archival footage and images, the Dalai Lama reveals his story and experience of the personal, political, spiritual, and historical events that shaped his life. From childhood to adulthood, in his quest for democracy, The Great 14th offers an extraordinary, unprecedented insight into the complexities of his life-from past lives of the 5th and 13th Dalai Lamas to his current life as the spiritual and former political leader of Tibet and as a tireless Nobel Peace Laureate.”

Wednesday June 12
8:00: Breakfast

9:00-10:30: Guest Faculty Lecture: Emily Ziff Griffin (NF/F)
THE REAL: the myth of overnight success and how to play, and win, the long game
When our daily scroll presents an endless stream of peers’ book deals, published essays, and greenlit movies, it can feel like success comes easily to everyone but ourselves. Or, perhaps we imagine it will be just that effortless when we bring a project to market—a solid polish on that first draft, a little prayer over the tarot, and boom, NYT bestseller. Screenwriter, producer, author, and essayist Emily ZIff Griffin will explore, and debunk, the notion that any writer prevails without rigorous work and copious failure, while providing tangible and inspiring tools for becoming energized, empowered, and successful in the pursuit of our literary dreams. (Salon 4)

9:00-10:30: Guest Faculty Lecture: Rosemary King (All)
Speechwriting: Your Next Side Hustle?
School is expensive, period. To pay the tuition bill, some of you juggle full-time work along with your studies. Others must cobble together various part-time positions or find work in the gig economy. This session will introduce you to speechwriting, a side hustle that lets you do what you love (write!) and has the potential to put extra cash in your pocket. Great speeches tell a story, use precise language, captivate the audience, tap into metaphor, and all the other tricks of the writing trade that you’re learning in this program. During this discussion, we’ll talk about practical ways to “break in” to the field and what to do after landing your first gig. You’ll come away knowing how to become a speechwriter, a career that’ll enable you to write even more compelling films, books, and plays. (Salon 5)

9:00-10:30: Guest Faculty Lecture: Jaime Parker Stickle (All)
Creating the True Crime Podcast
Writing, producing, and releasing a True Crime Podcast - let’s talk about it. How do you get from concept to execution, and how do you get the world to listen? With five million podcasts streaming in the world, and the most saturated genre being True Crime, it’s important to know how to effectively transform real-life mysteries into gripping audio experiences. We’ll talk about narrative building, sound design and editing, interviewing, ethical reporting, and the production timeline from beginning to end.
(Salon 6)

10:30-12:00: Faculty Lecture: Elizabeth Crane (NF)
Close Read Seminar
In this discussion, we will do a close read on Carly Rae Jepsen Loves You Back by Hanif Abdurraqib, endeavoring to unpack his brilliance and see if there are techniques we can borrow to level up our own brilliance! Please read the piece in advance and then we will read it together bit by bit. I will also include a few other short pieces by Abdurraqib from They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us to consider in the event that we have time to do so. (Salon 4)

10:30-12:00 Guest Faculty Lecture: Olivia Taylor Smith (All)
A Life in Publishing
Olivia Taylor Smith has held every job as she has worked her way up the ladder in both indie and now corporate publishing. In this talk, she’ll give you insights on what the jobs are really like and how to get and keep them. (Salon 6)

10:30-12:00 Faculty Lecture: John Schimmel & Joshua Malkin (S)
Openings
Professors Malkin and Schimmel will take a look of some of the best damn movie openings ever written and analyze what makes them so great. (Salon 5)

12:00pm-1:00pm: Lunch

1:15-4:15: Main Genre Workshops

4:30: Graduate Lecture: Shawna Pancharian Yaley (F)
Women In War: Using War as Setting in Historical Fiction
Setting a novel during a world war naturally heightens tension and conflict between female characters and the world by disrupting the gender binary, affording women greater opportunity for self-expression and empowerment. We will look at how certain authors used WW1 & WW11 as setting to explore, and deepen female character development.

5:10: Graduate Lecture: Karen Parker (F)
My Black Bodhisattvas: How African Speculative Literature Resists Through Resonance
What turns a good story into a great story? What makes certain literary works resonate with us long after we've turned the final page and put the book back on the shelf? In this lecture, we'll be exploring these questions with a focus on the African speculative literary diaspora and its ever-evolving conversation with both African oral storytelling traditions and Western storytelling conventions. Storytellers who identify as BIPOC, marginalized, and otherwise underrepresented in literary spaces are strongly encouraged to attend this lecture!

Dark Night

Thursday June 13
8:00: Breakfast

9:00:-10:30 Guest Faculty Lecture: Rider Strong (S)
Writing for the Team
Writing ensemble movies with a group quest – think everything from the Oceans 11 films, to Goonies, to Top Gun, to the Hunger Games, to every war and heist film ever made – have been a staple of Hollywood filmmaking since the very beginning. But how do you actually do it? We’ll delve into it here. (Salon 5)

9:00-10:30 Guest Faculty Lecture: Matt Horwitz (S)
How to Land the Perfect Manager
You’ve written an amazing script. You’ve written several amazing scripts. How do you get them from your computer into the hands of the people that can make or break your career? (Salon 6)

10:30-12:00 Guest Faculty Lecture: Ben Winters (S)
Secrets from the Most Successful New Show On TV
Ben Winters created the hit CBS show Tracker, currently the #1 scripted show on TV. After a year on the air, what has he learned? We’ll sit down with Ben and have a candid conversation on what it’s like at the top…and what he’ll need to do to keep his show there. (Salon 5)

10:30-12:00 Guest Faculty Lecture: Mike Sonksen (P)
The Poetry of Geography
It is an interdisciplinary lecture about how geography can enliven fiction, creative nonfiction or poetry. Using the idea of geographic literacy as a starting point, I talk about how the many different aspects of geography can be applied to deepen a piece of writing or even just
as a catalyst for inspiration. I will cite examples from multiple genres and recite a few of my own poems along the way. (Salon 6)

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:00-2:00 Faculty Lecture: Kathryn McGee (F)
Writing for Emotional Impact
And by “emotional” we mean: stuff that scares the sh*t out of your reader. Looking at examples from contemporary horror, we’ll examine how to manipulate your readers to your will...
(Salon 4)

1:00-2:00 Guest Faculty Lecture: Karam Abulhusn (S)
Follow the Money
How do independently financed movies come together successfully? And how knowing this can help guide your writing? (Salon 5)

2:00-3:30: Super Special Film Screening: Late Bloomers starring Karen Gillan and produced by Alexandra Barreto! “An aimless 28 year-old Brooklynite lands in the hospital after drunkenly breaking her hip. An encounter with a cranky elderly Polish woman who speaks no English leads to a job caring for her. Neither likes it, but it's time to grow up.” Premiers in theaters June 7th…you’re getting it right here at residency. (Salon 6)

3:30: Graduate Lecture: Tim Chambers (NF)
The Transformational Memoir: Memoirs That Bring Us Together
Tim will lecture on memoir's power to rewrite narratives, both individual and societal. With trauma and loneliness at all-time highs, Tim shares from personal experience how memoir is the genre with the unique ability to transform lives on a deep level. Memoir reminds us we are not alone and can help us be more empathetic, inclusive, and kind.

4:15: Graduate Lecture: Kumar Mann (F)
GTFO: Exorcising White Supremacist Patriarchy from the International Action Thriller
We’ll explore how and why the international action thriller genre has reinforced a worldview that denigrates the minoritized, especially melanated people and women. And then we’ll talk about how to fix it with craft.

4:50 Graduate Lecture: Francesca Jimenez (F)
Characterization, Interpersonal Relationships, and World-Building Through Multi-POV Narratives. Do you wonder what's beyond main character syndrome? What happens when we imagine our voices and stories also as threads within the greater collective? In this lecture, we'll explore intergenerational, cultural, and filial expectations and setting and world-building in novels with multiple perspectives, human and nonhuman.

8pm: Special Screening: Kevin Morales’s film Shadow Vaults. 82 minutes of cozy-horror. “During the quarantine, a close group of New York theater friends gather for their weekly online Dungeons & Dragons campaign. They set the mood for a new gothic adventure by sharing ghost stories and welcome a lonely young woman who is joining them for the first time. Drinks flow and tongues loosen and it's clear the new girl is bothered by something. When she shares her tale, it is more than anyone is ready for.”

Friday June 14
8:00: Breakfast

9:00-10:30: Guest Faculty Lecture: Alexandra Barreto (S)
Producing Indie Features: Lessons from The Years Long Journey To Get One 92 Minute Movie Made
“Late Bloomers” was released on the festival circuit in 2023, premiering at SXSW. In March of 2024, Vertical acquired it for distribution. Before and after all of that…was just a few years of hard, arduous, tireless work to get a movie everyone believed in onto the screen. What are the lessons you can take from the “Late Bloomers” success? Come and find out. (Salon 5)

9:00-10:30: Guest Faculty Lecture: Oscar Villalon (All)
From Slush to Best American
Zyzzyva is one of the top literary magazines on the planet…and has been for a very long time, by only accepting the best work in the world. In this talk with editor Oscar Villalon, we’ll learn how to move from the slush-pile to the print edition and then maybe into Best American Short Stories, how you don’t need to seek validation from NY, and how to keep your eyes on the prize, not the scoreboard. (Salon 4)

10:30-12:00: Faculty Lecture: David Ulin (NF)
The Art of Leaving Things Out
Nonfiction is an art of selection. It has to be because you can't put everything in. Even the most faithful rendering is not written of life but from it, a matter of moments that add up, in the writer's imagination, to form a piece of narrative. The selection is where the suspense comes in. The selections is where the essayist discovers the essay, it's movement and its pulse. Sometimes the most essential essays are the sparest. Sometimes it only takes a little to do a lot. (Salon 6)

10:30-12:00 Guest Faculty Lecture: Ioannis Argiris (F/S)
Adapting a Short Story into a Short Film
Have an amazing cinematic short story that simply can’t be turned into a feature? You’re in luck. There’s a vibrant showcase for the short story adaptation – the short film circuit. We’ll view Ioannis’ short film “Blends” and talk about how it went from print to screen. (Salon 5)

10:30-12:00 Faculty Lecture: Tod Goldberg (F)
Writing The Series Character
How do you know if you have a character that you can sustain for a decade at a time? And once identified, how do you write that character in a belieavable way, even if they’re in highly unbelievable situations? In this talk, we’ll look at writing continuing characters from both a genre and literary perspective. (Salon 6)

12:00: Lunch

1:15-4:15 Main Genre Workshops

4:30: Melinda Lee Holm Presents…A Very Special Live Reading! Melinda will bring her tarot cards, you bring yourself and your spiritual questions…

8:00pm: Special Screening: Cambria Matlow’s Why Dig When You Can Pluck, 51 minutes. “A filmmaker seeking inspiration for her next movie brings her volatile husband and
defiant young son camping on the Oregon coast. When her competing desires to be a
good mother and creative artist come to a hilt, she reaches a painful but powerful
breakthrough.”

Saturday June 15
8:00: Breakfast

9:00-10:00 Fall Graduating Student Meeting: ALL STUDENTS GRADUATING Fall 2024 MUST ATTEND (Salon 6)

9:00-10:30 Faculty Lecture: Rob Roberge (F/NF)
TURN OFF THE MOVIE IN YOUR HEAD
…how to fully use POV and the unique gift a character(s)’ interior is and how to use it. (Salon 5)

10:00-11:30 Faculty Lecture: Ivy Pochoda (F)
Writing the Victim Forward Narrative
In this lecture, we will discuss how to reframe traditional crime stories so they center around the victim, not the perpetrator. We will look at how putting the victim at the forefront opens up the narrative to a wide range of perspectives and possibilities.
(Salon 6)

(Salon 6)

11:30 Private Graduate Lunch

11:30: Lunch

1:15-4:15 Cross-Genre Workshops

Dinner

7:30: Graduation & Farewell Party in Grand Ballroom
Presentation of Graduates
Desserts, drinks, and dancing!

Sunday, June 16
8:00: Breakfast

9:00am-12:00: Main Genre Workshops & Final Meetings

12:00: Sad Lunch….and then why don’t you come back in December for our last hurrah at the Rancho Las Palmas…

Guest Faculty

Karam Abulhusn is currently a partner at Boo Pictures and has over 15 years of industry experience in film finance, production, and development. His passion for filmmaking has led him to work in finance at major studios throughout his career including NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. At Boo Pictures, Karam spearheaded the production of many critically acclaimed films- most notably, the Oscar-nominated film CAPERNAUM, which follows the heart-wrenching struggles of a marginalized minority in Beirut, Lebanon. CAPERNAUM went on to break barriers as one of the first female produced, female directed, and female-led Lebanese films to receive international accolades in 2018. Other films include COSTA BRAVA LEBANON, 1982, SONG OF BACK & NECK, UNDER THE SILVER LAKE, and JOSIE. Karam's values are based on the belief that filmmaking thrives from diversity, inclusion, and gender equality. He is proud to uphold these standards through on and off-screen representation of women and minorities in every area across Boo Pictures' body of work -- from selecting narratives, to storytelling, production, and casting. In 2022, Boo Pictures established a partnership with the WGA’s Middle Eastern Writers Committee to continuously support their efforts to boost visibility and employment of under-represented writers in the entertainment industry. Karam's goal is to tell human stories that push boundaries and are universally inspiring. He continues to empower the next generation of storytellers with the confidence to nurture their creativity. Karam lives in LA with his wife and two young daughters. In his free time, he's playing basketball and coaching girls’ soccer.

Ioannis Argiris is a first generation Greek American writer. He is driven to tell stories about working class immigrants, crime, and mental health. He shows symbolism of larger themes through surrealism because the world is mysterious and abstract. He expresses his stories with lots of color and offbeat visuals–blending his love of Rothko with the weirdness of Cronenberg. ioannis’s short film Blends is making its way through the film festival circuit, picking up multiple wins and selections. He is working on new short stories for his collection Encinal Nights. His work has been featured in the Kelp Journal, Coachella Review, and his zines are in many bookstores across the country (Powells, Silver Sprocket, spectators). He holds a MFA in Creative Writing from UCR Palm Desert. You can find him urban cycling through Oakland while he thinks of new tattoos to add to his sleeves.

Alexandra Barreto has been working on sets for over twenty years as an actress, writer, producer and director. Alexandra’s directorial debut, “Lady Hater,” premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, and was named “Top 5 Not-to-be Missed Shorts from the Tribeca Film Festival,” by FORBES. She recently directed the Audible Original Series, “Cut and Run,” starring Meg Ryan, Rachel Bloom and Sam Richardson. She wrote and directed a horror/comedy short film, “Welcome to the 90s,” for the follow up to the popular Shudder anthology, “Scare Package.” Alexandra recently produced the Sundance supported feature film, LATE BLOOMERS, starring Karen Gillan, Margaret Sophie Stein, Jermaine Fowler and Kevin Nealon. An earlier feature she produced, TOO LATE, starring Academy Award Nominees John Hawkes and Robert Forster was released theatrically in over thirty cities and secured a worldwide deal with Netflix. Past projects include writing and directing the first political commercial to air on Comedy Central, and she’s produced seven short films including “The Dungeon Master” which won the Best Short at the Tribeca (Online) Film Festival, and “F*ck the Parents,” starring Pamela Adlon and Rob Delaney.As an actress she’s guest starred and/or recurred on television shows spanning all genres from “Justified” to “Parenthood” to, most recently, recurring on CW’s “All American, a five year run on “The Fosters,” and recurring on the FX breakout hit, “Mayans MC.” She is a Film Independent, IFP and Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow.

Duncan Birmingham is a writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. His short films have premiered at various festivals including Sundance and his feature directorial debut "Who Invited Them" was named one of the best horror films of the year by The Hollywood Reporter. His screenplay Swingles was bought by Paramount and appeared on The Black List. He was the writer and executive producer of the Marc Maron IFC comedy "Maron" and has worked as a writer-producer on various shows including the Starz comedy "Blunt Talk" starring Patrick Stewart and David Fincher's "Videosyncrazy" for HBO. The title story of his short story collection, "The Cult in My Garage" (Maudlin House, 2021), was chosen for the Selected Shorts radio show.

Natashia Deon is a two-time NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literature, practicing criminal attorney and author of the critically acclaimed novels, GRACE andThe Perishing. GRACE was named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times and awarded Best Debut Novel by the American Library Association’s Black Caucus. A Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award Nominee for Outstanding Fiction and a PEN America Fellow, Deón has also been awarded fellowships and residencies at Yale, Prague’s Creative Writing Program, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She is a professor of creative writing at UCLA and Antioch University. Her personal essays have been featured in The New York Times,Harper’s, The Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Bazaar, American Short Fiction, Buzzfeed and other places.

Adam Deutsch is the author of a full-length collection, Every Transmission (Fernwood Press 2023). He has work recently in Poetry International, Thrush, Juked, AMP Magazine, Ping Pong, and Typo, and has a chapbook called Carry On (Elegies). He teaches in the English Department at Grossmont College and is the publisher of Cooper Dillon Books. He lives with his spouse and child in San Diego, CA

Maggie Downs is an award–winning writer based in Palm Springs, California. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Palm Springs Life, and McSweeney’s, where she writes a monthly column, and has been anthologized in The Lonely Planet Travel Anthology: True Stories from the World’s Best Writers and Best Women’s Travel Writing. Braver Than You Think, her first book, was an instant Amazon bestseller. Her latest book 50 Things to do Before You’re 5 has just been released.

Emily Ziff Griffin is the author of the critically-acclaimed novel, LIGHT YEARS which she developed for television with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment. Currently, she's writing LAST DANCE, a feature for Fifth Season based on her New Yorker essay “The Last Dance With My Dad” with The Hunger Games’ Rachel Zegler set to star, as well as original TV series EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD for Fat City and Anonymous Content, and feature HERE I GO AGAIN for Heyday Films. Previously, she served as a writer on Apple TV+’s miniseries based on the life of legendary screen actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr and developed a teen eco-activist heist show for Makeready and Joey Soloway. Her essays have appeared in The New Yorker, the LA Times, the Yale Review, Self, Culture Trip, Rookie, Refinery29, and beyond. Formerly, she co-founded Cooper’s Town Productions with the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, a company she ran for ten years. There, she developed and produced numerous projects, including CAPOTE and Hoffman’s directorial debut, JACK GOES BOATING. She is the Co-Founder of the Industry Professional Mentorship Program at Cal State University, Dominguez Hills where she frequently guest lectures. She has run three marathons, slowly, and holds a degree from Brown University in art-semiotics, the study of how images make meaning.

Rachel Howzell Hall is the New York Times bestselling author of The Last One; What Never Happened; We Lie Here; These Toxic Things; And Now She's Gone; They All Fall Down; and, with James Patterson, The Good Sister, which was included in Patterson's collection The Family Lawyer. A two-time Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist as well as an Anthony, Edgar, International Thriller Writers, and Lefty Award nominee, Rachel is also the author of Land of Shadows, Skies of Ash, Trail of Echoes, and City of Saviors in the Detective Elouise Norton series. A past member of the board of directors for Mystery Writers of America, Rachel has been a featured writer on NPR's acclaimed Crime in the City series and the National Endowment for the Arts weekly podcast; she has also served as a mentor in Pitch Wars and the Association of Writers & Writing Programs. Rachel lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.

Matt Horwitz is a a manager at Echo Lake Entertainment. He got his start at Sleeping Giant Entertainment before joining Echo Lake in 2013 focusing on writers and directors in all aspects of TV and film. His clients have worked on such hit shows as AMERICAN DAD, CALL YOUR MOTHER, TACOMA FD, MAGNUM PI, THE YOUNG ROCK, ARROW, THE FLASH, STRANGER THINGS, and THE CONNERS just to name a few. He has set up client projects at just about every network or streamer that you can think of, (and several that you probably didn’t even know existed). Originally from the Washington DC area, he attended Indiana University and has had a passion for TV and Film since a young age when he discovered that people actually made the things he was watching every day, and that passion has helped him guide and build the careers of creative people from the lowest levels all the way to the top.

Amara Hoshijo a senior editor at Saga Press. Her authors include #1 New York Times bestseller Chloe Gong, USA TODAY bestseller Kemi Ashing-Giwa, Sascha Stronach, M. J. Kuhn, Rin Chupeco, and Matt Wallace. She loves science fiction and fantasy with a focus on world-building and complex systems, as well as stories with a unique cultural lens. Originally from Honolulu and a graduate of the University of Southern California, Amara moved to New York City over a decade ago, then returned to Los Angeles this summer. Prior to joining Saga Press, she was an editor at Soho Press, where she published Chana Porter’s The Seep, Clarissa Goenawan’s Rainbirds, and Chris McKinney’s Midnight, Water City. She also managed the company’s subrights initiative and is a former Frankfurt Fellow.

Jud Laghi Launched in 2010, The Jud Laghi Agency is a full-service literary agency that represents fiction and non-fiction at every stage of the publishing process. Jud’s hands-on style includes significant editorial guidance on proposals and manuscripts for the strongest possible publisher submission, and an exploration of all potential opportunities for boosting the marketing and publicity of his clients’ books once they have been published, as well as licensing foreign and translation, audio, serial, film, television, and other digital and online rights. His clients include Jaime Lowe, Peter Zeihan, Dakin Campbell, Davy Rothbart, Brian Raftery, Tim Layden, Jason Turbow, Farah Pandith, Sally Hogshead, Justin and Sydnee McElroy, Portlandia star and Sleater-Kinney guitarist and vocalist Carrie Brownstein, all-time Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings, and rock legends Gene Simmons and Kenny Loggins.Jud has represented, developed and launched a broad spectrum of trendsetting and bestselling books throughout his career, by authors of narrative nonfiction, journalism, cultural criticism, memoir, popular culture, prescriptive nonfiction and business, as well as select fiction, middle grade and YA. Before forming JLA, Jud worked as a literary agent at LJK Literary Management and at ICM, where he began his agenting career. He is a graduate of Trinity College with a B.A. in English and creative writing.

Boris Kachka is the former books editor of the Los Angeles Times. Previously, he was an editor and writer at New York magazine for two decades. He has written profiles of authors including Joan Didion, Toni Morrison and Harper Lee; investigated turmoil at various cultural and media institutions; expanded books coverage across the publication’s many verticals; and covered film, television, theater and book publishing. He is also the author of “Hothouse,” a cultural history of the publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux; “Becoming a Veterinarian”; and “Becoming a Producer.”

Rosemary King is an award-winning speechwriter who has worked directly for the Secretary of Defense as well as executives of Fortune 500 companies and national nonprofits. Her speeches have been quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, and USA Today and reached international audiences in Taiwan, Russia, Hungary, Belgium, Mexico, Colombia, Estonia, Macedonia, and Kosovo among others. Rose holds degrees from Arizona State University, Harvard University, and the Air Force Academy. In December, she earned an MFA/screenwriting from the University of CA/Riverside. She was recently accepted to The Veterans Writing Project, a mentorship program run by the Writers Guild of America. Rose is obsessed with stories about underdogs, outsiders, and rebels – characters who are part of a tribe yet feel like they don’t belong.Rose serves on the Advisory Board of the Professional Speechwriters Association, a worldwide network of leadership communication professionals. She is also on the Board of Directors of Rose City Hockey Club, a nonprofit she co-founded in 2013 for girls ages 5-18. Rose lives in Portland, OR, with her wife, Kristin, and their feisty cat, Piper.

David Martinez earned his MFA from University of California, Riverside, Palm Desert, and previously taught English and creative writing at Glendale Community College in Arizona. He is a dual citizen of the United States and Brazil and has lived in both countries as well as in Puerto Rico. His work has appeared in The Coachella Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Broken Pencil, and Automata Review. He lives in Glendale, Arizona. His debut memoir, Bones Worth Breaking, has just been released and was already named a best book of the year by Esquire.

Tiffany Colli Moon is a producer, dramaturg and theatre manager devoted to the development and production of new works. She has been an active member of the Los Angeles and Southern California theatre community for the last decade, working with companies such as Center Theatre Group, South Coast Repertory, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Greenway Arts Alliance, California Repertory Company, and Rogue Artists Ensemble; and previously spent six years in NYC working in various capacities at theatres such as BAM, Summer Play Festival, and Theater for the New City. Tiffany is currently the Literary Manager of Ojai Playwrights Conference, where she has been a staff member since 2012, most recently completing two seasons (2015 and 2016) as Managing Director. Tiffany holds an MFA/MBA in Theatre Management from CSULB, a BFA in Theatre Performance from Chapman University and a Certificate in Musical Theatre Performance from Circle in the Square Theatre School.

Celeste Holben Pecar is Director of Development for filmmaker Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, with whom she is producing several film and TV projects, including an adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s bestselling novel, The Fortress of Solitude.

David Holben Pecar is a Sr. Director of Development & Strategy at 101 Studios (producer of major series such as Yellowstone, Tulsa King, and Mayor of Kingstown). His journey from the pastoral fields of Indiana to the garbage-ridden thoroughfares of Los Angeles was first marked by an untimely stint at The Weinstein Company, followed by the birth of 101 Studios. David is involved in the development, production, and marketing of 101 Studios’ wide content slate. Much of his work revolves around bridging the gap between studios and their audiences, better connecting viewers to the content they consume through a spectrum of emerging channels - immersive experiences, interactive e-commerce, fanbase engagement, and more.

Gideon Pine is interested in representing writers in the nonfiction space with a focus on historical narrative nonfiction, true crime, health and wellness, and long form investigative journalism. He is also looking for voice-driven debut novels, including but not limited to the following genres: thriller, mystery, horror, or literary fiction. Whether a book is destined to be the next book club bestseller or a cult classic that will live on forever, he wants to read it. Gideon has a B.A in Political Science from Indiana University. Prior to working in publishing, he worked in commercial production and advertising.

Olivia Taylor Smith is a Senior Editor at Simon & Schuster where she acquires literary fiction, narrative non-fiction, and memoir. She is looking for emerging voices with a profound literary talent, inventiveness, and humor, groundbreaking international authors, works of literary suspense, mystery and adventure, and literary fiction that is surprising and unexpected, evocative and hilarious, emotionally impactful and occasionally, unhinged. She is actively seeking to expand her non-fiction list, and is interested in literary memoir, progressive issues, current affairs, and geopolitics. Titles Olivia has acquired and are forthcoming at S&S include Heartwood by Amity Gaige, Paradise Logic by Sophie Kemp, At Last by Marisa Silver, Blackcurrant by Kerry Cullen, Oddbody by Rose Keating, and What Hunger by Cat Dang.

Mike Sonksen is a 3rd-generation Los Angeles native that teaches several course in the Interdisciplinary Studies Department including Conflicts, Journeys, Knowledges, LA Stories, Natures and PPDV. Sonksen earned his Bachelors’ Degree at UCLA in 1997. In June 2014, he completed an Interdisciplinary Master of Arts in English and History from the California State University of Los Angeles. Following his graduation from U.C.L.A. in 1997, he has published over 500 essays and poems with publications and websites like the Academy of American Poets, KCET, Poets & Writers Magazine, BOOM, Wax Poetics, Southern California Quarterly, LA Weekly, OC Weekly, Lana Turner, The Architect’s Newspaper, LA Alternative Press, Los Angeles Review of Books, Cultural Weekly, Angel’s Flight, Angel City Review, Entropy, LA Taco, Lummox and many others. Most recently, one of his KCET essays was Awarded for Excellence by the Los Angeles Press Club. Sonksen’s prose and poetry have been published on a building at 7th and Olive in Downtown Los Angeles and on banners on Santa Monica and Venice Boulevards and included in programs with the Mayor’s Office, the Los Angeles Public Library’s “Made in LA,” series, Grand Park, the Music Center, the Friends of the Los Angeles River and Glendale Central Library. On three separate occasions, the City of Los Angeles has awarded Sonksen “Certificates of Commendation” for his poetic contributions to the city. In May 2018, Sonksen was awarded by the Associated Students Organization of Woodbury University for Excellence in Teaching. He has also been a guest speaker at over 80 universities and high schools.

Jaime Parker Stickle a writer, actor, podcaster, and college professor, and holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside. She is the creator and host of the true crime investigative podcast, The Girl with the Same Name as well as the hilarious and popular podcast, Make That Paper. She is the recipient of the Virginia G. Piper Desert Nights Rising Stars Fellowship. She teaches L.A. Media Studies, Podcasting, and Creative Writing for Montclair State University.

Susan Straight’s most recent novel, Mecca, was a Finalist for the Kirkus Prize and named by The New York Times as a Top Ten California Book of the Year, one of the Best Ten Books of 2022 by The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, and the best book of 2022 by NPR. Her 2019 memoir, In the Country of Women, was a national bestseller, named the best book of the year by NPR and CodeSwitch, and longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence. She has published eight previous novels, including the bestseller Highwire Moon, a Finalist for the National Book Award, and A Million Nightingales, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her stories and essays have appeared in O Henry Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Granta, Harpers, and elsewhere. Her awards include the Lannan Prize for Fiction, the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Story, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her work has been translated into Italian, French, Spanish, German, Turkish, Arabic, Swedish, Polish, and Japanese. She was born in Riverside, California, where she lives with her family; she has taught at the University of California, Riverside, since 1988.

Rider Strong After being cast as Gavroche in Les Miserables at nine years old, Rider Strong began his career as an actor, becoming best known for his roles on Boy Meets World and the cult horror film, Cabin Fever. Moving behind the camera, Rider wrote and directed short films that have played over 60 festivals worldwide and won both audience and juried awards. He returned to his roots, this time as a director, for three seasons of the Emmy-nominated Girl Meets World. In addition to his screenwriting, Rider’s writing has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Believer, Bullet Magazine, Shondaland, and more. His play Never Ever Land premiered at Theatre Unleashed in Los Angeles in the fall of 2019. Since 2022, he’s cohosted the immensely popular Pod Meets World podcast, alongside Danielle Fishel and Will Friedel, and previously co-hosted Literary Disco for a decade. He graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University and received his M.F.A. in Fiction and Literature from Bennington College. He’s taught screenwriting at both Chapman College and UC Riverside.

Sarah Tomlinson is a Los Angeles-based writer and the author of The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers. She has more than 15 years of experience as a journalist, music critic, writer, ghostwriter, and editor. She has ghostwritten or co-written fourteen books, including the New York Times bestseller, Fast Girl, with Suzy Favor Hamilton, and two uncredited New York Times-bestsellers. Her father-daughter memoir, Good Girl, was published by Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster) in April 2015. She has extensive experience serving as a bridge between the creative minds and personalities of her clients and the rigorous attention-to-detail and deadline-oriented demands of the publishing world. She has long turned her passion for music, literature, and pop culture trends into cutting-edge coverage and cultural criticism. Her personal essays have appeared, or are forthcoming, in publications including Marie Claire, MORE, Salon.com, Publishers Weekly, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Huffington Post. Her fiction has appeared on Vol. 1 Brooklyn. Her articles and music reviews have appeared in publications including The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Boston magazine, Spin.com, Billboard.com, Alternative Press, Swindle, Preen, Rockpile, The OC Weekly, and The Willamette Week. She wrote a weekly local music column, “Notes,” for The Boston Phoenix. She has written bios for bands on Virgin, Red Ink/Columbia, and MySpace Records and contributed to the electronic press kits for artists on Warner Bros. Records. After growing up in Maine, Sarah attended the early college, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, and then earned a BA in Creative Writing at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. After four years spent writing and buying records in Portland, Oregon, she earned an MA in Journalism at Northeastern University in Boston. While in Boston, she launched her journalism career. Sarah currently writes novels, memoirs, screenplays, TV pilots, personal essays, short stories and online dating profiles for her friends. She has read at Los Angeles literary happenings including Sit ‘n Spin, Vermin on the Mount, Tongue and Groove and Little Birds. Her favorite band is T. Rex. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr.

Oscar Villalon is the editor of ZYZZYVA, a recipient of the Whiting Literary Magazine Prize. His work has been published in several publications, including The Believer, Stranger’s Guide, Alta, and Lit Hub, where he is a contributing editor. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and their son.

Jennie Webb is an independent Los Angeles writer, dramaturg and playwright. Her plays, including Currency, Yard Sale Signs, Remodeling Plans, Unclaimed Assets, GreenHouse, On Tuesday, Brand New Script, It’s Not About Race, Buying a House, About What Matters, Reach, Smiling Cat Candy Heart and Carry On have been produced locally (by Inkwell Theater, Santa Monica Rep, Rogue Machine Theatre, The Road Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival, EST/LA and others), at colleges and universities across the country and in India, Iceland, Canada and the UK. She has been a part of The Playwright Center’s PlayLabs, Great Plains Theatre Conferences, Little Black Dress INK Female Playwrights ONSTAGE Festivals, Protest Plays Project, the Virginia Avenue Project, 365 Women a Year, National Winter Playwrights Retreat, The Road Theatre Company Summer Playwrights Festivals and Under Construction 1, PlayGround-LA, Moving Arts MADlab, Blank Theatre’s Living Room Series and Rogue Artists Ensemble’s inaugural Rogue Lab with plays including The Complete Story of the War, Rebecca on the Bus, Seperate Loads, Crazy Bitch, Jilt, Into the Gobpile, Not Cake, adaptation.resilience and Footprint; her work is published by Heinemann Press, Smith & Kraus, Next Stage Press and ICWP. Her plays have been named finalist (O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Gulfshore Playhouse New Play and City Theatre National Short Play Awards) and semi-finalists (PlayPenn, Athena Project, Trustus Theatre Festival, O’Neill) in numerous competitions and she is a two-time winner of a Max K. Lerner Playwriting Fellowship. She is currently a member of the Playwrights Union, EST/LA, Honor Roll!, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and the Dramatists Guild. She is the recipient of a Women in Theatre Red Carpet Award and is co-founder and editor-at-large of the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative.

Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an associate professor of physics and astronomy and core faculty in women’s and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire. Her research in theoretical physics focuses on cosmology, neutron stars, and dark matter. She is also a researcher of Black feminist science, technology, and society studies. She was a co-convener of Dark Matter: Cosmic Probes in the 2021 Snowmass particle physics community planning process, and she is a member of the National Academies Elementary Particles: Progress and Promise decadal committee. She is the creator of the Cite Black Women+ in Physics and Astronomy Bibliography. Nature recognized Dr. Prescod-Weinstein as one of 10 people who shaped science in 2020, and Essence magazine has recognized her as one of “15 Black Women Who Are Paving the Way in STEM and Breaking Barriers.” A co-creator of the Particles for Justice letter against sexism in particle physics and 2020 Strike for Black Lives, she received the 2017 LGBT+ Physicists Acknowledgement of Excellence Award for her contributions to improving conditions for marginalized people in physics and the 2021 American Physical Society Edward A. Bouchet Award for her contributions to particle cosmology.
Dr. Prescod-Weinstein is also a columnist for New Scientist and Physics World. Her first book The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred (Bold Type Books) won the 2021 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the science and technology category, the 2022 Phi Beta Kappa Science Award, and a 2022 PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award. It was named a Best Book of 2021 by Publishers Weekly, Smithsonian Magazine, and Kirkus and was a finalist for multiple awards including the 2022 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. The Disordered Cosmos was also longlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize in Caribbean Literature. In 2022, Dr. Prescod-Weinstein was the inaugural top prize winner in the mid-career researcher category of the National Academies Eric and Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communication. She is now working on her second book for general audiences, The Edge of Space-Time (Pantheon Books), and an academic book, The Cosmos is a Black Aesthetic (Duke University Press). Originally from East L.A., she divides her time between the New Hampshire Seacoast and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Chris Wiley is a California poet and playwright. He has published two chapbooks of poetry: Some Men and Stillness After Thrashing. Some of his recent poetry has been published in Bending Genres and Peculiar. He co-founded Theater Bobo in the 1980s, the first openly queer theater in Washington, D.C. Several of his stage plays have been produced in San Francisco, California; Washington, D.C.; Long Island, New York; Memphis, Tennessee, Boston, Massachusetts and St. Louis, Missouri. He has a BA in English Literature from James Madison University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California Riverside.

Ben Winters is the New York Times best-selling, Edgar Award–winning, and Philip K. Dick Award–winning author of Big Time, The Quiet Boy, Golden State, Underground Airlines, the Last Policeman trilogy, and the mash-up novel Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.
Ben has also worked extensively in television. He is the creator of the smash-hit CBS show TRACKER and has served as a writer/producer on the FX cult hit Legion as well as Manhunt on Apple TV+. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, three kids, and one large dog.

Blaise P. Zerega is Alta Journal's editorial director. His journalism has appeared in Conde Nast Portfolio (deputy editor and part of founding team), WIRED (managing editor), the New Yorker, Forbes, and other publications. Additionally, he was the editor of Red Herring magazine, once the bible of Silicon Valley. Throughout his career, he has helped lead teams small and large to numerous honors including multiple National Magazine Awards. He attended the United States Military Academy, New York University, and received a Michener Fellowship for fiction from the Texas Center for Writers.

MFA Faculty

Mickey Birnbaum’s play Big Death & Little Death inaugurated Woolly Mammoth’s new Washington D.C. theatre in 2005. It has been produced subsequently at Perishable Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island; Crowded Fire in San Francisco; the Road Theatre in Los Angeles; and the Catastrophic Theater in Houston. The play was nominated for a 2006 Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play, and was a 2006 PEN USA Literary Awards Finalist. His play Bleed Rail premiered at the Theatre@Boston Court in Los Angeles in 2007, and won a 2008 Garland Award for Playwriting. Mickey spent two months living in playwright William Inge’s boyhood home in Independence, Kansas as the recipient of a 2006 Inge Fellowship. He has written numerous children’s plays for L.A.’s celebrated non-profit organization, Virginia Avenue Project. He is a founding member of Dog Ear, a Los Angeles collective of nationally-renowned playwrights (visit www.dogear.org), as well as The Playwrights’ Union, and was a member of the 2008-2009 Center Theatre Group Writer’s Workshop. Over a thirty year career, Mickey has written screenplays for Universal, Paramount, Columbia/Sony, Interscope, Warner Brothers, and Leonardo di Caprio’s Appian Way Productions. He collaborated with director Steven Shainberg (Secretary, Fur) on the screenplay for The Big Shoe and recently adapted the John Irving novel The Fourth Hand in collaboration with Shainberg. He wrote The Tie that Binds (1995), starring Keith Carradine and Darryl Hannah, for Interscope/Hollywood Pictures. Mickey received his MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts from the University of Riverside, Palm Desert in 2013. He teaches screenwriting at Santa Monica College as well. Mickey plays bass accordion for the Accordionaires, an accordion orchestra. Hs most recent play, Backyard, was a finalist for the 2015 PEN Center USA Award for Drama.

Yennie Cheung is the Executive Editor of the Coachella Review and co-author of DTLA/37: Downtown Los Angeles in Thirty-seven Stories. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Riverside-Palm Desert, and her writing has been published in such places as The Los Angeles Times, Writers Resist, Angels Flight • Literary West, The Rattling Wall, and The Best Small Fictions.

Elizabeth Crane is the author of four collections of short stories, When the Messenger is Hot, All this Heavenly Glory, You Must Be This Happy to Enter, and Turf, and the novels The History of Great Things and We Only Know So Much. Her work has been translated into several languages and has been featured in numerous publications including Other Voices, Ecotone, Guernica, Catapult, Electric Literature, Coachella Review, Mississippi Review, Florida Review, Bat City Review, Hobart, Rookie, Fairy Tale Review, The Huffington Post, Eating Well, Chicago Magazine, the Chicago Reader and The Believer, and anthologies including Altared, The Show I’ll Never Forget, The Best Underground Fiction, Who Can Save Us Now?, Brute Neighbors and Dzanc’s Best of the Web. Her stories have been featured on NPR’s Selected Shorts. She is a recipient of the Chicago Public Library 21st Century Award, and her work has been adapted for the stage by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater company. A feature film adaptation of her debut novel, We Only Know So Much, won Best Feature at the Big Apple Film Festival in 2018. Her debut memoir, This Story Will Change (Counterpoint), was released in 2022 and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice.

Alex Espinoza was born in Tijuana, Mexico to parents from the state of Michoacán and raised in suburban Los Angeles. In high school and afterwards, he worked a series of retail jobs, selling everything from eggs and milk to used appliances, custom furniture, rock T-shirts, and body jewelry. After graduating from the University of California-Riverside, he went on to earn an MFA from UC-Irvine’s Program in Writing. His first novel, Still Water Saints, was published by Random House in 2007 and was named a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection. The book was released simultaneously in Spanish, under the title Los santos de Agua Mansa, California, translated by Lilliana Valenzuela. His second novel, The Five Acts of Diego León, was also published by Random House in March 2013. Alex’s fiction has appeared in several anthologies and journals, including Inlandia: A Literary Journey Through California’s Inland Empire, The Southern California Review, Flaunt, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. His essays have been published at Salon.com, in the New York Times Magazine, in The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity, in The Los Angeles Review of Books, and as part of the historic Chicano Chapbook Series. He has also reviewed books for the LA Times, the American Book Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and NPR. His awards include a 2009 Margaret Bridgeman Fellowship in Fiction to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, a 2014 Fellowship in Prose from the National Endowment for the Arts, a 2014 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for The Five Acts of Diego León, and a 2019 Fellowship from MacDowell and inclusion in Best American Mystery & Suspense. His newest book is Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime, which was published by The Unnamed Press in December, 2019. An active participant in Sandra Cisneros’ Macondo Workshop and the Community of Writers, Alex is also deeply involved with the Puente Project, a program designed to help first-generation community college students make a successful transition to a university. Alex is the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair of Creative Writing at UC Riverside. His next book, Sons of El Rey, will be on Saturday night!

Jill Alexander Essbaum is the New York Times bestselling author the novel Hausfrau, which was translated into 26 languages, and several prize-winning collections of poetry, including Heaven (winner of the Katherine Bakeless Nason prize), Necropolis, Harlot, and most recently, Would-Land. Her work has appeared in dozens of journals including Poetry, The Christian Century, Image, and The Rumpus, and has been included in textbooks and anthologies including The Best American Erotic Poems and two editions of the annual Best American Poetry anthology. A two-time NEA fellow, Jill lives and writes in Austin, Tx.

Tod Goldberg is the New York Times-bestselling author of over fifteen prize-winning books, including the acclaimed Gangsterland trilogy – Gangsterland, a finalist the Hammett Prize, Gangster Nation, a Times of London Best Book of the Year, and Gangsters Don’t Die, named both an Amazon Best Book of the Year and Southwest Book of the Year – the novels The House of Secrets, which he co-authored with Brad Meltzer, and Living Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and three acclaimed collections of short fiction, most recently The Low Desert, named a Southwest Book of the Year and the finalist for numerous literary awards. His short fiction has been widely anthologized, including in Palm Springs Noir, Las Vegas Noir, and Best American Mystery & Suspense, where he has also twice received Distinguished Story of the Year citations. His nonfiction appears regularly in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Alta and has been widely anthologized as well, including in Best American Essays, and has won five Nevada Press Association Awards for excellence. For his body of work, Tod was honored with the Silver Pen Award from the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. Tod Goldberg holds an MFA in Creative Writing & Literature from Bennington College and is a Professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside where he founded and directs the Low Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts.

Gabino Iglesias is a writer, journalist, professor, and book critic living in Austin, Texas. He is the author of Zero Saints, Coyote Songs, The Devil Takes You Home, and House of Bone
and Rain. His work has won the Bram Stoker Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Wonderland Book Award, among others. His reviews appear regularly in places like NPR, Locus Magazine, and the Boston Globe and he is the horror fiction columnist for the New York Times. Iglesias
teaches creative writing at the UC Riverside Palm Desert Low-Residency MFA program. You can find him online talking books on X at @gabino_iglesias.

Joshua Malkin has written feature projects for Sony, Fox, Universal Pictures among more than a dozen other companies. He also wrote and produced three documentaries: two about the art of puppetry, and the other about underground comics. In 2008 he wrote Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever for Lionsgate. Joshua co-authored top-selling fantasy comic book series The Source (Scout Comics, Publisher – top title, 2018) and the upcoming YA graphic novel, Unikorn. The book and screenplay for Unikorn have been acquired by Armory Films and is slated to be the directorial debut of Marvel editor Debbie Berman (Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Spiderman Homecoming.) Joshua is a professor of screenwriting at the University of California Riverside, an occasional story architect for the video game industry, and the proud – if bewildered - father of twins.

Kathryn E. McGee is the Program Manager for and a graduate of the UC Riverside Palm Desert MFA Program in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts. Her horror stories have appeared in Kelp Journal, Ladies of the Fright, Scoundrel Time, Gamut Magazine, and the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Chromophobia anthology. Her story, “Mondays Are for Meat,” was recently optioned for film. “The Creek Keepers’ Lodge” (Horror Library Vol. 6) was an honorable mention in Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year Vol. 10. She writes about horror books and film for The Lineup. She also co-authored a book about downtown Los Angeles, DTLA37: Downtown Los Angeles in Thirty-seven Stories (Enville Publishing). Kathryn is an Active Member of the Horror Writers Association and represented by Dara Hyde at Hill Nadell Literary Agency. For more information, visit www.kathrynemcgee.com.

Ivy Pochoda holds a BA in Classics and Literature, with a focus on Dramatic Literature, from Harvard, where she graduated cum laude, and an MFA in fiction from Bennington College. She is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels These Women, Wonder Valley, Visitation Street, and The Art of Disappearing, and has won or been a finalist for the Edgar Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (twice!), the California Book Award, the International Thriller Award, the Strand Critics Award, the Southern California Independent Booksellers Award, the Macavity Award, and others too numerous to list. Ivy is also the author of the YA/fantasy series created by the late Kobe Bryant, Epoca: The Tree of Ecrof, an immediate New York Times bestseller, and Epoca: The River of Sand, and is an in-demand ghost writer as well. Her nonfiction and criticism appears regularly in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Wall Street Journal, among others. Her latest novel, Sing Her Down, was released last summer and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

William Rabkin creator and writer of HBOAsia’s science fiction series Dream Raider, has written and/or produced hundreds of hours of dramatic television. He served as show runner on the long-running Dick Van Dyke mystery series “Diagnosis Murder” and on the action-adventure spectacle “Martial Law” and is currently creating series in Asia and Europe. He has also written a dozen network TV pilots. His work has twice been nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Television Episode from the Mystery Writers of America. He has written four books on writing for television, “Writing the Pilot” (2011), “Writing the Pilot: Creating the Series” (2017), Writing the Pilot: Streaming and, with Lee Goldberg, “Successful Television Writing” (2003) and seven novels. He is the co-creator and co-editor of “The Dead Man,” a 28-book series of supernatural action thrillers published by Amazon’s 47 North imprint. Rabkin is part of the core faculty of UCR-Palm Desert’s M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts. He is currently co-writing the miniseries Estonia: The Last Wave for the Nordic Entertainment Group and ITV.

Rob Roberge is the acclaimed author of several books, including the memoir Liar, named a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and best of the year selection by Powell’s and Entropy, the novels The Cost of Living, More Than They Could Chew, and Drive, and the short story collection Working Backwards from the Worst Moment of My Life. His short fiction and essays have been widely published and anthologized, most recently in Palm Springs Noir and Silver Waves of Summer, and acclaimed by media outlets such as the New York Times Book Review, NPR, and the LA Times. In addition to writing and teaching, he is a guitarist and singer/songwriter in The Hitchco*ck Brunettes and the seminal LA art punk band, The Urinals, who’ve shared bills with Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, The Dream Syndicate, and the Go-Go’s, and whose songs have been covered by Yo La Tengo, The Minutemen, The Gun Club, No Age, and many others. He also wrote and directed the short film This Regrettable Event. He holds an MFA from Vermont College is an assistant professor and core faculty member of the Low Residency MFA at UC Riverside. He is at work on a new novel and several music projects and lives in Chicago with his wife and fellow Hitchco*ck Brunette, the writer Gina Frangello, along with their daughter and two astonishingly overweight cats.

John Schimmel is in the middle of an extraordinarily diverse career as a writer/producer. He’s been the President of Michael Douglas’ Furthur Films and President of Production at Ascendant Pictures, an executive at Douglas-Reuther Productions, Belair Entertainment, and Warner Bros, co-penned the Tony-nominated musical “Pump Boys And Dinettes,” published fiction and nonfiction, including his first book, Screenwriting Behind Enemy Lines: Lessons from Inside the Studio Gates. He currently works as Executive Producer for Cloud Imperium Games which is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest crowd funding effort in history. He recently executive produced the films Shaquile O’Neal Presents Foster Boy with Matthew Modine and Lou Gossett Jr., written and produced by his student Jay Paul Deratany; and The Great 14th: Tenzin Gyatzo, The 14th Dalai Lama, In His Own Words. John is also part of the core screenwriting faculty at the University of California at Riverside’s Low Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts, providing not just an insight into how to write screenplays, but how to write screenplays that sell.

Mark Haskell Smith is the author of six novels with one word titles including Moist, Baked, and Blown; and the nonfiction books Rude Talk In Athens: Ancient Rivals, the Birth of Comedy, and a Writer’s Journey through Greece, Naked at Lunch: A Reluctant Nudist's Adventures in the Clothing-Optional World and Heart of Dankness: Underground Botanists, Outlaw Farmers, and the Race for the Cannabis Cup. He has written extensively for film and television. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Independent, Vulture and others. His next book, Memoir: a Novel, was just released in France.