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Creative Writing

Become a member of Portland's vibrant community of writers

Portland State University's Creative Writing Program offers Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. Located in the center of one of the country's most vibrantly literary cities, the Creative Writing Program provides writers with opportunities for creative development with a core faculty of prominent authors: Diana Abu-Jaber, Janice Lee, Gabriel Urza, and Leni Zumas in Fiction; John Beer and Michele Glazer in Poetry; and Paul Collins and visiting writer Justin Hocking in Nonfiction.

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MFA Students: Apply for the Literary Arts Internship

The PSU MFA in Creative Writing program and the Youth Programs at Literary Arts offer an annual paid internship for a first- or second-year MFA student. Apply by February 19.

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Bachelor's in Creative Writing

Our BFA in Creative Writing provides students with the skills and experience to enter the creative field or graduate study as writers, editors, and teachers. We feature a comprehensive curriculum of workshops in craft/technique and opportunities for students to work closely with peers and published authors.

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Master's in Creative Writing

Our MFA in Creative Writing emphasizes workshops and close mentorship by core faculty, while providing the flexibility of a part-time option and the rich course offerings of PSU. Our program is distinguished by the diversity of its student body and by the accomplishments of its alumni.

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Upcoming events

Walidah Imarisha headshot and bookcover

Walidah Imarisha

Walidah Imarisha is an educator, writer, public scholar, and spoken word…
Add to my Calendar 2021-03-05 16:00:00 2021-03-05 17:00:00 Walidah Imarisha Walidah Imarisha is an educator, writer, public scholar, and spoken word artist. She has edited two anthologies, Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements and Another World is Possible. Imarisha’s nonfiction book Angels with Dirty Faces: Three Stories of Crime, Prison, and Redemption won a 2017 Oregon Book Award. She is also the author of the poetry collection Scars/Stars, and in 2015, she received a Tiptree Fellowship for her science fiction writing. Imarisha has taught at Stanford University, Pacific Northwest College of Art, and Oregon State University; she recently joined the faculty of PSU's Black Studies Program. For six years she presented statewide as a public scholar with Oregon Humanities' Conversation Project on topics such as Oregon Black history, alternatives to incarceration, and the history of hip hop. She was one of the founders and first editor of the political hip hop magazine AWOL.  **Register here for the Walidah Imarisha reading. A link will be emailed shortly before the event.** This event is co-hosted with the Black Studies Program at Portland State University. An ASL interpreter will be present. Visit pdx.edu/creative-writing/events for more Creative Writing events. Zoom webinar (Register below) eng@pdx.edu eng@pdx.edu America/Los_Angeles public
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Ooligan and Beyond Series: Career Possibilities Panel

CAREER POSSIBILITIES PANEL   Celebrate twenty years of Ooligan Press by…
Add to my Calendar 2021-03-05 16:00:00 2021-03-05 17:00:00 Ooligan and Beyond Series: Career Possibilities Panel CAREER POSSIBILITIES PANEL   Celebrate twenty years of Ooligan Press by joining us for a panel discussion featuring some of our fabulous alumni to learn about the many different career possibilities for graduates of the book publishing program.   Panelists include Jenny Kimura, YA book designer at Little, Brown; Dory Athey, who just hung out a shingle for a boutique marketing firm in Minnesota, having marketed for Counterpoint/Softskull (she's also a zine maker); Lisa Hein, an editor working in production at U. Chicago Press; and Kate Barnes, who is an ebook producer at W. W. Norton.    Register for the event here   See More of our Events Here     Join via Zoom Grace Hansen grhansen@pdx.edu Grace Hansen grhansen@pdx.edu America/Los_Angeles public
Headshots of alumni readers

Alumni Showcase Reading: Chelsea Bieker, Susan Leslie Moore,…

Chelsea Bieker is the author of the novel Godshot and the forthcoming…
Add to my Calendar 2021-04-09 23:00:00 2021-03-04 13:56:46 Alumni Showcase Reading: Chelsea Bieker, Susan Leslie Moore, & Candace Opper Chelsea Bieker is the author of the novel Godshot and the forthcoming story collection Cowboys and Angels (2022). Her writing has been published in The Paris Review, Granta, The Cut, McSweeney’s, Lit Hub, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award and a MacDowell fellowship. Originally from California’s Central Valley, she now lives and teaches in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and two children. She is a graduate of the Portland State MFA program. Susan Leslie Moore’s poetry has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, New York Quarterly, Poetry Northwest, Willow Springs, and elsewhere. She is the winner of the 2019 Juniper Prize in Poetry and her first full-length collection, That Place Where You Opened Your Hands, was published by University of Massachusetts Press in 2020. Her poem “Night of the Living” appears in The Best American Poetry 2020.  Candace Jane Opper is a writer, a mother, and a visual artist. She is the author of Certain and Impossible Events (2021), selected by Cheryl Strayed for a Kore Press Memoir Award. She grew up in the woods of Southern Connecticut and now lives in Pittsburgh with her husband and son. **Register here to attend.** An ASL interpreter will be present at this event. Visit http://pdx.edu/creative-writing/events for more Creative Writing events. Zoom webinar (Register below) eng@pdx.edu eng@pdx.edu America/Los_Angeles public
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