Creative Writing Graduate Program

Faculty and Administration

Academic Director
Aaron Shurin
Associate Professor, (415) 422-5357

Administrative Director
Micah Ballard
(415) 422-6208

MFA in Writing Faculty - 2009-2010

Stephen Beachy
M.F.A. in Creative Writing, Iowa Writers Workshop.
Michener Award in fiction. Author of The Whistling Song (1991), Distortion (2000), and Some Phantom/No Time Flat (2006). Published in High Risk 2, New York Times Magazine, Bomb, and Best Gay American Fiction 1996.

David Booth
M.F.A. in Creative Writing, M.A. in English, San Francisco State University.
Published in Washington Square, The Missouri Review, Morbid Curiosity, Opium, Fourteen Hills, and Transfer.

Catherine Brady
Professor
M.F.A. in Creative Writing, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The Brenda Ueland Prose Prize and the Zoetrope: All Story Short Fiction Prize. Former president, AWP. Author of three short story collections: The Mechanics of Falling (2009), Curled in the Bed of Love (2003), winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, The End of the Class War (1999), and a biography: Elizabeth Blackburn and the Story of Telomeres: Deciphering the Ends of DNA (2007). A book on the craft of short fiction is forthcoming in spring 2010. Published in Best American Short Stories 2004.

Lewis Buzbee
M.F.A. in Fiction, Warren Wilson College.
Author of novels, Fliegelman’s Desire (1990), Steinbeck's Ghost (2008); stories, After the Gold Rush (2006); and nonfiction, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop (2006). Published in Harper’s, Paris Review, Gentleman’s Quarterly, The New York Times Book Review, Black Warrior Review, ZYZZYVA, and Best American Poetry 1995.

Lowell Cohn
Ph.D. in English Literature, Stanford University.
Leverhulme Fellowship for study in England. San Francisco Bay Area sports columnist of the year (1996, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007). Sports columnist for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, a New York Times regional newspaper, and the San Francisco Chronicle (1979-1994). Author of Rough Magic: Bill Walsh’s Return to Stanford Football (1994).

Norma Cole
M.A. in French Language and Literature, University of Toronto.
Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Award, Gertrude Stein Awards, the Fund for Poetry, and an award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Author of Mars (1994), Contrafact (1996), Moira (1996), Spinoza in Her Youth (2002), Scout (2004), Do The Monkey (2006), Collective Memory (2006), Natural Light (2009), Where Shadows Will: Selected Poems (2009), and numerous translations from French.

Maximilian Schlaks DeLaure
M.F.A. in Fiction, The Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship for Literature. Published in The Atlantic Monthly, The Missouri Review, Mânoa, The Sun, and The Massachusetts Review. Anthologized in Birds in the Hand (2004).

Lisa Harper
Ph.D. in English, M.A. in Creative Writing, UC Davis.
Published in Emily Dickinson Journal, Gastronomica, Literary Mama, Lost, Offsprung, and the anthologies Literary Couplings, and Mama, PhD.

Nina L. Schuyler
M.F.A. in Creative Writing, San Francisco State University.
Santa Clara Review Editor's Choice Prize Winner for Fiction, 2008; Big Ugly Review Short Short Contest winner, 2008. Finalist in the Lewis Buddy Nordan Fiction Contest and the 2009 Stanford Fiction Contest. Author of The Painting (2004), finalist for the Northern California Book Award and named Best Book of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle. Published in Fugue, Oxygen, EM Literary, and Newsday.

Aaron Shurin
Professor
M.A. in Poetics, New College of California.
California Arts Council Fellowships in poetry (1989, 2002), National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and San Francisco Arts Commission grant in creative nonfiction (1995, 2005). Author of eleven books of poetry and prose, including the poetry collections A's Dream (1989), Into Distances (1993), The Paradise of Forms: Selected Poems (1999), A Door (2000), Involuntary Lyrics (2005), and two collections of essays, Unbound: A Book of AIDS (1997), and King of Shadows (2008).

Karl Soehnlein
M.F.A. in Creative Writing, San Francisco State University.
Lambda Literary Award and a Henfield Prize. As K.M. Soehnlein, author of the novels The World of Normal Boys (2000), You Can Say You Knew Me When (2005), and Robin and Ruby (forthcoming, 2010). Published in the nonfiction anthologies, Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys and Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times, and in The Village Voice, San Francisco Magazine, and Out.

Jane Anne Staw
Ph.D. in French Language and Literature, University of Michigan., M.F.A. in Poetry, Iowa Writers Workshop.
Author of Nonfiction Writing Workshop (1989), Parsnips in the Snow: Talks with Midwestern Gardeners (1990), and Unstuck: Working through Writing Blocks (2004).

Brian Teare
M.F.A. in Poetry, Indiana University.
National Endowment for the Arts, Wallace E. Stegner and MacDowell Colony poetry fellowships. Author of The Room Where I Was Born (2003), Sight Map (2009), and Pleasure (forthcoming, 2010). Published in Boston Review, Ploughshares, Denver Quarterly, Provincetown Arts, Seneca Review, Verse, and VOLT, and the anthologies Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century and The Gertrude Stein Awards for Innovative Poetry.

David Vann
M.F.A. in Creative Writing, Cornell University.
National Endowment for the Arts, Wallace E. Stegner and John L’Heureux fellowships. California Book Award, Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction, New York Times Notable Book and Editor's Choice, Story Prize Notable Book, Henfield/Transatlantic Review Award. Author of A Mile Down: The True Story of a Disastrous Career at Sea (2005), Legend of a Suicide (2008), and Caribou Island (forthcoming, 2010). Published in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Men's Journal, Outside, Outside's GO, National Geographic Adventure, and Writer's Digest.

Laura Walker
M.F.A. in Creative Writing, San Francisco State University.
Author of swarm lure (2004) and rimertown/ an atlas (2008). Published in Five Fingers Review, Xantippe, 26, and Bird Dog.

Malena Watrous
M.F.A. in Creative Writing, Iowa Writers Workshop.
Wallace Stegner Fellowship. Michener-Copernicus award in 2006. Author of the novel If You Follow Me (forthcoming, 2010). Fiction published in Story Quarterly, Triquarterly, and The Massachusetts Review, and nonfiction in Salon.com, Real Simple, and The Believer. Reviews in Time Out New York, New York Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle.

Staff

Program Assistant- Lynn Eastman, (415) 422-6066