PROFESSOR

I’m a Professor in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside (UCR).

UCR offers the only Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing in the University of California system and MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts. The MFA Program offers degrees in Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Playwriting, and Screenwriting. To learn more about the university’s MFA Program and Undergraduate Creative Writing program, visit this link.

I teach graduate and undergraduate courses and workshops in nonfiction, fiction, literature, and theory for writers. In the past I have also taught courses in cultural history, cultural theory, literary and critical history and theory, film, screenwriting, and world intellectual history, as well as introductions to graduate studies in literature and creative writing.

I am Director of UCR’s Annual Literary Festival Writers Week, now in its 42nd year.

I was director of the UCR/Palm Desert MFA in Creative Writing

Prior to UCR, I have taught at Stanford University (where I was part of the team that turned their freshman Western Culture requirement into a global course on culture and values), University of Iowa, CalArts (where I directed the MFA in writing), and University of Copenhagen.

I am available as a speaker and guest lecturer on any of these topics.