ucr creative writing

Graduate Student Resource Center

Supporting Graduate Students' Academic and Professional Success

A Guide to Creative Writing MFA Support

The MFA can be a difficult world to navigate for emerging writers and scholars. As with all disciplines, when you first start out it feels like your peers all know more about the important conferences to attend, journals to submit to, and funding to apply for than you do. The truth is, everyone feels this same sense of confusion when they begin their grad program.

[ Image Description : A pug turns quickly to look at the viewer slowly, eyes wide and shocked.]

Pictured : You, trying to listen in as second years talk about fellowships

To help you start your MFA experience off strong, we’ve compiled a breakdown of Creative Writing MFA opportunities to look out for at UCR and beyond!

Conferences & Festivals

Did you know you can acquire funding through the GSA to attend and present in conferences in the US and abroad? Conferences can be transformative to your relationship with the field.

• For playwrights, I recommend submitting your work to the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival as well as attending the regional festival. This is a (really!) excellent opportunity for career development, exposure, and networking with peers.
• With panels such as “AgentAccess: Everything You Need to Know About Agents But Were Too Afraid to Ask” and “Best Practices for Plot-Making”, the AWP Conference is a totally awesome, expansive opportunity for prose writers to network and explore their craft.
• Each year, UCR brings an array of authors to campus during Writers Week. In the past, panelists have including Roxane Gay, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Margaret Atwood. MFA’s are encouraged to get involved!
• Check out this comprehensive list to find more conferences that suit your interests.

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Pictured : This post, carrying you along to your next conference.  

Production Opportunities

• Playwrights should join the Dramatist Guild of America . For a very modest fee, writers gain access to legal protections as well as a useful curated list of opportunities (theaters open to submission, residencies, workshops, events, you name it.)
• UCR alumna have deepened their connections to the Los Angeles creative community by self-producing productions in the Hollywood Fringe Festival . This is a stellar opportunity for ambitious creators to put their work out into the world. 
• Filmworks, the annual department film festival, showcases original short films by UCR students, faculty, and alumni. There’s also an annual department film and smartphone film festival.   Riverside Studios is a newly available production space.
• In the spring, The New Play Festival allows playwrights to hear their full-length and one-act plays performed aloud by undergraduate actors in a minimalist staged reading. Similarly, Playworks does the same for 10-minute plays.

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Pictured : You, getting in touch with your thespian roots

Fellowships, Residencies, & Funding

• The Center for Ideas and Society offers up to $2,000 in funding to UCR humanities students to support travel and research related to their manuscripts or dissertations!
• For those interested in teaching, The Gluck Fellows program offers $5,000 stipends to graduate students in exchange for community involvement promoting the arts in local schools.
• Apply to funded fellowships and residencies to acquire time, space, and financial stability to pursue your creative endeavors upon graduation. Notable fellowships in California include The Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University and the Steinbeck Fellow Program at San Jose State. At UCR, The Yefe Nof Residency allows one student the chance to spend two weeks in the solitude of Lake Arrowhead for the purpose of finishing a major writing project
• Poets&Writers contains fabulous directories promoting residencies , grants , and more.

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Pictured : You, after successfully applying to fellowships

Career Development

• Screenwriters should consider taking advantage of UCR’s proximity to Hollywood by applying to internships, particularly in Writers Rooms. Disney , CBS , Paramount , NBC , Nickelodeon , and Warner Brothers have various initiatives to recruit new and diverse talent.   
• Janefriedman.com contains informative blog posts on crucial topics such as “How to Find a Literary Agent” and “The Complete Guide to Query Letters” .
• MLA Joblist is has an excellent inventory of job openings in academia.
• Poets & Writers has another broad directory of job listings for positions related to the world of writing.
• Playwrights should consider making an account on New Play Exchange . New Play Exchange is a professional networking site, much like LinkedIn, for playwrights and theaters to connect.

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Pictured : You, at work after landing that dream job

Publishing Opportunities

• Current and past cohort members have found success pitching to Longreads , Rumpus , Electric Lit , Los Angeles Review of Books , LA Times , and Poets.org to name a few.
• Submittable is a go-to application for submitting your work to a wide variety of publications. The “Discover” tab is particularly worth exploring for various contests and publishing opportunities.  
• Santa Ana River Review is UCR’s literary magazine. Edited by MFA students, the Santa Ana River Review accepts submissions in poetry, drama, fiction, creative nonfiction and visual arts.

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Pictured : All of you racing to submit your work now that you know about these resources.

On-Campus Support

• Subject librarians are available to aid your manuscript research. Those interested can fill out this online form or speak with the help desk at the library.
• The Graduate Writing Center is an excellent resource available to MFA’s. The center offers one-on-one consultations where students can get feedback on various forms of writing including creative work, job and fellowship application materials, cover letters, teaching statements, resumes, etc.   

Gluck Fellows Program of the Arts

Gluck creative classroom - creative writing.

Creative Writing

One of the most fundamental acts for establishing individual identity is the confidence to write "I am." The physical act of putting pen to paper and choosing words to express the original thoughts in their minds gives students confidence to be themselves, to imagine their future selves, and to plan how to pursue those dreams. Gluck Creative Writing Fellows design workshops that engage participants' creativity using language to express their thoughts, feelings, and understanding of the world. Creative Writing Fellows offer workshops in different aspects of creative writing, including fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

Back To Creative Classroom

Fiction / Non Fiction

Play and screenwriting, about the ucr department of creative writing.

The Department of Creative Writing at 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. It is a growing and dynamic program made up entirely of established writers and poets. Courses at UCR are designed for all students in the language arts, and they emphasize developing each student's skills and talents. Through writing fiction, poetry, nonfiction and/or drama, students examine language and meaning both as practitioners and as readers as they develop and hone essential writing techniques.

Every writer needs to develop a critical sense to augment creative ability. For this reason, the Creative Writing Department offers two types of courses. Workshop courses are seminars that focus on writing and on the discussion of student work. Reading courses for writers focus on aspects of literature presented from a writer's point of view. Frequently they employ writing in imitation as one of several approaches to understanding the craft of writing. Upper division workshop courses are offered at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels in poetry, nonfiction, and fiction. Several reading courses link two genres such as fiction and poetry, and poetry and drama.

CHASS Student Academic Affairs

Guiding Your Academic Success

Department of Creative Writing

Academic advising.

3033A Interdisciplinary Building-North https://creativewriting.ucr.edu

Make an Appointment with an advisor

Areas of Study

• Screenwriting and Playwriting
• Literary Analysis

Minimum Criteria to Declare

• Good Academic Standing
• Ability to complete the degree within 216 units
• If upper-division courses have been taken, a minimum upper-division GPA of 2.0
• Completion of all lower-division in the minor and the minor must be declared at least two quarters prior to graduation
• A minimum upper-division minor GPA of 2.0

Requirement Worksheet

Please select the major or minor you are interested in

University Writing Program

Our Programs

In remembrance of University Writing Program Continuing Lecturer Robert Jones

Department of Creative Writing

Contests & awards, larb/ucr lifetime achievement award.

The Department of Creative Writing and the Los Angeles Review of Books jointly present an annual lifetime achievement award to writers whose body of works have significantly influenced the literary field and readership in the United States. This award is typically bestowed during the annual UCR Writers Week Festival.

2024:  Dave Eggers, Rigoberto González, and Quincy Troupe

2023:  Percival Everette & Mike Davis (posthumous)

2022:  Sandra Cisneros, Linda Hogan, and Ishmael Reed

2021: Rita Dove, Joy Harjo, and Juan Felipe Herrera

2020: Walter Mosley

2019: Margaret Atwood

2018: Maxine Hong Kingston

2017: Ngugi was Thiong'o

2016: John Rechy

Student Prizes

The Department of Creative Writing offers multiple writing opportunities for its students. Below are the various contests and awards available for Creative Writing undergraduates.

The Chancellor’s Performance Award – Up to $12,000 

The Chancellor’s Performance Award is a scholarship available to first-year students who major in Creative Writing.  Deadline: late April.  By internal nomination only.

The Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Contest: Up to $100.00

A system-wide contest established by friends of the late Ina Coolbrith, former Poet Laureate of California, for the best unpublished poem or poems composed and submitted for this contest by an undergraduate student.  Deadline: early November.   Details . 

The William Henry Willis Memorial Poetry Prize: Up to $1200.00 

The William Henry Willis Memorial Poetry Prize is an annual cash poetry prize created by John Willis (’66 BA, ’68 MA, ’71 PhD, Physics) in honor of his father. William Henry Willis emigrated to the United States from Canada in 1949 and worked in a local factory for most of his career. During breaks while working the graveyard shift at the factory, he would find time to write poetry that captured and enhanced the events of his family life. Poetry was a creative outlet for Mr. Willis, and this prize was created to honor his love of poetry by encouraging this mode of creativity in future generations. Preference is given to a poem which touches upon family stories or immigrant communities, with humor and/or irony, and written by an undergraduate major or non-major at the University of California, Riverside”    Details .

The Abraham L. Polonsky Award: Up to $500.00 

This award was established by and is named after Abraham L. Polonsky, the noted author and screenwriter, whose scripts included  Body and Soul ,  Force of Evil ,  Mommy Dearest , and  Monsignor .  His novels included  The Enemy Sea ,  A Season of Fear , and  Zenia's Way .  In 1951, after he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Mr. Polonsky was blacklisted in Hollywood.  Mr. Polonsky’s work often exposed the irony of class and social inequities in modern American life and the eroding effects of indifference to corruption.  The award is given to an outstanding short story published in the magazine  Mosaic .    Details . 

The Maurya Simon Poetry Award: Up to $250.00

This award, named after Professor Maurya Simon, is designated for an undergraduate student demonstrating unusual skill and great promise in poetry. He or she should be a Creative Writing major.

The Professor Eliud Martínez Endowed Scholarship Fund in Creative Writing: Up to $1500.00

MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts

World-Renowned Faculty & Excellent Funding Opportunities

Lovey Plaha MFA Program Coordinator Office Hours: Monday-Friday, 8 am - 5 pm Email: [email protected]

Contact a Faculty MEMBER