CalArts MFA Writing Program

Come mark the 205th birthday of Walt Whitman with a virtual poetry reading riffing on Whitman’s obsessions with Death, Afterlife and the American State.

Join poets Dorothea Lasky, abbi page and Anthony McCann, as they reckon with Whitman’s complex legacy, and with alternate poetic notions of Death and Afterlife.

Big thank you to Wave Books () who have provided a code in honor of this event “HAPPY_BIRTHDAY_WW” which gives readers 20% off Anthony’s I am the dead, who, you take care of me and Dottie’s The Shining at checkout!

Scan the QR code to register for the zoom event or go to https://apply.calarts.edu/register/odeath

Friday, May 31st 6pm PST.

The MFA Creative Writing Program at CalArts is excited to partner with REDCAT to host the 2021 Next Words MFA Writing Showcase, which presents the grit, style and perspectives of sixteen imaginative emerging writers to a wider public.

Next Words is a reading series and publication produced by the CalArts MFA in Creative Writing Program and featuring its graduating students. Usually taking place in the spring at venues across Los Angeles—bookstores, music and art spaces, and even a permanent movie set—the 2021 Next Words series extends into June in a special hybrid in-person/remote edition, kicked off by this event at REDCAT.


This year's NextWords anthology, entitled Elysium is Empty, with gorgeous cover art by graduating writer Rhea Iyer, will be available for purchase in June—featuring a selection of fiction, poetry, nonfiction and genre-fluid works. The anthology and the showcase offer a range of experiences in new literary works that are uniquely CalArts—the results of this creative writing program’s lively explorations alongside and across film, video, music, performance and visual art.

The CalArts Next Words MFA Writing Showcase is free and open to the public. Reservations can be made here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScI0Z85Mvg3h3zQTe8t5pXhLHmXZsKiSJTuyhccCzklLva5oQ/viewform?gxids=7628.

For more information about CalArts' unique interdisciplinary MFA Creative Writing Program, visit writing.calarts.edu.

Please share far and wide, and hope to see you there!