Master of Professional Writing Program
Encyclopedia
The Master of Professional Writing Program (referred to as MPW) is a graduate creative writing program which offers a variety of courses at the University of Southern California
's College of Letters, Arts & Sciences.
MPW offers classes in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, technical writing, playwriting, and screen and television writing. The program awards an MPW or Master of Professional Writing.
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
's College of Letters, Arts & Sciences.
MPW offers classes in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, technical writing, playwriting, and screen and television writing. The program awards an MPW or Master of Professional Writing.
Notable alumni
- Mark AndrusMark AndrusMark Andrus is an award-winning American screenwriter.After receiving a Master of Business Administration from UC Riverside, Andrus decided to take a creative writing class while waiting to hear from the law schools to which he had applied...
, author of As Good as It GetsAs Good as It GetsAs Good as It Gets is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by James L. Brooks and produced by Laura Ziskin. It stars Jack Nicholson as a misanthropic, obsessive-compulsive novelist, Helen Hunt as a single mother with an asthmatic son, and Greg Kinnear as a gay artist. The screenplay was...
and Life as a HouseLife as a HouseLife as a House is a 2001 American drama film produced and directed by Irwin Winkler. The screenplay by Mark Andrus focuses on a man who is anxious to repair his relationship with his ex-wife and teenaged son after he is diagnosed with terminal cancer.... - Margaret Davis, author of biographies of Mulholland and Doheny
- Todd Brendan Fahey, author of Wisdom's Maw
- Charlotte LawsCharlotte LawsCharlotte Laws is an American author, local Los Angeles politician and talk show host, community activist, and animal rights advocate. As a former actress, some of her credits can be found under her Screen Actors Guild name Missy Laws.Laws is currently serving her fourth term on the Greater Valley...
, author and animal rightsAnimal rightsAnimal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
advocate - EM Lewis - playwright
- Sandra Tsing LohSandra Tsing LohSandra Tsing Loh is a Los Angeles, California-based writer, actress, performance-artist, pop-culture analyst, and radio commentator.-Biography:Loh is the daughter of a Chinese father and a German mother...
, radio commentator and author - Greg RuckaGreg RuckaGregory "Greg" Rucka is an American comic book writer and novelist, known for his work on such comics as Action Comics, Batwoman: Detective Comics, and the miniseries Superman: World of New Krypton for DC Comics, and for novels such as his Queen & Country series.-Career:Rucka's writing career...
, writer of novels and comic bookComic bookA comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s - Ann Seaman, author of biographies of Jimmy Swaggart and Madeline O'Hare
- Millicent Borges AccardiMillicent Borges AccardiMillicent Borges Accardi is a Portuguese-American poet. She has received literary fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts , CantoMundo, the California Arts Council, Barbara Deming Foundation, and Formby Special Collections at Texas Tech University for research on the writer/activist...
, National Endowment for the Arts winner poet
Notable faculty, past and present
- Shelley BermanShelley BermanSheldon "Shelley" Berman is an American comedian, actor, writer, teacher, lecturer, and poet.- Early life :Berman was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Irene and Nathan Berman.- Career :...
- humor writing - Nan CohenNan CohenNan Cohen is an American poet and poetry director of the Napa Valley Writers' Conference.-Life:She was raised in Reisterstown, Maryland, and graduated from Yale University and the University of California, Los Angeles....
- poetry - Syd FieldSyd FieldSyd Field is an American writer who has become one of the most popular screenwriting gurus in the movie industry. Field has written several books on the subject of screenwriting, and holds workshops and seminars around the world that help aspiring and professional screenwriters produce the kind of...
- screenwriting - Janet FitchJanet FitchJanet Fitch is most famously known as the author of the Oprah's Book Club novel White Oleander, which became a film in 2002. She is a graduate of Reed College, located in Portland, Oregon....
- fiction - Noel Riley FitchNoël Riley FitchNoël Riley Fitch is a biographer and historian of expatriate intellectuals in Paris in the first half of the 20th century. She is the author of several books on Paris as well as three biographies: Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation , translated into Japanese, Spanish, German, Italian and French;...
- non-fiction - Donald FreedDonald FreedDonald Freed is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, and actor. He is associated with writing programs at the University of Southern California, and was Artist in Residence at the Workshop Theatre, University of Leeds, UK , and Playwright in Residence at York Theatre Royal ,...
- playwriting - Amy GerstlerAmy GerstlerAmy Gerstler is an American poet. Her books of poetry include Ghost Girl ; Medicine - finalist for the Phi Beta Kappa Poetry Award; Crown of Weeds ; Nerve Storm ; Bitter Angel - winner of the 1991 National Book Critics Circle Award - The True Bride and Dearest Creature, .Described by the Los...
- poetry - Dana Goodyear- non-fiction
- Janet Irvin - fiction
- Irvin KershnerIrvin KershnerIrvin Kershner was an American film director and occasional actor, best known for directing quirky, independent films early in his career, and then Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. -Background:...
- cinema/TV - Jerome LawrenceJerome LawrenceJerome Lawrence was an American playwright and author.-Life and career:Lawrence was born Jerome Lawrence Schwartz in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Sarah , a poet, and Samuel Schwartz, a printer. He worked for several small newspapers as a reporter/editor before moving into radio as a writer for CBS....
- playwriting - Dinah LenneyDinah LenneyDinah Lenney is an American actress and writer. She is the author of Bigger than Life: A Murder, a Memoir, a 2007 book about the murder of her father, Republican Party politician and businessman Nelson G. Gross.-Biography:...
- non-fiction - Gerald LocklinGerald LocklinGerald Locklin is an American poet who is a Professor Emeritus of English at California State University, Long Beach and the poetry editor of Chiron Review...
- poetry, fiction - Larry the Cable GuyLarry the Cable GuyDaniel Lawrence Whitney , better known by his stage name and character Larry the Cable Guy, is an American comedian, actor, and former radio personality....
- cinema/TV - MG Lord - non-fiction
- Shelly LowenkopfShelly LowenkopfShelly Lowenkopf is an American writer and editor. He has been an instructor in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California since 1974....
- fiction, publishing - David Scott MiltonDavid Scott MiltonDavid Scott Milton is an American author, playwright, screenwriter, and actor. His plays are known for their theatricality, wild humor, and poetic realism, while his novels and films are darker and more naturalistic. As a novelist, he has been compared to Graham Greene, John Steinbeck, and Nelson...
- playwriting - Gina NahaiGina B. NahaiGina B. Nahai is the author of Cry of the Peacock, Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith, Sunday's Silence and Caspian Rain. She lives in Los Angeles, where she is a professor of creative writing at the University of Southern California....
- fiction - Gabrielle Pina - fiction
- Robert PiroshRobert PiroshRobert Pirosh was an American screenwriter and director.-Early years:Pirosh was born in Baltimore, Maryland and graduated from the Baltimore City College high school in 1928...
- cinema/TV - John RechyJohn RechyJohn Francis Rechy, , is an American author, the child of a half-Scottish and half-Mexican father, Roberto Rechy, and a Mexican-American mother, Guadalupe Flores. In his novels he has written extensively about homosexual culture in Los Angeles and wider America, and is among the pioneers of modern...
- fiction - Aram SaroyanAram SaroyanAram Saroyan is an American poet, novelist, biographer, memoirist and playwright. There has been a resurgence of interest in his work in the 21st century, evidenced by the publication in 2007 of several previous collections reissued together as Complete Minimal Poems.- Biography :Saroyan was born...
- poetry, fiction - Hubert Selby Jr. - fiction
- Melville ShavelsonMelville ShavelsonMelville Shavelson was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. He was President of the Writers Guild of America, West from 1969 to 1971, 1979 to 1981, and 1985 to 1987. He came to Hollywood in 1938 as one of comedian Bob Hope's joke writers, a job he held for the next...
- cinema/TV - Gay TaleseGay TaleseGay Talese is an American author. He wrote for The New York Times in the early 1960s and helped to define literary journalism...
- non-fiction - Shirley ThomasShirley Thomas (USC professor)Shirley Thomas Ph.D. , was a radio/television actress/writer/producer, author, and professor in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.-Background:...
- technical writingTechnical writingTechnical writing, a form of technical communication, is a style of writing used in fields as diverse as computer hardware and software, engineering, chemistry, the aerospace industry, robotics, finance, consumer electronics, and biotechnology.... - Kenneth TuranKenneth TuranKenneth Turan is an American film critic and Lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.-Background:...
- film - Richard YatesRichard Yates (novelist)Richard Yates was an American novelist and short story writer, known for his exploration of mid-20th century life.-Life:...
- fiction