In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Spaces has been longlisted for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, for "a distinguished book of general nonfiction possessing notable literary merit and critical perspective that illuminates important contemporary issues."
Faculty Stories
24 posts
Guest edited by National Book Award winner Arthur Sze, Best Literary Translations 2026 features poetry and prose written in languages both widely spoken and critically endangered, brought into English by some of the most talented translators working today. Compiled from over 450 submissions written in 62 original languages, the third edition of […]
Among the Ruins on Pioneer Works Emily Raboteau is a Black Studies and Creative Writing professor at the City College of New York and the author of Lessons for Survival.
Russell House Reading Series: Amir Arian and Salar Abdoh October 15, 2025 6:00 pm McKelvey Room, Admissions Building
Professor Lyn Di Lorio’s Maritza and Carmen has been selected for “Best American Short Stories,” edited by Celeste Ng. It was published in the fall 2024 issue of The Georgia Review. Lyn will be reading at Selected Shorts: The Best American Short Stories, hosted by Cynthia Nixon, on Wednesday, October 22, 2025.
Iranian novelist Alireza Iranmehr returned to Tehran to document the bombardment, and sent writings to his translator, CCNY professor Salar Abdoh. Read this piece in The Atlantic.
Congratulations to Professor Salar Abdoh for being selected by Arthur Sze for the third edition of “Best Literary Translations,” forthcoming from Deep Vellum in Spring 2026, for his translation of Firefly by Alireza Iranmehr!
Professor Lyn Di Iorio has a new novelette, Maritza and Carmen, published in the fall issue of The Georgia Review. https://thegeorgiareview.com/shop/issues/fall-2024/
Professor Keith Gandal has published a new memoir: Firsthand: How I Solved a Literary Mystery and Learned to Play Kickass Tennis while Coming to Grips with the Disorder of Things. Published by Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2024. You can get 30% off the $25 cost for the paperback […]
We are thrilled to announce that Prof. Soraya Palmer, who teaches fiction in the MFA Program at CCNY, has just received the NYSCA/NYFA Award for Fiction. Palmer is the author of The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts. She is a Flatbush-born-and-raised writer and licensed social worker who has worked […]
Gutbucket, by Emily Raboteau At the end of the world, rituals offer a lifeline I AM A MOTHER raising Black children in New York City, which is unceded Munsee Lenape territory. Often, I am afraid for my children’s lives. Where my family lives, the storms are growing worse, and the water […]
Professor Emily Raboteau’s launch for her new book, Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against “The Apocalypse” will be on Thursday, March 14, 7PM at The Center for Fiction.
MFA Professor Mark Mirsky, author, founder and editor of Fiction magazine and the former director of the Creative Writing Program, has a two-part interview in Collidescope this fall. Here are part one and part two.
One Man’s Complicated Quest for Connection in Contemporary Tehran by Lysley Tenorio in the New York Times Book ReviewNov. 4, 202 . . . explores the complexities of relationships, sexuality and cultural norms in modern Iran. Read review 10 noteworthy books for November and December By Becky Meloan in the Washington […]
Soccer Diplomacy Comes to the Middle East Iran is rehabilitating the image of a once bitter adversary, Saudi Arabia, in public life. by Salar Abdoh and Reza Ghobeishavi theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/saudi-arabia-iran-soccer-diplomacy/675558/ On the night of September 1, 2023, a Saudi Pro League soccer game was broadcast directly into Iranian homes. Less […]
The Good Life What can we learn from the history of utopianism? Professor Emily Raboteau reviews Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life, by Kristen R. Ghodsee https://www.thenation.com/article/society/kristen-ghodsee-utopia/ In the desert of Saudi Arabia, between Jordan and the Red Sea, Crown Prince […]
AT THE END OF A STORY he wrote about the greatest medieval commentator of Aristotle, Borges noted: The instant I stop believing in him, Averroes disappears. As Borges observed, Averroes, who knew everything, could not understand one thing, and that was theater. And so it happened that when he came […]
In their article How to Be a Man in Iran, published in The Atlantic this month, CCNY Professor Salar Abdoh and Tehran-based journalist Vali Khalili describe how the return of morality police to city streets is a testing ground for women’s rights and everyone’s courage. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/08/morality-police-iran-women/674927/
Professors Valladares and Raboteau received awards at the CCNY faculty and staff award ceremony on May 16th 2023: — The President’s Award for Outstanding Faculty Service, Professor Michelle Valladares — The Provost’s Award for Pedagogical and Curricular Innovation, Professor Emily Raboteau
In December 2022, Michelle Valladares, director of the MFA and Aybike Ahmedi, a current MFA student, were interviewed on the CUNY TV program Urban U
CCNY Professor William Gibbons was interviewed by the BBC for their Sunday Feature program. Click the link above to learn more.
For the second semester, students from the City College of New York’s MFA and MA program participated in a weekend artists residency at the Stephen & Betsy Corman Harriman Outdoor Center. As it was in the first semester, the retreat was designed to both offer our students an escape from […]
Salar Abdoh, novelist and professor in CCNY's MFA, offers a dispatch from the frontlines of the war in Ukraine.
Pamela L. Laskin, director of The City College of New York’s 50-year-old Poetry Outreach Center, is the recipient of a 2022 Freedom Through Literacy Board Option Award for her work to enable children to unload their grief and to empower voices through poetry. The international award was established by the Pennsylvania-based Judith’s […]
