JAMES BALDWIN CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
The Langston Hughes Festival THURS 2/13 – FRI 2/14 THESIS WORKSHOP – For SP25 Thesis Students MON 2/24 5:00pm-6:00pm – ON ZOOM THESIS WORKSHOP – General Information WED 3/5 6:30pm-7:30pm in the Rifkind Center, NAC 6/316 MFA Reading Series featuring Andrew Krivák TUES 3/18 6:30pm-7:30pm in the […]
A trailer and full length interview of the November 14th talk, Joyce Carol Oates, in Conversation with Mark J. Mirsky is now available on our YouTube Channel: Trailer Interview To see other English Department videos, visit our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@EnglishCityCollegeNY
MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING THE RIFKIND CENTER for the Humanities and Arts present Joyce Carol Oates Photo Credit: Dustin Cohen in Conversation with Mark J. Mirsky Thursday, November 14th 6:00-7:30 pm Shepard Hall 95 Video of livestream now available Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Medal of the […]
MFA in Creative Writing at the City College of New York presents the Chai and Chat Reading Series MFA Director Michelle Valladares In Conversation with Kima Jones Author, Professor, and Literary Agent Wednesday, November 6th 6:30PM-7:30PM Rifkind Center, NAC 6/316 Join us as we discuss the stages of literary publishing […]
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 […]
Harlem In The Woods Retreat Stephen & Betsy Corman Harriman Outdoor Center Fri-Sun 10/4-10/6 Thesis Workshop 1 – General Information 4:00pm-5:00pm In The Rifkind Center, NAC 6/316 Wed 10/16 Thesis Workshop 2 – For Fa24 Thesis Students 4:00pm-5:00pm – On Zoom Wed 10/23 Chai and Chat With […]
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 […]
The Deadline for Fall Applications to our Creative Writing MFA program has been extended until March 1 2024. Learn more Apply online
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.
A reading and conversation to celebrate his new book, Live in Suspense. Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024 New Date Wednesday, April 10th, 2024 5:00-6:30 pm Rifkind Center, 6/316 NAC building David Groff’s third book of poems Live in Suspense, was published in 2023 from Trio House Press. He has previously published Clay, […]
Thesis Workshop #1 General Info Session Thesis Workshop #2 SP24 Thesis Students Only Thursday, February 29th, 2024 4:00-5:00PM 6/209 NAC building MFA faculty will speak about the process of writing a thesis. All current MFA students should attend. Wednesday, March 13th, 2024 4:00-5:00PM On Zoom All MFA students currently writing […]
Tuesday, February 6th, 20245:00-6:30 pmRifkind Center, 6/316 NAC building Brian Tart will discuss the publishing industry with emerging writers. Free and open to the publicSponsored by The David Dortort Fund for Creative Writing Brian Tart was named president and publisher of Viking in January 2015, and Penguin Books in 2020. […]
Roundtable Discussion, Film Screening and Award Ceremony February 1, 2024 at Aaron Davis Hall The Symposium 12:30 pm – 1:45pm Roundtable Discussion featuring The PaperFilm Screening of The Five Demands following the symposium The Ceremony: 6:00 pm – 8:00P pm Musical Performance by Ariel Reign, Memphis Music Ambassador RSVP https://www.eventbrite.com/e/45th-annual-langston-hughes-festival-honors-colson-whitehead-tickets-798761456017 Contact Info: Black […]
A Conversation with Brian Tart,President and Publisher, Viking Penguin Tuesday, February 6th, 2024 5:00-6:30 pmRifkind Center, 6/316NAC building A discussion about the publishing industry for emerging writers Chai & Chat with David Groff, Poet, Professor, Editor Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024 5:00-6:30 pmRifkind Center, 6/316NAC building A reading to celebrate his […]
CCNY’s MFA Program in Creative Writing Presentsa Publishing Workshop with Yahdon Israel Senior Editor, Simon & Schuster and Guest Professor Craft as Brand: Authoring Your Career This workshop will help the emerging writer craft their career as a writer. Tuesday November 28th from 7:00 – 8:00 pm Rifkind Room NAC 6/316 Yahdon Israel is […]
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 […]
The CCNY MFA in Creative Writing Presents Chai & Chat Reading Series FA23 A Conversation with Carlos Aguasaco Poet, Professor and Director of the Americas Poetry Festival Moderated by Prof. Michelle Valladares Tuesday, November 14th5 – 7 pmRifkind Center, NAC 6/316 Sponsored by the Estate of the Kenneth Kowald Fund […]
CCNY’s MFA in Creative Writing Reading Series Fall 2023 presents: David Unger Novelist, Translator & Professor A Reading and Conversation to Celebrate the English Translation of his Book, In My Eyes, You Are Beautiful Thurs. Nov 9 2023s:oo-6:oo pmRifkind Center NAC 6/316 David Unger received Guatemala’s Miguel Angel Asturias National […]
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 […]
CCNY’s MFA in Creative WritingReading Series Fall 2023 A Reading and Conversation with Rahna Reiko Rizzuto — Guest Professor, Novelist and Memoirist Monday, October 16, 20235:00 – 7:00pmRifkind Center, NA 6/316 The MFA in Creative Writing at City College invites you to a reading and conversation with Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, […]
On his War Books podcast, MFA alum AJ Woodhams interviews Prof. Salar Abdoh about his novel Out of Mespootamia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8e-9mtMg5w You can check out out all the episodes of his podcast series at ajwoodhams.com/warbookspodcast
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/
Kay Bell, adjunct assistant professor in the Department of English and academic advisor in the Division of Humanities and the Arts at The City College of New York, is the 2023-2025 Bronx Poet Laureate. Read more…
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
Presented by the CCNY MFA in Creative Writing and Rifkind Center moderated by Guest Professor David Groff THURSDAY APRIL 27, 5:00-6:00PM RIFKIND CENTER NAC 6/316 Anjali Singh started her career in publishing in 1996 as a literary scout. Formerly Editorial Director at Other Press, she has also worked as an editor […]
Tues. Apr. 25, 6:00 – 7:30 PM Archives as Muse: A Harlem Storytelling Project created by CCNY’s MFA Program in Creative Writing / Multimedia Event directed and conceived by Karin Coonrad
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.
Presented by The CCNY MFA in Creative Writing and The CCNY Department of Philosophy Thursday, March 30, 2023 4:00 – 5:15 PM The CCNY MFA in Creative Writing and the Department of Philosophy presents Chloe Cooper Jones author of Easy Beauty Thursday, March 30, 4:00-5:15PM, Rifkind Center (NAC 6/316) […]
Featuring the editors of ‘Feminists Reclaim Mentorship’ and other panelists Nancy K. Miller, Tahneer Oksman, Melissa Coss Aquino, Michelle Yasmine Valladares, Sharifa Hampton, and Angela Veronica Wong
The CCNY MFA in Creative Writing Presents Chai & Chat with Chris Dombrowski Author of The River You Touch Tuesday, February 28, 5:00 – 6:30pm, Rifkind Center (NAC 6/316)
The CCNY MFA in Creative Writing Presents Chloe Cooper Jones Discussion with the Author of Easy Beauty in Partnership with the CCNY Department of Philosophy Thursday March 30, 4 – 5:15 PM Rifkind Center NAC 6/316 From Writer to Author with David Groff Creating a Roadmap to Publication […]
Join us on November 10 from 5:00 – 6:00PM in the Rifkind Center (NAC 6/316) for a free workshop with Yahdon Israel, senior editor at Simon & Schuster, on what the book proposal is, why it matters, and how to master the form. Yahdon Israel is an educator, entrepreneur, editor, […]
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 […]
Abdoh will be discussing his latest novel "Out of Mesopotamia" with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges.
Natera and her publisher Ballantine are also donating 50 copies of Natera's "Neruda on the Park" to CCNY students who attend the readinf
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 […]
Michael Montali, current CCNY MFA Candidate in fiction, entered the program already well established as a singer songwriter, and joining the MFA has not meant a surrender of his musical career. In fact, this August, his band Fantastic Cat performed on CBS Saturday Morning. Fantastic Cat is the product of […]
Nicole Treska (MFA Class of ’10) followed a winding road through life from Chicago to Hawaii, and Hawaii to New York, ultimately finding her way to CCNY’s MFA in Creative Writing. And following that, her path from student to memoirist under contract with Simon & Schuster, although less perilous, was […]
This fall, we’re excited to feature a full slate of in-depth readings and discussions with authors and journalists, and conversations on how to navigate the publishing industry and prepare to land your first book deal.
Harlem in the Woods: The CCNY Writers’ Nature Retreat at the Stephen & Betsy Corman Harriman Outdoor Center in Upstate New York “Harlem in the Woods was one of the most powerful experiences the school has offered––a retreat from city life that offers connection with nature, one another, and ourselves. […]
WRITERS ON IRAN FEAT. MIKHAL DEKEL Join Mikhal Dekel, Salar Abdoh and the CCNY MFA program to discuss Tehran Children, a historical memoir that the New York Times Book Review hailed as “Not simply another detail of the Holocaust but a matter of enduring existential, psychological and moral reflection.” MIKHAL […]
Join us this semester for conversation with the award-winning author Mikhal Dekel, and poet David Mills, along with workshops on how to successfully complete your MFA thesis, and sage wisdom from David Groff on how to transition from writer to author. WRITERS ON IRAN FEAT. MIKHAL DEKEL Join Mikhal Dekel, […]