The Creative Writing program at Pitzer College is housed within the English and World Literature field group. We believe that student work has meaningful literary and intellectual value, and we foster a supportive community of writers among our students.
As writers, our practice is to listen for the poems and stories that exist in the world before they are written. The aim of the writer is not to make a precise replica of experience, not to degrade the world in such a way, nor its ever-changing nature, but to build a door. If we are lucky, our readers walk through that door, arriving at a room we could never have predicted alone.
Literature stirs us and is stirred by us; it is not something to be experienced at arm's length. For this reason, we encourage our students to practice becoming engaged readers and writers of literature. We also hope our students will explore other disciplines, in order to broaden the sources for their own writing. Students will find a diverse offering of courses in creative writing and literature at both Pitzer and the other Claremont Colleges. They will also find many opportunities in the vibrant literary culture of the Los Angeles area.
Wednesday,February 22: Jai Arun Ravine. 4:15pm, Benson Auditorium.
Jai Arun Ravine is a mixed race Thai American writer, dancer, video and performance artist. They received an MFA in Writing & Poetics from Naropa University and a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies (English/Creative Writing, Dance, Asian Studies) from Hollins University. They are the author of แล้ว and then entwine (Tinfish Press, 2011), the chapbook Is This January (Corollary Press, 2010) and the graphic poem project The Spiderboi Files. A recipient of fellowships from ComPeung, Djerassi and Kundiman, their short experimental film Tom/Trans/Thai recently exhibited at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Thailand. Jai grew up in Charleston, West Virginia and is currently based in the San Francisco bay area.
Thursday, March 8: Tragic Bitches. 8pm, Benson Auditorium.
Conceived and developed by Adelina Anthony, Dino Foxx and Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano, Tragic Bitches documents the process and poetry of three queer Xicana/o artists seeking to revel and heal in the darkest and most vulnerable spaces of love, desire and loss.
Wednesday, March 28: Salvador Plascencia. 4:15pm, Benson Auditorium.
Salvador Plascencia is the author of The People of Paper ,which was named a best book of the year by The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Times, and The Financial Times. He is the recipient of the Bard Fiction Prize and a Moseley Fellowship. Salvador is Pitzer College's Visiting Writer for the Spring of 2012 and has previously taught Creative Writing at Pomona College, UC Riverside, UC Davis, and Cal-Arts.
Wednesday, April 18: Carmen Giménez Smith. 4:15pm, Benson Auditorium.
Carmen Giménez Smith's books of poetryinclude Goodbye, Flicker; The City She Was; Odalisque in Pieces; and a memoir, Bring Down the Little Birds. She is the recipient of a 2011 American Book Award, the 2011 Juniper Prize for Poetry, and a 2011-2012 fellowship in creative nonfiction from the Howard Foundation. Formerly a Teaching-Writing Fellow at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she now teaches in the creative writing programs at New Mexico State University and Ashland University, while serving as the editor-in-chief of the literary journal Puerto del Sol and the publisher of Noemi Press.
