University of California, Riverside
Department of Creative Writing

presents:

MFA Showcase

part of

49th UCR Writers Week Festival 2026

Writers Week is the longest-running, free literary event in California and features the most renowned authors of our day alongside those at the start of promising careers. writersweek.ucr.edu

Josh Emmons, Professor
Allison White, Professor
Co-Directors, Writers Week

Download the 2026 Writers Week Poster

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ABOUT THE MFA PROGRAM

The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts is a two-year program that offers study in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, screenwriting, and playwriting. The program is comprised of faculty from the Department of Creative Writing and the Department of Theatre, Film, and Digital Production.

Our program consists of workshops in a chosen genre, culminating in a final project (the master's thesis or manuscript) that showcases the writer's cultivated talents in the form of a poetry collection, novel, short story collection, memoir, essay collection, screenplay, or full-length play.

The MFA requires students to major in the genre they apply in, but encourages them to explore other genres as well, allowing for creative movement within disciplines. For example, structure and focus in screenwriting and playwriting can be applied to fiction and nonfiction and lyricism and metaphor in poetry can enhance description and dialogue in the other genres.

Students will also engage in supplemental coursework through seminars selected from other departments. Our students commonly take classes offered by such varied programs as comparative literature and foreign languages, English, Hispanic studies, and media and cultural studies, among others.

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Tuesday - Friday, May 5 - 8, 2026

Free and open to the public

In-person: INTS 1113 (unless otherwise noted below)

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PARKING

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49th UCR Writers Week Featured Writers 

Caro De Robertis, Anel Flores, A.M. Sosa, Emily Weinstein, Jose Valdi, Emily Doyle, Johnathan Lethem, Ilya Kaminsky, D.A. Powell, Viet Nguyen, and more.

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SCHEDULE
subject to change
 

Tuesday, May 5:

• 11 a.m. Caro De Robertis (Fiction writer)

• 1 p.m. Anel Flores (Fiction writer)

• 3 p.m. A.M. Sosa (Fiction writer)

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Wednesday, May 6

• 11 a.m. Emily Weinstein (Nonfiction writer) CANCELED

• 1 p.m. Jose Vadi (Essayist and Poet)

• 3 p.m. Prageeta Sharma (Poet)

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Thursday, May 7

• 11 a.m. Mosaic Reading (UCR literary journal-affiliated undergraduates)

• 1 p.m. Emily Doyle (Fiction writer and UCR MFA alum)

• 3 p.m. Jonathan Lethem (Fiction writer)

• 5 p.m. "Mija" film screening (INTS 1128)

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Friday, May 8

• 11. a.m. Ilya Kaminsky (Poet)

• 1 p.m. D.A. Powell (Poet)

• 3 p.m. Viet Thanh Nguyen (Fiction writer)

• 4:45 p.m. – 6 p.m. MFA Students Reading

• 7 p.m. - UCR alumnus Ching-In Chen (at the Heritage House)

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SPECIAL THANKS

The 49th Writers Week 2026 is hosted by the UCR Department of Creative Writing.

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SPONSORS

CHASS Dean’s Office, the Center for Ideas & Society, Inland Empire magazine, the National Book Award Society

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BOOK PURCHASES
Cellar Door Books is our recommended local independent store. Be sure to stop by their page.

Information: writersweek@ucr.edu

• FB UCR Writers Week
• FB UCR Writers Resist