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Alumnx Exploration Series: Aaron Philip Clark ('08 MFA Writing)

Join us for the Alumnx Exploration Series presentation by Aaron Philip Clark, who will discuss his career trajectory and current projects.

Los Angeles-native Aaron Philip Clark is a novelist and screenwriter best known for his acclaimed fourth book Under Color of Law. The 2021 Winner of the Book Pipeline Adaption Contest, Clark is a prolific author of mystery, crime thriller, and noir, having written three previous titles: The Science of Paul, A Healthy Fear of Man, and The Furious Way.

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    May 31

Visiting Writers Series: Shonda Buchanan

Shonda Buchanan will read and discuss her work. Literary editor of Harriet Tubman Press, Buchanan is an award-winning poet and educator. She is the author of the memoir Black Indian. Her collections of poetry include Who’s Afraid of Black Indians? and Equipoise: Poems from Goddess Country. She edited the anthologies Voices from Leimert Park and Voices from Leimert Park Redux. Buchanan is a Writing Arts Sundance Institute Fellow, a Jentel Artist Fellow, and PEN USA Emerging Voices Alum.

Visiting Writers Series: Halley Sutton—An Otis MFA Writing Victory Lap Reading

Halley Sutton will read and discuss her work. She received her MFA in Writing from Otis College of Art and Design. Her debut novel, The Lady Upstairs, is a feminist noir forthcoming from Putnam. She is a Pitch Wars mentor and her work has appeared in CrimeReads, LitHub, Monday Night, and elsewhere.

Visiting Writers Series: Victoria Chang

Victoria Chang will read and discuss her work. She is the author of the poetry collections OBIT, winner of the 2018 Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, Barbie Chang, The Boss, winner of a PEN Center USA Literary Award and a California Book Award, Salvinia Molesta, and Circle, winner of the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry. Chang is also the author of the middle grade novel in verse Love, Love and the picture book Is Mommy?, illustrated by Marla Frazee.

Headlines

  • Pandemic Reading List
    A Pandemic Reading List Curated by Otis College’s MFA Writing Faculty 
    April 24
  • Halley Sutton
    Otis MFA Writing Grad Scores Book Deal with Putnam
    September 6
  • Books
    Submit Your Manuscripts to Otis Books in November!
    November 1

Visiting Writers Series: Aimee Liu

Aimee Liu will read and discuss her work. She is the author of the novel Glorious Boy, as well as the bestsellers Flash House, Cloud Mountain, and Face, and the memoirs Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders and Solitaire. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, published as a Literary Guild Super Release, and serialized in Good Housekeeping. She’s received a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, a Bosque Fiction Prize, and special mention by the Pushcart Prize.

Otis MFA Writing Grad Scores Book Deal with Putnam

Halley Sutton (MFA Writing ’17) was about two-thirds of the way through her manuscript when she hit a wall, unable to figure out how to tie together all the threads of her “modern feminist noir.” So she got a giant piece of poster board, covered it with differently colored Post-it notes representing her various plotlines, and lugged it to the office of Peter Gadol, her thesis advisor at the time, and Otis College of Art and Design’s MFA Writing program chair. “I was like, ‘Peter, I don’t know what to do! Help me!’” Sutton says with a laugh.

Submit Your Manuscripts to Otis Books in November!

Otis Books is accepting unsolicited manuscripts during the month of November. The press publishes works of contemporary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, with a special interest in translations and writings from and about Los Angeles. There is no reading fee and both established and unpublished writers are welcome to submit.

Otis Books Publishes Newly Collected Poetry, Interview by Renowned Moroccan Poet

Otis Books is proud to announce the publication of For an Ineffable Metrics of the Desert, a bilingual edition of the selected poems of the writer Mostafa Nissabouri. The collection was translated from French by Otis College of Art and Design professor Guy Bennett, Pierre Joris, Addie Leak, and Teresa Villa-Ignacio. The book, which was developed, designed, and published by Otis Books and Otis College of Art and Design MFA Writing students, is the first time this particular collection of Nissabouri’s poems have been published together in English.

Otis Alumni and Faculty Create Publishing Project to Highlight Underrepresented Voices

Becoming a good literary citizen in the world can take all different paths. For two recent Otis College of Art and Design graduates, that path meant partnering with a faculty mentor to create a broadside publication that will publish poetry every other month. Otis College of Art and Design MFA Writing faculty member Guy Bennett and MFA Writing alumni Krystle Statler and Kevin Thomas published the first issue of their broadside, every other, in February 2018, with an original and previously unpublished poem entitled “Icarus” by Nick Flynn.