Shelley Berman

The Boston Comedy Festival honored Shelley Berman with a Lifetime Achievement Award. He was also recently the headliner at the Improv in Harrah's Las Vegas.

MG Lord

MG Lord's article "The Man Who Wants Us in Outer Space" was featured in the October 2007 issue of Los Angeles Magazine.

John Rechy

John Rechy was recognized by the University of Texas El Paso as its outstanding alumnus.

Holly Prado Northup

Holly Prado Northup receives a Certificate of Recognition from the City of Los Angeles for her contributions to the literary culture of LA.

Life After 50 features Holly in "Good Bones".

Faculty Kudos and Congratulations

Read Oprah's Review of Rita Williams If the Creek Don't Rise

Rita Williams was a finalist in the The PEN Center USA 2007 Literary Awards competition for If the Creek Don't Rise.

Faculty Kudos and Congratulations

Noel Riley Fitch
Grand Literary Cafés of Europe
The Grand Literary Cafes of Europe was published in October in London (New Holland Press) and is being released in the US.

Paris Cafe: The Sélect Crowd
A close look for the first time inside a famous literary cafe, Le Sélect Café.

Noel Riley Fitch is featured in the autumn 2007 issue of USC Trojan Family Magazine for her new book The Grand Literary Cafés of Europe.

Faculty Kudos and Congratulations

Gina Nahai is featured in LA Times article, "The latest trend in immigrant lit."

Faculty Kudos and Congratulations

The Long Embrace has been on the LA Times BestSeller List for 5 weeks in a row.

Judith Freeman publishes Random House book The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved, on sale November 6, 2007.

Maureen Corrigan, book critic of Fresh Air from WHYY, reviewed Judith Freeman’s new biography The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved, on NPR.

Faculty Kudos and Congratulations

Jason Squire was interviewed on "Newsweek On Air" for its segment "TV: The New Prime Time" in October 2006.

Faculty Kudos and Congratulations

Congratulations to MPW instructors Austin "Rocky" Kalish and Irma Ginsburg Kalish upon receiving honorary doctorates from Syracuse University. Both Rocky and Irma were awarded Doctor of Speech and Dramatic Arts degrees at Syracuse's May 13th Commencement exercises.

Faculty Kudos and Congratulations

Read The Canalis Reporton Locklin in the Press-Telegram

Gerald Locklin is profiled in the just-published Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 335: American Short-Story Writers Since World War II, Fifth Series (Thomson-Gale, 2007). The profile states, "Gerald Locklin's contributions to the field of American letters are significant."

The Cezanne/Pissaro Poems by Gerald Locklin have just been published by World Parade Books.

Faculty Kudos and Congratulations

Long-cherished in out-of-print editions, anthologies and text books, and more recently celebrated on the internet, Aram Saroyan's groundbreaking concrete and minimalist poems of the 1960s are gathered together here in a single, much-needed volume.

Alumni Kudos and Congratulations

A thesis play of MPW alumna Cynthia Ferrell (May 2006) was a finalist in the Tennessee Williams/ New Orleans Literary Festival's One-Act Play Contest in March 2007.

Alumni Kudos and Congratulations

Jethro Nededog's (MPW 2006) thesis screenplay, "Drag," won first place at The 2006 Indie Gathering Film Festival for drama. An earlier draft was a semifinalist in the 2006 Los Angeles Outfest Screenwriting Competition. He just finished producing four episodes of "Ultimate Factories," a documentary series for the National Geographic Channel.

Alumni Kudos and Congratulations

Emily Brauer (MPW 2005) has produced two full-length plays: "Searching for Americana" and "Hard Core: Women's Reflections on Iraq." A Composition Lecturer at University of California, Irvine, she is also Managing Director for Hunger Artists Theatre Company, which is producing a short play festival in September.

Alumni Kudos and Congratulations

Koji Steven Sakai's (MPW 2003) first feature film "Haunted Highway," was directed by Junichi Suzuki and distributed by Lions Gate DVD in 2006. He is expecting an additional four to seven feature-length films to go into production in 2007.

Alumni Kudos and Congratulations

Universal Pictures' "Georgia Rule" starring Jane Fonda, Lindsay Lohan, and Felicity Huffman was written by MPW alumnus Mark Andrus. Andrus received an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay "As Good as It Gets," wrote "Life as a House," and the adaptation for "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."

Alumni Kudos and Congratulations

Joni Winn Hilton's (MPW 1981) latest play, "Rock, Paper, Scissors," won the Long Beach Playhouse 2006 contest, and is scheduled for world premiere at the Manhattan Beach Community Theatre on October 26-29 and November 2-3, 2007.

Meet MPW Mascot Sally Lowenkopf