Success Stories
Success: Maria Dadouch Awarded Katara Prize
Fiction Certificate graduate Maria Dadouch recently won the Katara Prize. Of her experience, Maria says, “I'm honored to be invited for the second time to share my stories of success here. I recently received the Katara Prize for my novel The Planet of the...
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Success: Francisco Uribe Publishes Two Stories
Former Student Francisco Uribe recently had two stories published. “Lápices de color” was published in Huizache 8, and “No te metas,” can be read on Aquifer: The Florida Review Online. Francisco is very happy with his experience in the Writers’ Program, saying, “In...
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Success: Instructor Natashia Deón to Publish Second Book
Instructor and former student Natashia Deón is an NAACP Image Award Nominee and author of the critically-acclaimed novel, Grace. She has sold her second novel, The Perishing to Counterpoint Press. The Perishing is about a young black woman who suddenly finds herself...
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Success: Shiwani Srivastava’s Script Places in Competitions
Current student Shiwani Srivastava’s script Wedding Season recently won second place in the ScreenCraft Comedy Screenplay Contest. (It also advanced into the quarterfinals and semifinals of other contests this year, including Final Draft and WeScreenplay.) Of her...
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Success: Instructor Andrew Osborne’s Play Premiering in Hollywood
Special by instructor Andrew Osborne is a new comedy about the strange-but-true-ish backstage drama surrounding the notorious Star Wars Holiday Special on the 40th anniversary of the doomed variety show's one-and-only network airing. Directed by Kerr Lordygan, the...
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Success: Zimran Jacob’s Extensive TV Writing Placement
Former student Zimran Jacob has had a string of high-profile gigs in television writing recently. He worked at Gaumont Television Studios on Hannibal, Narcos, Hemlock Grove, and F is For Family. He was then hired on into the writers’ room for the Marvel/Netflix show,...
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Success: Ron L. Dowell’s Story Accomplishments
Fiction Certificate Graduate and 2018 PEN Center Emerging Voices Fellow Ron L. Dowell has been hard at work recently. Ron is working on Stones Refused, a collection of stories that show how people find hope and even joy in lives where basic needs are sometimes hard to...
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Success: Michael Mejia Publishes Second Novel
Former student Michael Mejia published his second novel, TOKYO, in March and was featured in an interview with SLUG Magazine last year. For those in Los Angeles, he will be reading an excerpt at Book Soup on August 6th, 2018. Michael took several Writers’ Program...
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Welcome New WP Staffer, Ashley Griggs!
The Writers’ Program is thrilled to add a new Program Representative to our team. Ashley started this week, and will be working as a Program Representative in both the Writers’ Program and Entertainment Studies. She’ll be doing a lot of important behind the scenes...
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Instructor Interview: Kristine Huntley
Welcome new Writers’ Program instructor, Kristine Huntley! She is one of three instructors teaching one-day workshop this Winter, Winning a TV Writing Fellowship to Jumpstart Your Career, and sat down with us to offer some insight into creative life and her upcoming...
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Courses to Warm Up Your Writing Muscles for Winter
2019 is approaching and as you look beyond your holiday celebration and travel plans, we hope you’ll check out our Winter course offerings to get those annual writing goals started out right. Check out our course offerings across creative writing, poetry, editing...
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Thirty Things to Write Instead of a Novel for NaNoWriMo
National Novel Writing Month isn’t for everyone. However, that doesn’t mean writers should ignore November as a time to dedicate to writing. If you’re averse to becoming part of the NaNoWriMo crowd, here are thirty ideas (one for every day in November) of things you...
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NaNoWriMo Prep Resources
National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo to those in the know) is just over two weeks away. In addition to our course designed for NaNoWriMo participants, and the tips on getting through the month, we wanted to offer some resources for preparing for NaNoWriMo....
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The Writers’ Program’s New Home
It’s been quite some time since the Writers’ Program office has been in a settled location. Starting in the spring, we knew we would be moving office spaces, along with the rest of UNEX Administrative and Program offices, to first a temporary space, and then a new...
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Second Annual Writing Retreat Stimulates and Supports Writers
On September 9th, the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program welcomed a group of dedicated writing students to the UCLA Conference Center at Lake Arrowhead, a beautiful facility nestled in a mountain with pristine lake and alpine views, to our second annual Writing Retreat....
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Fall 2018 Read It Before (or After) You See It
On the heels of summer blockbusters, and jump-starting the holiday/award-show end-of-year push, is where often you’ll find a slew of literary adaptations released to theatres. The fall 2018 movie releases are no exception. Here’s a breakdown of a few upcoming releases...
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