A Master of Professional Writing Program is a type of graduate degree program in

professional writing Professional writing is writing for reward or as a profession; as a product or object, professional writing is any form of written communication produced in a workplace environment or context that enables employees to, for example, communicate effe ...

Chatham University Chatham University is a private university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally founded as a women's college, it began enrolling men in undergraduate programs in 2015. It enrolls about 2,110 students, including 1,002 undergraduate students and ...

in Pennsylvania has an online MPW program. The

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

's MPW program ended in May 2016, at which point it moved to the

Vermont College of Fine Arts Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) is a private graduate-level college affiliated with California Institute of the Arts. It offers Master's degrees in a low-residency format. Its faculty includes Pulitzer Prize finalists, National Book Award wi ...

under the new name the School of Writing and Publishing.

Notable alumni of the USC program

* Millicent Borges Accardi, poet and recipient of a

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

fellowship A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned or professional societies, the term refers ...

, author of four poetry books * Mark Andrus, author of ''

As Good as It Gets ''As Good as It Gets'' is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by James L. Brooks from a screenplay he co-wrote with Mark Andrus. It stars Jack Nicholson as a misanthropic, bigoted and obsessive–compulsive novelist, Helen Hunt ...

'' and ''

Life as a House ''Life as a House'' is a 2001 American drama film produced and directed by Irwin Winkler. The screenplay by Mark Andrus focuses on a man who is anxious to repair his relationship with his ex-wife and teenage son after he is diagnosed with termi ...

'' *Margaret Davis, author of biographies of

William Mulholland William Mulholland (September 11, 1855 – July 22, 1935) was an Irish American self-taught civil engineer who was responsible for building the infrastructure to provide a water supply that allowed Los Angeles to grow into the largest city in Cal ...

and Edward L. Doheny * Frederick Johnson, Emmy- and WGA Award-winning writer of daytime television serials *

Charlotte Laws Charlotte Anne Laws (born May 11, 1960), also known by her stage name Missy Laws, is an American author, talk show host, animal rights advocate, anti-revenge porn activist, former politician, and actress. Laws is a former BBC News contributor a ...

, author and

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...

advocate * EM Lewis, playwright * Sandra Tsing Loh, radio commentator and author * Gina Nahai, author of ''Cry of the Peacock'' *

Greg Rucka Gregory Rucka (born November 29, 1969) is an American writer known for the series of novels starring his character Atticus Kodiak, the creator-owned comic book series '' Whiteout'', '' Queen & Country'', '' Stumptown'' and '' Lazarus'', as well ...

, writer of novels and

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

s * Ann Seaman, author of biographies of

Jimmy Swaggart Jimmy Lee Swaggart (; born March 15, 1935) is an American Pentecostal televangelist and gospel artist. Swaggart is one of the most well-known televangelists in America. During the 1980s, Swaggart's crusades were a major part of his ministry� ...

and

Madalyn Murray O'Hair Madalyn Murray O'Hair ( Mays; April 13, 1919 – September 29, 1995) was an American activist supporting atheism, separation of church and state, feminism, and Holocaust denial. In 1963, she founded American Atheists and served as its president ...

* Charles_Harper_Webb, poet, Guggenheim Fellow * Lee Wochner, playwright

Notable faculty of the USC program

Shelley Berman Sheldon Leonard Berman (February 3, 1925 – September 1, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, writer, teacher, and lecturer. He was awarded three gold records for his comedy albums and he won the first Grammy Award for a spoken comedy recor ...

, humor writing *

Nan Cohen Nan Cohen (born 1968) is an American poet and teacher. She has published two poetry collections, ''Rope Bridge'' and ''Unfinished City''. Life She was raised in Reisterstown, Maryland, and graduated from Yale University and the University of Cal ...

, poetry * Syd Field, screenwriting *

Janet Fitch Janet Fitch (born November 9, 1955) is an American author. She wrote the novel '' White Oleander'', which became a film in 2002. She is a graduate of Reed College. Fitch was born in Los Angeles, a third-generation native, and grew up in a fam ...

, fiction * Noel Riley Fitch, non-fiction *

Donald Freed Donald Freed (born May 13, 1932) is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, historian, teacher and activist. According to Freed's friend and colleague, the late Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, "(Freed) is a writer of blazing imagination, c ...

, playwriting * Amy Gerstler, poetry * Dana Goodyear, non-fiction * Janet Irvin, fiction * Marty Isenberg, animation *

Irvin Kershner Irvin Kershner (born Isadore Kershner; April 29, 1923November 27, 2010) was an American director for film and television. Early in his career as a filmmaker he directed quirky, independent drama films, while working as a lecturer at the Univer ...

, cinema/TV *

Jerome Lawrence Jerome Lawrence (born Jerome Lawrence Schwartz; July 14, 1915 – February 29, 2004) was an American playwright and author. After graduating from the Ohio State University in 1937 and the University of California, Los Angeles in 1939, Lawrence pa ...

, playwriting *

Dinah Lenney Dinah Lenney (née Gross; born November 18, 1956) is an American actress and writer. She is the author of ''Bigger than Life: A Murder, a Memoir'', a 2007 book about the murder of her father, Republican Party politician and businessman Nelson G. ...

, non-fiction * Gerald Locklin, poetry, fiction *

Larry the Cable Guy Daniel Lawrence Whitney (born February 17, 1963), known professionally as Larry the Cable Guy, is an American stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian, actor, and former radio personality. He was one of the members of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, a ...

, cinema/TV * MG Lord, non-fiction * Shelly Lowenkopf, fiction, publishing * David Scott Milton, playwriting * Gina Nahai, fiction * Gabrielle Pina, fiction *

Robert Pirosh Robert Pirosh (April 1, 1910 – December 25, 1989) was an American screenwriter and film director. In 1951, he was nominated for another Academy Award for the screenplay '' Go for Broke!''. This was his directorial debut. He would go on t ...

, cinema/TV *

Beata Pozniak Beata or Beate is a female given name or Portuguese surname that occurs in several cultures and languages, including Italian, German, Polish, and Swedish, and which is derived from the Latin ''beatus'', meaning " blessed".''Behind the Name'' ...

, drama/film/TV * Michael Price, animation writing * James Ragan, poetry and program director for 25 years *

John Rechy John Francisco Rechy (born March 10, 1931) is a Mexican-American novelist and essayist. His novels are written extensively about gay culture in Los Angeles and wider America, among other subject matter. '' City of Night'', his debut novel publis ...

, fiction *

Aram Saroyan Aram Saroyan (born September 25, 1943) is an American poet, novelist, biographer, memoirist and playwright, who is especially known for his minimalist poetry, famous examples of which include the one-word poem "lighght" and a one-letter poem compr ...

, poetry, fiction *

Sy Gomberg Sy Gomberg (August 19, 1918 – February 11, 2001) was an American Oscar-nominated film screenwriter, producer, and activist, who taught screenwriting to University of Southern California students for over a decade. Gomberg was born in New Y ...

, screenwriter *

Hubert Selby Jr. Hubert "Cubby" Selby Jr. (July 23, 1928 – April 26, 2004) was an American writer. Two of his novels, ''Last Exit to Brooklyn'' (1964) and ''Requiem for a Dream'' (1978), explore worlds in the New York area and were adapted as films, both of w ...

, fiction *

Melville Shavelson Melville Shavelson (April 1, 1917 – August 8, 2007) was an Americans, American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. He was President of the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAw) from 1969 to 1971, 1979 to 1981, and 1985 to 1 ...

, cinema/TV *

Gay Talese Gaetano "Gay" Talese (; born February 7, 1932) is an American writer. As a journalist for ''The New York Times'' and ''Esquire (magazine), Esquire'' magazine during the 1960s, he helped to define contemporary literary journalism and is considere ...

, non-fiction * Shirley Thomas,

technical writing Technical writing is a specialized form of communication used by many of today's industrial and scientific organizations to clearly and accurately convey complex information to a user. An organization's customers, employees, assembly workers, engin ...

Kenneth Turan Kenneth Turan (; born October 27, 1946) is an American retired film critic, author, and lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. He was a film critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1991 ...

, film * Lee Wochner, playwriting * Richard Yates, fiction

References

{{reflist

External links

Chatham University programVermont College of Fine Arts program
Writing Professional Writing Program