Creative Writing

Aisha Kazi

Student Communication and Events Assistant

Aisha Kazi (she/her) is a student at UC Berkeley, double majoring in Media Studies with a concentration in Digital Studies and English Literature. Alongside her studies, she is pursuing the Berkeley Certificate In Design Innovation at UC Berkeley, and has a strong interest in design especially as it pertains to the "Human First" approach. Her work focuses on digital media, education, through her work at CreaTV San Jose, Learning Unlimited, and Splash at Berkeley. She is passionate about anything design, storytelling, and cultivating a space for people to be creative in their respective...

Claudia Rankine & Pamela Sneed

November 8, 2023
Claudia Rankine & Pamela Sneed November 8, 2023 6 p.m. Maude Fife Room (315 Wheeler Hall)

This event was initiated by Simon(e) van Saarloos and sponsored by the Rhetoric Department, Stone Chair Funds, Black Studies Collaboratory, Townsend Center, Arts & Research Center, Department of English, the Holloway Poetry Series, and the Othering & Belonging Institute.

Simon(e) van Saarloos, author of Take ‘Em Down. Scattered Monuments and Queer Forgetting and PhD Rhetoric student at UC Berkeley, invited poets Claudia Rankine & Pamela...

Isabel Allende, in Conversation

November 5, 2025
Read more about Isabel Allende's work on her website, here.

Layli Long Soldier: Poetry Reading + Conversation with Solmaz Sharif

April 1, 2026
Read more about Layli Long Soldier's work at the Poetry Foundation here Read more about Solmaz Sharif's work at the Poetry Foundation here

Two-Day Letterpress Workshop

February 28, 2026
Two-Day Letterpress Workshop
 Sat February 28th & Sun March 1st, 2026
10am to 4pm each day
Location: The Codex Foundation, 1331 Seventh Street, Unit D, Berkeley, CA

Open to Berkeley undergraduate & graduate students
Limited enrollment, capped at 8 students
Spots given on a first-come, first-served basis
Cost to participants underwritten by the Arts Research Center

Due to the limited space and cost, we ask that you commit to attending if you sign-up; we are taking a waiting...

Beth Piatote

ARC Director, 2020 ARC Fellow – Poetry and the Senses

Beth Piatote is a creative writer, playwright, and scholar. She is the author of two books, including the mixed-genre collection, The Beadworkers: Stories (Counterpoint 2019), which was long-listed for the Aspen Words Literary Prize and the PEN/Bingham Prize, and short-listed for the California Independent Booksellers Association “Golden Poppy” Prize for Fiction. The Beadworkers was named the winner of the 2020 Electa Quinney Award for Published Stories. Her full-length play...

Jenny Xie

Poet & Educator
​Jenny Xie gave a Visiting Writer Lecture at the Arts Research Center on March 10, 2022. If you are interested in contacting this artist, please find them on their website.

​Jenny Xie was born in Anhui province, China. She is the author of EYE LEVEL, a finalist for the National Book Award and the recipient of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets and the Holmes National Poetry Prize from Princeton University, and THE RUPTURE TENSE, a finalist for the National Book Award and the CLMP Firecracker Award, and a recipient of...

Jenna Wortham

Journalist
Jenna Wortham gave a Visiting Lecturer Talk at the Arts Research Center on February 27, 2017. If you are interested in contacting this artist, please find them on their website.

Jenna Wortham (they/them), also known as J Wortham, is a sound healer, reiki practitioner, herbalist, and community care worker oriented towards healing justice and liberation.

J is also a staff writer for...

Drew Woodson

2025 ARC Indigenous Performing Arts Residency AIR, Playwright
Drew Woodson was a Playwright-in-Residence with ARC through the Indigenous Performing Arts Residency in April 2025. If you are interested in contacting this artist, please find them on their website.

Drew Woodson is a Western Shoshone playwright based in New York City. He has had his work read in multiple theaters across New York, including Rattlestick Theater where he was asked to open the first annual Northeastern Native Arts Festival with his play “Your Friend, Jay Silverheels.” For this same work, Drew was named Yale's Young Indigenous Playwright of 2021. More recently...

Nellie Wong

Poet, Socialist Feminist Activist
Nellie Wong gave a Visiting Writer Reading at the Arts Research Center in April 2022, part of the Spring 2022 Flash Reading Series. If you are interested in contacting this artist, please find them on their website.

The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Nellie Wong was born in Oakland, California, on September 12, 1934. As a teenager she worked in her parents’ Chinese restaurant, and after graduating high school, she took a job as a secretary for Bethlehem Steel Corporation, where she worked until 1982. In her mid-thirties, she began studying creative writing at San...