Creative Writing

Laurie Macfee

Associate Director

Laurie Macfee (she/her) is a poet, artist, art administrator, and educator. She joined the Arts Research Center in 2018 and was named Associate Director in 2021; she manages all programs and day-to-day operations of the center. She was a cohort leader and facilator of ARC's Poetry & Senses program (2020-2024), including designing the Flash Reading Series and visiting writer program. Macfee has over 15 years of arts administration experience––she managed the Writing Program as well as grants at Vermont Studio Center; served as Curator of Education and Museum...

Poetry Reading featuring Terrance Hayes and Simone White

March 17, 2021
A poetry reading featuring: Terrance Hayes and Simone White in conversation with Chiyuma Elliott Wednesday, March 17, 2021 4:00-5:30pm PDT

Watch the recording here!

Claire Hong

Visiting Writer

Claire Hong is the author of Upend (Noemi Press), which was longlisted for the PEN/Voelcker Award. She received a Stegner Fellowship in Poetry from Stanford University (2019-2021) and has creative writing degrees from the University of Arizona (MFA) and Pratt Institute (BFA). She was born in San Francisco, CA and currently lives in Tucson, AZ where she works to distribute traditional, arid adapted seeds.

Cody Achin

2023 ARC Fellow - Poetry & the Senses

Cody Achin is half Native American. Half Anglo and half O’odham. Currently residing within his ancestral and childhood home within the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Reservation in Arizona. Achin recently graduated from Arizona State University in Spring 2023 with a Bachelor’s in English with a focus on Poetry. Achin’s poetry is tied heavily to his cultural background and his native language. By infusing words/phrases within his native language in his poetry, Achin is looking to create an introspective look into how he walks in two worlds. One in traditionalism...

Ocean Vuong, with Townsend Center

April 5, 2024
National Poetry Month Townsend Center Presents: Ocean Vuong in conversation with Cathy Park Hong Avenali Lecture Thursday, Apr 4, 2024 5:00 pm | BAMPFA Poetry Reading Friday, Apr 5, 2024 5:00 pm | BAMPFA Co-sponsored by the Arts Research Center

Presented by the Townsend Center for the Humanities in partnership with BAMPFA, co-sponsored by ARC.

Ocean Vuong, poet, MacArthur Fellow, and author of the celebrated novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, is the 2023-24...

Latinx Poetry Now: A Reading and Conversation with J. Michael Martinez + aracelis girmay

September 28, 2023
Latinx Poetry Now: A Reading and Conversation with J. Michael Martinez + aracelis girmay Thursday Sept 28, 2023 11am - 12:30pm Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall

Join the Arts Research Center for our first Poetry & the Senses reading of fall 2023, featuring the incredible poets and multimedia artists J. Michael Martin and aracelis girmay. Following their readings, they will be in conversation with Prof John Alba Cutler (English).

J. Michael Martinez is a multimedia artist and the author of three collections of poetry, including Heredities, which received the Walt...

Writing Workshop Maōri Poet Robert Sullivan

September 20, 2023
Writing Workshop Maōri Poet Robert Sullivan September 20, 2023 1 p.m. Online

Robert Sullivan (Ngāpuhi and Kāi Tahu) has won awards for his poetry, editing, and writing for children, including the 2022 Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for a distinguished contribution to New Zealand poetry, Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Hawai’i, the Montana New Zealand Book Award for co-editing Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English, the Māori Literature Award for co-editing Puna Wai Kōrero: An Anthology of Māori Poetry...

Maziar Maghsoodnia Memorial Fund 2023 Reading Featuring Solmaz Sharif

September 13, 2023
Maziar Maghsoodnia Poetry Fund 2023 Reading Featuring Solmaz Sharif September 13, 2023 4 p.m. David Brower Center, Tamalpais Room Solmaz Sharif will give the 2023 Maziar Maghsoodnia Memorial Fund Reading. She will be in conversation with Lubna Safi, an...

Esther Belin: Lunch Poems Reading + Craft Talk

March 7, 2024
Esther Belin Lunch Poems Reading + Craft Talk Thursday, March 7, 2024 12-1pm: Lunch Poems Reading
Morrison Library 4-5:15pm: Craft Talk: Diné Land/Sound(scape) as Poetics
Arts Research Center, Hearst Field Annex D23

Presented by the Arts Research Center and the English Dept, with support from Dr. and Mrs. Tom Colby, the Berkeley Library, the Morrison Library Fund, the Dean’s Office of the College of Letters and Science, and Poets & Writers, Inc.

The Arts Research Center in...

Mother Language Day

February 21, 2024
Mother Language Day Celebration Wed Feb 21, 2024
10 – 11am
Hearst Field Annex D23