UCLA Extension Writers' Program is a unit within UCLA Extension [1], the not-for-profit and self-supporting community outreach arm of the University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, Los Angeles

The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...

. Located in the Westwood Village area of the city, the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program offers more than 475 annual open-enrollment screenwriting and creative writing courses for all levels of writers. Courses are available online, on the UCLA campus, and at some satellite locations in the Los Angeles area, and all courses are approved by the UCLA Academic Senate [2]. The Writers’ Program also offers many services and free events that are open to the public.

History

The Regents of the University of California [3] established University Extension in 1891. A permanent Extension office was opened in Los Angeles in 1917.¹ Extension moved to the UCLA campus in 1948, and subsequently to its present location at Gayley and LeConte in 1971. The UCLA Extension Writers’ Program was established in 1966. Today, the Writers’ Program offers more courses than any university-related writing program in the world [4].

Courses

The Writers’ Program offers more than 475 annual onsite and online courses including beginning, intermediate, and advanced-level courses in fiction, memoir, personal essay, poetry, playwriting, publishing, writing for the youth market, feature film writing, and television writing. Courses are taught by a roster of more than 200 published or produced writing professionals. Daytime, evening, and weekend courses are available. The Writers’ Program also offers nine- and six-month Master Classes in Novel Writing, Feature Film Writing, and Television Writing, and a four-day intensive Writers Studio.

Services

Four certificate programs (Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Feature Film Writing, and Television Writing) are available for students who prefer a structured course of study. The Writers’ Program also offers script and manuscript consultations and annual literary and screenwriting competitions. The James Kirkwood Literary Prize was established in 1991 in memory of James Kirkwood

James Kirkwood, Jr.

James Kirkwood, Jr. was an American playwright, author and actor. In 1976 he received the Tony Award, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the Broadway hit A Chorus Line.-Biography:Kirkwood was born in Los Angeles, California. His father...

 to honor the literary achievements of new generations of fiction writers. The UCLA Extension Screenplay Competition replaced the Diane Thomas

Diane Thomas

Diane Thomas was a screenwriter. She was working as a waitress while writing scripts and then had the opportunity to pitch the script for Romancing the Stone to customer Michael Douglas who then bought, produced, and starred in the film with Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito.Diane Thomas died in a...

 Screenwriting Award in 2006.

Events

The Writers’ Program hosts several events that are free and open to the public, including:

Publication Party: Instructors read aloud from their recently published fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Refreshments are available and authors sell and sign copies of their work.

Writers Faire: Held on the UCLA campus, the Writers Faire features 24 free mini-classes and discussions in creative writing and screenwriting. Panelists are Writers' Program instructors. Students meet instructors; get discounts on enrollments; discuss goals with advisors; and visit with graduate writing programs, professional organizations, and writing-allied businesses.

Cyberhouse/An Online Open House: Participants talk to instructors and staff online and get acquainted with the online classroom format. Discounts are given for enrollments received during the four days of the event.

In addition, the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program partners with, or has a presence at, various literary and film-oriented events throughout the year such as the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is a free, public festival celebrating the written word. Started in 1996, the Festival is held on the last weekend of April hosted by the University of Southern California and features vendors, authors and publishers...

, the West Hollywood Book Fair, and the Los Angeles Film Festival

Los Angeles Film Festival

The Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times is an event held annually in June in downtown Los Angeles, California. The Los Angeles Film Festival began as the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival in 1995. The first LAIFF took place over the course of five days in a single...

.

Scholarships

The UCLA Extension Writers' Program Scholarship seeks to acknowledge and foster the talent of promising writers from diverse backgrounds and cultures who might otherwise not have the opportunity to study their craft in a supportive educational environment. Ten scholars are named annually, and each of the ten recipients is given the opportunity to enroll in three full-length Writers' Program courses during a one-year period. This scholarship replaces the Community Access Scholarship Program which was created in 1991.

Student Success Stories

Thousands of UCLA Extension Writers’ Program students have gone on to have their work published or produced. Some of the most notable are: Stuart Beattie

Stuart Beattie

Stuart Beattie is an Australian screenwriter and film director. He attended Knox Grammar School, in Sydney, Australia, where his mother, Sandra, was a languages teacher, and later Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.-Filmography:...

, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra; Australia; Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl; 30 Days of Night; Collateral; Zoanne Clack

Zoanne Clack

Zoanne Clack , also known as Zoanne Arnette, is an American television producer, writer, story editor, actress, and medical doctor/consultant. Clack's most notable work has been on the medical drama series Grey's Anatomy, in which she has served as executive story editor for twenty-three episodes,...

, Grey’s Anatomy; Tucker Cawley

Tucker Cawley

Tucker Cawley is an American television comedy writer and producer, best known for writing episodes for Everybody Loves Raymond. He has also written for Men of a Certain Age, and created the ill-fated Kelsey Grammer sitcom Hank.-Career:...

, Parks and Recreation, Everybody Loves Raymond; Eric Jerome Dickey

Eric Jerome Dickey

Eric Jerome Dickey is a New York Times best-selling American author best known for his novels about contemporary African-American life...

, Resurrecting Midnight; Doug Ellin

Doug Ellin

Douglas Reed Ellin is the creator of the HBO television series Entourage. Ellin also serves as executive producer and head writer for the series. He attended Tulane University.-Life and career:...

, Entourage; Janet Fitch

Janet Fitch

Janet Fitch is most famously known as the author of the Oprah's Book Club novel White Oleander, which became a film in 2002. She is a graduate of Reed College, located in Portland, Oregon....

, White Oleander (Oprah Pick); Alice Greenway, White Ghost Girls (winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction)[8]; Gavin Hood

Gavin Hood

Gavin Hood is a South African filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and actor, best known for writing and directing the Academy Award-winning Foreign Language Film Tsotsi...

, Tsotsi (Academy Award winner, Best Foreign Film), Randi Mayem Singer

Randi Mayem Singer

Randi Mayem Singer is a writer and producer.Singer is an American screenwriter best known for writing the screenplay to the 20th Century Fox blockbuster Mrs. Doubtfire....

, Mrs. Doubtfire; Melissa Rosenberg

Melissa Rosenberg

Melissa Anne Rosenberg is an American screenwriter. She has worked in both film and television and has been nominated for two Emmy Awards, and two Writers Guild of America Awards. She won a Peabody Award...

, adaptation of Twilight, Dexter; Earl W. Wallace

Earl W. Wallace

Earl W. Wallace is an award-winning American screen and television writer who began his career in the 1970s writing episodes of the hit CBS Western series Gunsmoke, one of which inspired him, his wife Pamela, and William Kelley to develop the screenplay for the 1985 film Witness.Wallace adapted the...

, Witness (Academy Award winner for Best Original Screenplay); Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr. is a bestselling American writer known for his fictional and non-fictional accounts of police work in the United States...

, The Onion Field; Kevin Williamson

Kevin Williamson

Kevin Meade Williamson is an American screenwriter, best known for the horror films Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Faculty, as well as the popular television series Dawson's Creek and, more recently, The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle.-Early life:Williamson was born in New...

, Scream, Dawson’s Creek; Iris Yamashita

Iris Yamashita

Iris Yamashita is a Japanese-American screenwriter.She was hired by Clint Eastwood to write the Japanese side of the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima, once rumored to be titled Lamps Before the Wind, then called Red Sun, Black Sand, before being released as Letters from Iwo Jima...

, Letters from Iwo Jima (Academy Award nominee for Best Original Screenplay).

External links

[1] UCLA Extension: http://www.uclaextension.edu

[2] UCLA Academic Senate: http://www.senate.ucla.edu

[3] The Regents of the University of California: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents

[4] UCLA Extension Writers’ Program: http://www.uclaextension.edu/writers

[5] 826LA: http://www.826LA.org

[6] PEN Center USA: http://www.penusa.org

[7] International Black Writers and Artists: http://www.ibwala.com

[8] Los Angeles Times Book Prizes: http://www.latimes.com/extras/bookprizes