“Ruthlessly unguarded, surgically self-parodic, and infinitely funny…”
—Mary Jean Chan, The Guardian
Valencia, Calif. (Jan. 2, 2024) – The Creative Writing MFA Program of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is pleased to announce award-winning poet, novelist, and nonfiction writer Eileen Myles as its 2025 Katie Jacobson Writer in Residence.
One of the most recognized and influential literary artists of their generation, Myles’s (they/them, b.1949) is known for resolutely embodied, vernacular first-person writing. In dozens of groundbreaking books, from the cult classic fiction work Chelsea Girls (1994) based on their life as a young queer artist, to the recent experimental dog memoir Afterglow (2017), and in moment-defining poetry collections like Not Me (1991) and I Must be Living Twice (2016), Myles has gathered up raw experience with verve and tenderness, producing a rhapsody of attention critics have referred to as “uncanny” and “divine.”
The power of Myles’ work has been recognized with numerous awards, like the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America and the Clark Prize for excellence in art writing, but perhaps the greatest indication of the reach of their verse and prose is in the legions of young writers over the last decades to whose writing Myles’ poems, novels, essays, and performances have given crucial permission and inspiration.
The Katie Jacobson Writer in Residence Program honors beloved CalArts alum Katie Jacobson (Creative Writing MFA 10) for her notable dedication to public literary engagement in Los Angeles. Housed within the MFA Creative Writing Program in the CalArts School of Critical Studies, the program brings a prestigious writer to CalArts each year for a public reading and meetings with students. Past Katie Jacobson Writers in Residence have included Don Mee Choi, Joy Harjo, Roxane Gay, Kevin Young, Stephen Graham Jones, Samuel Delany, George Saunders, John Keene, and Lydia Davis.
As part of this year’s Katie Jacobson residency, Myles will give a reading at the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT) in downtown Los Angeles on Jan. 16.
They will also give a lecture on the CalArts campus on the evening of Jan. 17, as well as hold two workshops on campus for students in the MFA Creative Writing Program.
The Katie Jacobson Writer in Residence is made possible by a generous donation from the Jacobson Family.
TICKETS & INFORMATION
Eileen Myles
CalArts Katie Jacobson Writer in Residence
Public Reading and Reception
Thursday, Jan. 16 at 8:30 p.m.
REDCAT
631 W 2nd St, Los Angeles, Calif. 90012
Tickets
Eileen Myles
CalArts Katie Jacobson Writer in Residence
Public Lecture and Reception
Friday, Jan. 17 at 7 p.m.
Langley Hall, CalArts
24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, Calif. 91355
