USC doctoral students in creative writing and literature celebrated the program’s writers of color for the first time Saturday during a showcase specifically designed to highlight diverse voices.
The event, held at Skylight Books in Los Feliz, was organized by students of color in the program to help elevate and bring together writers from across the LA community.
About 70 people packed the independent bookstore during the 90-minute event, which also featured a panel where students gave advice to those that don’t see themselves as “Ph.D. material.” Writers of color in USC’s program had the opportunity to read their work out loud.
Brian Lin, a second-year doctoral student and event organizer, said the idea for gathering was partially inspired by student Vanessa Villarreal’s recent Whiting Award, an award for prestigious creative writing. After brainstorming, Lin and fellow student Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera decided the gathering should serve the communities that helped get them to where they are.
“Comunidad is necessary,” Reichle-Aguilera said. “You need that to keep going and a lot of times, there’s this myth that’s perpetuated that writing has to be a solo activity.”
Students and writers who attended the event said they appreciated having a forum to highlight each other’s work and experiences with writing.
“People need to see each other, see themselves, so I think events like this let you — if you’re a writer or if you’re not a writer — see people who are like you,” said attendee and writer Bridgette Bianca after the event.
There are no recent studies about diversity in graduate writing programs, but there are many other groups outside of USC working to elevate the voices of writers of color, including a twitter account, @WritersofColor. Students of color tend to question their identity as writers and feel more vulnerable in workshop spaces than their white peers.
The students at the event expressed mixed feelings about diversity and inclusion in USC Dornsife’s creative writing and literature doctoral program.
Organizer and writer Leesa Fenderson said she was impressed with the program’s diversity, but only in recent years.
“It’s not just a diversity of skin color, but also a diversity of life experiences; people of varying ages, people of varying socio-economic backgrounds,” said Fenderson, adding that she’d like to see more writers who are differently abled accepted into the program.
Many of the writers at the event emphasized that diversity is especially important in a program that requires fearless creativity and vulnerability. A writers’ identity is typically incorporated into their narrative and style, and when that identity feels threatened or questioned, it can make it difficult to embrace talent and craft.
During the panel, students pointed to the problematic structure of the Iowa Writers Workshop model, which is heavily relied upon for decades in creative literature.
The model involves a circle of peers that stays silent as a piece of writing is shared and then offers feedback afterward. While this works for some, writers of color often find that they are critiqued on elements of their writing tied to their cultural experience, like code-switching.
“Our voices are oftentimes misguided towards an aesthetic that isn’t ours,” Reichle-Aguilera said, echoing the sentiment of her peer and writer Muriel Leung.
Leung emphasized that supporting the most vulnerable voices in a workshop should be prioritized, because “this idea that everybody comes into the space equal is not necessarily true.”
She said she believes paying attention to this vulnerability, and setting guidelines for how work that reflects different life experiences are discussed would help make the workshop process more inclusive and helpful to writers of color.
Some students in the program said they feel the diversity of professors at the school helps to lessen the tension in workshop spaces and the classroom. As part of their support for the event, USC provided funding for refreshments and offered helpful institutional knowledge, Lin said.
“I think it’s really important for writers of color, not only in California but across the nation, to see what USC’s doctoral program can offer and the diversity of the university and the program,” said Dana Johnson, USC Dornsife’s English creative writing director., told Annenberg Media.
The event was considered a hit, with others reaching out to Lin to help broaden his efforts to host similar events across Southern California. Lin said while doing outreach to promote Saturday’s event, collaborators from Orange County and Leimert Park approached him about hosting their own events.