Master of Professional Writing Program

A Master of Professional Writing Program is a type of graduate degree program in professional writing. Chatham University in Pennsylvania has an online MPW program.^[1] The University of Southern California's MPW program ended in May 2016,^[2][3][4][5] at which point it moved to the Vermont College of Fine Arts under the new name the School of Writing and Publishing.^[6]

Notable alumni of the USC program

• Millicent Borges Accardi, poet and recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, author of four poetry books
• Mark Andrus, author of As Good as It Gets and Life as a House
• Margaret Davis, author of biographies of William Mulholland and Edward L. Doheny
• Frederick Johnson, Emmy- and WGA Award-winning writer of daytime television serials
• Charlotte Laws, author and animal rights advocate
• EM Lewis, playwright
• Sandra Tsing Loh, radio commentator and author
• Gina Nahai, author of Cry of the Peacock
• Greg Rucka, writer of novels and comic books
• Ann Seaman, author of biographies of Jimmy Swaggart and Madalyn Murray O'Hair
• Charles_Harper_Webb, poet, Guggenheim Fellow
• Lee Wochner, playwright

Notable faculty of the USC program

Gay Talese at the Strand Bookstore in New York City

• Shelley Berman, humor writing
• Nan Cohen, poetry
• Syd Field, screenwriting
• Janet Fitch, fiction
• Noel Riley Fitch, non-fiction
• Donald Freed, playwriting
• Amy Gerstler, poetry
• Dana Goodyear, non-fiction
• Janet Irvin, fiction
• Marty Isenberg, animation
• Irvin Kershner, cinema/TV
• Jerome Lawrence, playwriting
• Dinah Lenney, non-fiction
• Gerald Locklin, poetry, fiction
• Larry the Cable Guy, cinema/TV
• MG Lord, non-fiction
• Shelly Lowenkopf, fiction, publishing
• David Scott Milton, playwriting
• Gina Nahai, fiction
• Gabrielle Pina, fiction
• Robert Pirosh, cinema/TV
• Beata Pozniak, drama/film/TV
• Michael Price, animation writing
• James Ragan, poetry and program director for 25 years^[7]
• John Rechy, fiction
• Aram Saroyan, poetry, fiction
• Sy Gomberg, screenwriter
• Hubert Selby Jr., fiction
• Melville Shavelson, cinema/TV
• Gay Talese, non-fiction
• Shirley Thomas, technical writing
• Kenneth Turan, film
• Lee Wochner, playwriting
• Richard Yates, fiction