MFA in Creative Writing, Antioch University Los Angeles
BA in English/Writing, Cardinal Stritch University

Kathryn completed her graduate work in Antioch University's MFA program. Her teaching has covered a range of writing and English classes, including grammar, composition and research, literature, and creative writing. Kathryn is the author of the novel, After the Strawberry as well as editor and co-founder of the Los Angeles-centric digital press, Seedpod Publishing. Kathryn is currently the Interim Head of the Creative Writing concentration within the B.A. in Liberal Studies as well as the current Director of the Bridge Program which provides college classes to low-income adults in Los Angeles, at no cost to students.

Barthes once wrote that, for a writer, language is “a field of action, the definition of, and hope for, a possibility.” The choice to write is the choice to take action, to exercise agency, to speak out, to tell the story. In this way, writing is a risk, and learning to write is learning to take the risk of deliberate action. Writing (whether creative or academic) is a way for students to find their voices, to add their opinions and arguments to the fray — and ultimately, to be empowered to use their voices (and the authority that comes with them) to act in the world.

In class, we practice this risk of creation by using the writing process to get words on the page. We practice the risk of revision that comes with honing a work into the thing we envision, making choices in form, content, language, and syntax. We practice the risk of criticism as we share the work with readers. As we create a community of readers and writers, we help one another take each of these risks, make deliberate choices in our work, and act in the world by exercising our voices as writers.