Join us for Writer鈥檚 Week 2027! We鈥檒l have a weeklong lineup of writers participating in workshops, talks, and readings. Artists will bring their imaginations to life under the pines, developing their skills and completing new work.

Each morning begins with class instruction, followed by lunch. Every day brings an afternoon 鈥淐raft Talk鈥� presented by faculty/special guests. In the evening, gather for 鈥淓vening Readings鈥�, also hosted by faculty and guest speakers, with snacks and drinks provided. On Wednesday, don鈥檛 miss 鈥淏eat Nite鈥� at Middle Ridge Winery, featuring an expanded showcase of artists presenting their work!

Classes end on Friday around 4:00PM, after a day spent wrapping up projects and attending one-on-one sessions with your instructors. That evening, our week culminates at the Cargill Commons, where students will present their work alongside live music, food, and more!

Laurel Ollstein is an award-winning playwright, director, actor and educator. She was an original member of Tim Robbins鈥� award winning theatre company The Actors鈥� Gang. Her play They Promised Her the Moon, about Jerrie Cobb and the Mercury 13 women, had its West Coast premiere at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego – published by Playscripts in 2022. She wrote the book to OPA!, a musical nominated for 14 awards at the midtown theatre festival in NYC. Her critically acclaimed play SHOWING OUR AGE – supported by an NEA grant – was produced in Los Angeles at {In}side the Ford theatre. Her dark comedy CHEESE published by Original Works. Awards include grants from the NEA, California Arts Council, Ovation, Garland and LA Weekly awards. Her full length memoir THE BULLET – the first chapter published in the Silk Road Review – literary magazine 2026. She is an adjunct faculty member with CalArts, UCLA, USC and OTIS.

Join us for Writer鈥檚 Week 2027! We鈥檒l have a weeklong lineup of writers participating in workshops, talks, and readings. Artists will bring their imaginations to life under the pines, developing their skills and completing new work.

Each morning begins with class instruction, followed by lunch. Every day brings an afternoon 鈥淐raft Talk鈥� presented by faculty/special guests. In the evening, gather for 鈥淓vening Readings鈥�, also hosted by faculty and guest speakers, with snacks and drinks provided. On Wednesday, don鈥檛 miss 鈥淏eat Nite鈥� at Middle Ridge Winery, featuring an expanded showcase of artists presenting their work!

Classes end on Friday around 4:00PM, after a day spent wrapping up projects and attending one-on-one sessions with your instructors. That evening, our week culminates at Cargill Commons, where students will present their work alongside live music, food, and more!

Douglas Manuel was born in Anderson, Indiana and now resides in Whittier, California. He received a BA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University, an MFA in poetry from Butler University, and a PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. He is the author of two collections of poetry, Testify (2017) and Trouble Funk (2023). His poems and essays can be found in numerous literary journals, magazines, and websites, most recently Zyzzyva, Pleiades, and the New Orleans Review. He has traveled to Egypt and Eritrea with The University of Iowa’s International Writing Program to teach poetry. A recipient of the Dana Gioia Poetry Award and a fellowship from the Borchard Foundation Center on Literary Arts, he is an assistant professor of English at Whittier College and teaches at Spalding University鈥檚 low-res MFA program.

Ben Loory鈥檚 first book, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day (Penguin, 2011), was a selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program, and his second book, Tales of Falling and Flying (Penguin, 2017), was named a Favorite Book of the Year by the Staff of the Paris Review, and has since been cited as One of the Best Fantasy Books of All Time by both Esquire and Good Housekeeping magazines. Loory鈥檚 fables and tales have appeared in The New Yorker, Fairy Tale Review, BOMB Magazine, and the Sewanee Review, and been heard on This American Life and the Selected Shorts podcast. They have also been adapted to live theater, short film, chamber music, and dance, and been translated into many languages, including Arabic, Farsi, Japanese, Chinese, Burmese, and Indonesian. Loory is also the author of a picture book for children, The Baseball Player and the Walrus (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2015). He lives and teaches short story writing in Los Angeles.

Join us for Writer鈥檚 Week 2027! We鈥檒l have a weeklong lineup of writers participating in workshops, talks, and readings. Artists will bring their imaginations to life under the pines, developing their skills and completing new work.

Each morning begins with class instruction, followed by lunch. Every day brings an afternoon 鈥淐raft Talk鈥� presented by faculty/special guests. In the evening, gather for 鈥淓vening Readings鈥�, also hosted by faculty and guest speakers, with snacks and drinks provided. On Wednesday, don鈥檛 miss 鈥淏eat Nite鈥� at Middle Ridge Winery, featuring an expanded showcase of artists presenting their work!

Classes end on Friday around 4:00PM, after a day spent wrapping up projects and attending one-on-one sessions with your instructors. That evening, our week culminates at Cargill Commons, where students will present their work alongside live music, food, and more!

Join us for Writer鈥檚 Week 2027! We鈥檒l have a weeklong lineup of writers participating in workshops, talks, and readings. Artists will bring their imaginations to life under the pines, developing their skills and completing new work.

Each morning begins with class instruction, followed by lunch. Every day brings an afternoon 鈥淐raft Talk鈥� presented by faculty/special guests. In the evening, gather for 鈥淓vening Readings鈥�, also hosted by faculty and guest speakers, with snacks and drinks provided. On Wednesday, don鈥檛 miss 鈥淏eat Nite鈥� at Middle Ridge Winery, featuring an expanded showcase of artists presenting their work!

Classes end on Friday around 4:00PM, after a day spent wrapping up projects and attending one-on-one sessions with your instructors. That evening, our week culminates at Cargill Commons, where students will present their work alongside live music, food, and more!

Julia Ingalls‘ stories, essays, reviews, and other work regularly appear in Guernica, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Los Angeles Times, Salon, BOOM California, Crimereads, KCRW, and Dwell, among other publications, anthologies, and public radio programs. Her in-person literary reading series, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” has received rave reviews in The Los Angeles Times and The L.A. Weekly, and features emerging and established novelists, poets, essayists, graphic novelists, and short story writers. As a moderator and host, she relishes facilitating in-depth discussions of books, presses, and the ever-evolving role of literature in our contemporary society.