9 Best Writing Classes in Los Angeles

A two-year MFA taught on the Mount Saint Mary's campus in central Los Angeles, not online. The cohort meets every other weekend, six times a semester, which is what makes it one of the few LA degrees realistically open to people holding down a job alongside it. Workshops cover fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry, and the alternate-weekend rhythm means you are writing between residencies rather than only during them.

Antioch University offers a two-year MFA in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, playwriting, writing for young people, literary translation, and more.

California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) offers an MFA in experimental practice, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, essay, memoir, and more.

In-person course in Los Angeles at UCLA Extension, eleven weeks from 23 September 2026. Continues the short story sequence: writing and workshopping complete stories rather than exercises, with the expectation that you arrive with some drafting experience. Renewed from the expired Short Story I listing - UCLA Extension is not running Short Story I in person this term, so this is the closest current same-provider equivalent, one level up. The stored URL previously pointed at the uclaextension.edu homepage and now points at the course itself.

In-person weekend workshop in Los Angeles at UCLA Extension, from 17 October 2026. A single-weekend intensive rather than a term commitment, open across genres. Useful entry point to UCLA Extension’s creative writing programme for anyone testing whether a longer course is worth it.

In-person workshop in Los Angeles at UCLA Extension, over two Saturdays from 7 November 2026. A weekend-shaped alternative to the term-length courses: memoir and personal essay craft compressed into two full days rather than eleven weeks, which suits writers who cannot commit to a weekly evening. Latest-starting in-person option in the current catalogue.

In-person course in Los Angeles, from $585, at UCLA Extension. Six weeks from 20 October 2026, 2 units. A crash course in the poet’s technical kit - imagery, sound, figurative language - explicitly framed as transferable to writing of all kinds, so it suits prose writers wanting sharper description as much as poets. Shorter and cheaper than the 11-week courses, and it starts late enough to catch anyone who missed the September intake.

In-person course in Los Angeles, from $820, at UCLA Extension. Eleven weeks from 24 September 2026, 3 units. An introduction for people who have not written poetry seriously before: how a poem differs from prose, where to find material, and how to workshop and revise a raw draft into something that holds. Combines writing exercises with group workshopping. One of only eight in-person sections in UCLA Extension’s creative writing catalogue this term.

In-person course in Los Angeles, from $820, at UCLA Extension. Eleven weeks from 24 September 2026, 3 units. Built on a single argument: conflict is not something you bolt onto a story, it comes out of who your characters are. Reading- and exercise-based, studying how published writers build characters whose traits generate the trouble. UCLA Extension runs most of its creative writing catalogue online - this is one of only eight sections currently taught in person.