CCA MFA WRITING
San Francisco
Molly Prentiss
Molly Prentiss was born in Santa Cruz, California in 1984. She is the author of the novel “Tuesday Nights in 1980”, which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction, and shortlisted for the Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine in France, as well as the 2023 novel “Old Flame”. Her writing has been translated into multiple languages. She has has been a Writer in Residence at The Blue Mountain Center, Vermont Studio Center and at the Workspace program the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and received the Emerging Writer Fellowship from the Aspen Institute. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the California College of the Arts. She lives in a one-room schoolhouse in Red Hook, New York, with her husband and daughters.
Why Did You Choose CCA?
I chose CCA because I wanted to be writing amongst artists. I take much inspiration from visual art and artists' processes, and CCA allowed me to be surrounded by those things. I loved that I got to take painting and bookmaking classes along with my writing courses, and those experiences often found their way into my writing work.
Advice for Current Students?
Tap the CCA community for friends, readers, and mentors you love and trust. There aren't many times in life when you'll have such a concentrated group of people who are interested in the same thing as you! These people will be reading your drafts in 15 years, writing you book blurbs and letters of recommendation, empathizing with you when a story gets rejected, or maybe just meeting for a beer at the Parkside to take a trip down memory lane.
What's Next for You?
This year, I am coming out with my new novel, Old Flame, and having my second baby. Once the dust settles, I hope to finish and publish the manuscript I'm working on, which is a family drama about death, love, and art.