Announcing Our New One-on-One Alumni Mentorship Program

Around here, we believe that writing is both an individual pursuit and a collective endeavor. We write alone—but we build our writing lives together. That’s why we’re so excited to announce the launch of our new One-on-One Alumni Mentorship Program, an initiative designed to deepen community and provide meaningful, personalized support to our students.

Starting this spring, current MFA students will have the opportunity to connect one-on-one with alumni mentors for conversations about craft, career paths, publishing, creative process, and life after the MFA. Our alumni mentors are working writers, editors, educators, and performers—each of them eager to share what they’ve learned and to support the next generation of CCA writers.

This program is built on the belief that a writing life doesn’t end with a degree—it evolves through mentorship, conversation, and community. Whether a student is working on a thesis, submitting to journals, building a freelance career, or figuring out what comes next, they’ll now have access to someone who’s been there.

We’re especially thrilled to welcome Jessamyn Violet as one of our inaugural mentors. Jessamyn is the author of Secret Rules to Being a Rockstar and the newly released novel Venice Peach. A poet and musician as well as a novelist, she brings a dynamic, multidisciplinary approach to her work—and to her mentorship. We’re proud to count her among our alumni and even prouder to have her help shape this new program.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing more alumni mentors and sharing their stories. Stay tuned—and if you’re a CCA Writing alum interested in joining the mentorship program, we’d love to hear from you.

With this new program, we’re investing in the kinds of relationships that sustain a writing life long after the last workshop ends.

Because no one builds a creative life alone. And no one should have to.