News

Michelle Robertson (English ‘16) describes the path that led to her current role as BART storyteller and explains why an English major will give you an edge in the workplace. 

Seven alums of the Division of Arts & Humanities were among the 188 Guggenheim Fellows whose names were announced on April 11, 2024.

Mai Der Vang

(B.A. English ‘03)
English Poet & Assistant Professor, Department of English, California State University, Fresno

When Nathanael Stephen Payne ’23 was developing Wrestle with Jimmy for UC Berkeley’s “Introduction to Playwriting” class, he had no idea where the project would take him. His answer came several years later, when he crossed the stage at graduation as one of two students to receive the Larry Belling Promising Writers’ Award.

The New Yorker profiled David J. Peterson, who has created more than 50 fictional languages for films and television, including "Game of Thrones" and both recent Dune movies. Peterson graduated in 2003 with a dual major in English and Linguistics. From the article:

The most influential conlanger working today is David J. Peterson. Born in Long Beach, California, Peterson started to create languages in 2000, while he was a sophomore at U.C. Berkeley... 

One of the most anticipated movies of the Holiday Season is due to hit cinemas on Christmas Day. The Boys in the Boat, directed by George Clooney, finally brings to the big screen Cal alum Daniel James Brown's mega-bestselling book about the American crew team that triumphed in the so-called Nazi Olympics of 1936.

Adrian Tomine earned a B.A. in English in 1996.

Ana de Alba holds multiple degrees from UC Berkeley. She graduated in 2002 with a dual major in Spanish & Portuguese and Political Economy of Industrial Societies and earned her J.D. at Berkeley Law in 2007.

A first-generation Mexican American who worked in the fields with her farmworker parents has been elevated to the largest federal appeals court.

Mona Simpson made her mark on the literary world with her very first major work, the critically praised novel Anywhere But Here (1986), which was later adapted into the 1999 film by the same name starring Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman. Since then, the Berkeley alum ('79) has added five more books to her name and garnered high-profile awards including a Whiting Prize, a Guggenheim, and a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The protagonist of Susanna Hoffs' debut novel, Jane Start, probably listens to Dionne Warwick to hype herself up in the morning. Start is 33 and living with her parents – her days of pop stardom, for one song, are 10 years behind her. But in This Bird Has Flown, a romantic spark reignites a second chance for her creative endeavors, too. Hoffs tells NPR's Andrew Limbong how her own experiences as a rockstar influenced the story, which she's adapting into a feature film.

A few years ago, when Heesoo Kwon was visiting South Korea during a summer break from her MFA program at Berkeley, she found old home videos of her family. Watching the decades-old interactions among her family members and the Catholic rituals they practiced fascinated her. But in one video, her mother stood by the table while others ate, waiting to serve them. It made Kwon angry. 

Ed Roberts (B.A. '64, M.A. '66) is known as the father of the disability rights movement. “But if he’s the father, Zona is the grandmother. She’s the wheel behind his wheelchair,” says Donna Mitroff, founder of the Kidvocate Group media consultancy, who is filming a documentary about Zona’s life.

Read more about Zona Roberts (B.A. English '69) and her tireless advocacy for Ed Roberts and his legacy.

Pulitzer-winning writer Viet Thanh Nguyen '92, Ph.D. '97 found at UC Berkeley the intellectual home, identity, and political passion that ultimately led to his creative success.

Before she was a chef and an internationally-known cookbook author, Samin Nosrat (B.A. '01) was an English major at Berkeley. She talks about the writing process—and why a day of writing is so hard—in this Freakonomics Radio interview. 

Meg Parker graduated from UC Berkeley in 2010 with a double major in French and Rhetoric, then went on to earn her JD from Georgetown University Law Center.

"It's hard to look at Egyptian art and not want to know more, and as I got older, I had this curiosity about how did we get to where we are today?" says Renée Dreyfus. "I always wanted to know that history of ideas."

Dreyfus, who completed a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies in 2001, is Curator of Antiquities at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which includes the de Young and the Legion of Honor.

Liza Wachter (English '81) is president, partner, and director of film and television for Spiegel and Grau, an independent publishing house launched in 2020. Previously, Ms. Wachter co-founded RWSG, a premier book-to-film agency that specialized in the representation of dramatic rights. Ms. Wachter currently serves on the Advisory Board for the College of Letters and Science as well as the boards of The Paris Review and the Human Rights Watch California Committee.

"What if the centre of history were occupied by what women thought about?"

Selby Wynn Schwartz, author of After Sappho, talks about the influence of Virginia Woolf, writing in the first-person plural and reading ravenously. Schwartz received her Ph.D. in comparative literature at UC Berkeley in 2003.

William Rogers (Rhetoric '91), CEO of Goodwill San Francisco Bay, was honored with the 2022 Peter E. Haas Public Service Award for his extraordinary seventeen-year career serving the public good. His work for the City of Berkeley’s  departments of public health and parks and recreation has deepened and enhanced resources for Berkeley’s elders, for at-risk youth, for those struggling with HIV and economic hardship, and for those who simply want to enjoy the city’s public spaces. Learn more about Rogers’s story by watching the video below, prepared by Berkeley’s Light the Way.