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About

Christina Berke is a writer and educator based in Los Angeles with a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing.

 

She was the 2022 Katharine Bakeless Nason Contributor Award Recipient in Nonfiction at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in Vermont where she studied with Melissa Febos. Her fiction manuscript, an intergenerational novel about mothers and daughters, inherited trauma, and the 1973 military coup in Chile based on interviews with her grandmother, won Honorable Mention for the 2023 Miami Book Fair Emerging Writers Fellowship.

 

Her writing has been supported by the Sewanee Writers' Conference, the Kenyon Review Teachers Workshop, and the Southampton Writers Conference. She was an Author Fellow with the Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, a Norma Watkins Fellow with the Mendocino Coast Writers' Conference, and a Writing Fellow with the National Writing Project. She's been awarded residencies with the Vermont Studio Center and Storyknife.


She is currently working on Well, Body: a memoir on body image, eating disorders, and childhood trauma.

Background

Education

  • UNLV, Masters of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Creative Writing

  • UCLA, Masters of Education (M.Ed.)

  • UC Berkeley, Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

 

Awards & Honors

  • 2023 Longlist Nonfiction, Disquiet Literary International

  • 2023 Writing Residency, Storyknife

  • 2023 Writing Residency, Vermont Studio Centers

  • 2023 Honorable Mention, Miami Book Fair Emerging Writers Fellowship

  • 2023 Center for Cultural Innovation Quick Grant Recipient

  • 2022 Katharine Bakeless Nason Contributor Award Recipient, Bread Loaf

  • 2022 Southampton Writers’ Conference Scholarship

  • 2021 Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, partial scholarship

  • 2021 Top 10% of entries, CRAFT Short Fiction Prize judged by Kirstin Valdez Quade

  • 2021 Third Place Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference judged by Chris Dennis

  • 2021 Norma Watkins Scholarship Recipient, Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference

  • 2021 Graduate Student Association Travel Funding International Research Grant

  • 2020 English Department Dorothy Mae Freischel Scholarship

  • 2018 Phyllis Gebauer Scholarship in Writing, UCLA

  • 2010 Clint Harper Teacher's Award Recipient

  • 2010 Hispanic Scholarship Fund Recipient

  • 2009 Abulafia Humanities Scholarship Recipient

  • 2009 Latina Leadership Network Scholarship

  • 2008 Ventura County Retired Teachers Association Scholarship Recipient

  • 2008 Delta Kappa Gamma Society for Women Educators Grant Recipient

 

Professional Development & Workshops

  • Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP)

  • Columbia University, Lucy Calkins Reading & Writing Institute Participant

  • National Writing Project Fellow at UCLA

  • Kenyon Review Teachers Workshop

 

Credentials & Certifications

  • The Body Positive Workshop Facilitator

  • Single Subject Clear Credential in Secondary English Education

  • Multiple Subject Credential in Elementary Education

  • TESOL certification

  • CPR and First Aid certified (Adult, Teen, Infant) with AED

  • Trustline fingerprint and background check verified

 

Work Experience

  • 12+ years of teaching experience as Adjunct Professor of English and Creative Writing, credentialed Middle School English Founding Teacher, & School Librarian

  • Managing Editor, Black Mountain Institute's award-winning literary magazine, Witness

  • Writing Workshop Instructor with Crow Collective, UNLV, The Porch and elsewhere 

  • 6+ years of experience as freelance writer and editor

  • Guest Writing Instructor, Merced Arts Council Summer Programs

  • Guest Juror, Scholastic Alliance for Young Artists & Writers Art & Writing Awards

 

References available by request. 

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