California Institute of the Arts has named Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author Hilton Als as its 2022 Katie Jacobson Writer-in-Residence.

Organized by the MFA Creative Writing Program in the School of Critical Studies, the Katie Jacobson Writer in Residence Program is designed to bring a prestigious writer to campus for a public reading and a classroom visit and to meet with students one-to-one.

On Thursday, Feb. 24 Als makes the first of his presentations at CalArts, an interview with author Brian Evenson, CalArts’ Creative Writing Program Director.

On Friday, Feb. 25 this year’s public reading will return live at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles, after being held virtual last year, with a streaming option available for at-home and online audiences. On the REDCAT stage Als Will read from a curated set of new and previous works, infused with the arresting insights and rigorous style for which he is known.

“We’re delighted to have Hilton Als as this year’s Katie Jacobson Writer-in-Residence,” said Evenson. “Als is one of our most versatile and nimble contemporary non-fiction writers and his writings stretch from memoir to theater criticism to art criticism, touching on all points in between. His work is dynamic and surprising, breaking boundaries and rules in the best and most startling of ways.”

Als is the author of two acclaimed collections of essays. His conversations with and about visual artists and his work as a playwright and cultural critic invigorate the understanding of desire, vulnerability and artistic practice by insisting that people, in Roxane Gay’s words, “question almost everything.”

Als is an associate professor of writing at Columbia University’s School of the Arts and has taught at Yale University, Wesleyan, and Smith College. He lives in New York City.