Visiting Faculty

Each year, our program brings accomplished writers and poets to teach for a semester as visiting faculty. In the past, visiting faculty members have included such distinguished writers and poets as Wanda Coleman, Joanne Mescherry, Steve Kowitt, Jericho Brown, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Lidia Yuknavitchm and numerous others. They are a distinguished group that includes winners of American Book Award, Whiting Writers Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, finalists for PEN-Faulkner Award and LA Times Book Award, authors of popular text-books on creative writing, and active practicing writers.

For 2024-2025, we are proud to welcome:

Tom Shoval (Fall 2024)

Renowned filmmaker, Tom Shoval, teaches cinema at Sam Spiegel, Minshar, Open University, and Sapir College, among others. Notably, two-time Academy Award-winning director Alejandro Inarritu (Birdman) executive produced Shoval’s 2021 JFF award-winning feature Shake Your Cares Away. Shoval created and directed Echo of Your Voice and wrote Jake Paltrow’s feature, June Zero. Shoval co-wrote the 2015 Academy Award-nominated short Aya and co-created YES TV series Milk and Honey. His feature debut Youth premiered at the 2013 Berlinale and won Best Film at the Jerusalem Film Festival.