Amber West

Amber West is a writer, educator, and community-engaged arts and humanities scholar-practitioner who joined the Writing Programs faculty in 2016. She leads the programs’ efforts to expand community-engaged writing, teaching, and learning opportunities that connect students with nonprofit partners within and beyond Los Angeles.

A longtime teaching artist and cultural organizer, West co-founded and for ten years directed Alphabet Arts, an interdisciplinary collective whose Puppets & Poets program brought together writers, theatremakers, and low-income children to create original performances blending poetry and puppetry. In 2019, she created and produced Whitmania, the West Coast’s largest commemoration of Walt Whitman’s bicentennial. She has served on the Board of Directors of Obie-winning arts nonprofit, Oye Group since 2014.

West is the author of two poetry collections: Hen & God (The Word Works) and Daughter Eraser (Finishing Line Press). Her poems and essays have appeared in journals and anthologies including Calyx, Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge, Puppetry International, and the Routledge Companion to Puppetry & Material Performance while her “puppet poems” have been performed nationally. Her research and creative activities have received support from Brooklyn Arts Council, Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program, Poets & Writers, among others.

After receiving her BA in Literature from University of California, Santa Cruz, West completed a year of national service with AmeriCorps VISTA. Later, she earned a MFA  in Creative Writing from New York University and PhD in English from University of Connecticut. Dr. West lives with her family in North Hollywood and spends as much time as possible in pools and the ocean.