The Community Literature Initiative

The Community Literature Initiative is a Los Angeles based non-profit organization focused on teaching writers in the city how to create poetry and fiction of a publishable quality. The CLI course is a 10-month (September to June) training program to refine works-in-progress into finalized manuscripts ready for publication. At the conclusion of the 10-month program, all participants are guaranteed a first-book publishing contract with one of our partnering Los Angeles Small Presses. At the conclusion of our program, all students emerge knowledgeable published authors! We only accept fourteen poetry students and seven fiction students per year. In addition to offering these courses, CLI staff & students teach free creative writing courses in local high schools. We also recently launched our brand new library, the Sims Library of Poetry - the first poetry library in Los Angeles.