David Coddon teaches Writer's Workshop: Read & Critique, The Writer's Art of Interviewing, News & Feature Writing, and Forms of Fiction for the Creative Writing certificate program.
He is a writing instructor and a longtime voice on the San Diego arts, entertainment and cultural scene. The former editor of the San Diego Union--Tribune’s “Currents Weekend” and “Night&Day” sections, he wrote a popular column on the arts, “For What It’s Worth,” and chronicled in particular the glitter and impetuosity of the film industry. He is now a contributor to a number of Southern California publications, both online and in print, and is the regular theater critic for San Diego CityBeat magazine. He is a widely published freelance feature writer, having written most recently for the San Diego Daily Transcript, Pacific San Diego Magazine, San Diego Magazine and Ranch & Coast Magazine.
He holds an MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University and a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Southern California. He has taught either non–fiction or creative writing for 20 years at institutions including UC San Diego Extension, San Diego State University and San Diego Mesa College, where he is an adjunct faculty. He was named Instructor of the Year at UC San Diego Extension in 1999.
As a fiction writer, he has published two novels: "The Romancer" and "There and Back Again," both in 2017, and, writing under his pen name Barrett McCloud, the short story anthology "Raining in Paradise" in 2018. In March 2018, he was honored as "Local Author of the Month" by the San Diego Public Library for his novel "There and Back Again."