diff --git a/dpctl/tensor/_flags.pyx b/dpctl/tensor/_flags.pyx
index 54198ad726..0c1beeb025 100644
--- a/dpctl/tensor/_flags.pyx
+++ b/dpctl/tensor/_flags.pyx
@@ -75,6 +75,12 @@ cdef class Flags:
         """
         return _check_bit(self.flags_, USM_ARRAY_WRITABLE)
 
+    @writable.setter
+    def writable(self, new_val):
+        if not isinstance(new_val, bool):
+            raise TypeError("Expecting a boolean value")
+        self.arr_._set_writable_flag(new_val)
+
     @property
     def fc(self):
         """
@@ -129,6 +135,14 @@ cdef class Flags:
         elif name == "CONTIGUOUS":
             return self.forc
 
+    def __setitem__(self, name, val):
+        if name in ["WRITABLE", "W"]:
+            self.writable = val
+        else:
+            raise ValueError(
+                "Only writable ('W' or 'WRITABLE') flag can be set"
+            )
+
     def __repr__(self):
         out = []
         for name in "C_CONTIGUOUS", "F_CONTIGUOUS", "WRITABLE":
diff --git a/dpctl/tensor/_usmarray.pxd b/dpctl/tensor/_usmarray.pxd
index 97d72204cd..603b296103 100644
--- a/dpctl/tensor/_usmarray.pxd
+++ b/dpctl/tensor/_usmarray.pxd
@@ -72,4 +72,6 @@ cdef api class usm_ndarray [object PyUSMArrayObject, type PyUSMArrayType]:
     cdef dpctl.DPCTLSyclQueueRef get_queue_ref(self) except *
     cdef dpctl.SyclQueue get_sycl_queue(self)
 
+    cdef _set_writable_flag(self, int)
+
     cdef __cythonbufferdefaults__ = {"mode": "strided"}
diff --git a/dpctl/tensor/_usmarray.pyx b/dpctl/tensor/_usmarray.pyx
index ea57959cb6..a5e9ac7315 100644
--- a/dpctl/tensor/_usmarray.pyx
+++ b/dpctl/tensor/_usmarray.pyx
@@ -532,6 +532,12 @@ cdef class usm_ndarray:
         """
         return _flags.Flags(self, self.flags_)
 
+    cdef _set_writable_flag(self, int flag):
+        cdef int arr_fl = self.flags_
+        arr_fl ^= (arr_fl & USM_ARRAY_WRITABLE)  # unset WRITABLE flag
+        arr_fl |= (USM_ARRAY_WRITABLE if flag else 0)
+        self.flags_ = arr_fl
+
     @property
     def usm_type(self):
         """
@@ -1390,12 +1396,10 @@ cdef api Py_ssize_t UsmNDArray_GetOffset(usm_ndarray arr):
     allocation"""
     return arr.get_offset()
 
+
 cdef api void UsmNDArray_SetWritableFlag(usm_ndarray arr, int flag):
     """Set/unset USM_ARRAY_WRITABLE in the given array `arr`."""
-    cdef int arr_fl = arr.flags_
-    arr_fl ^= (arr_fl & USM_ARRAY_WRITABLE)  # unset WRITABLE flag
-    arr_fl |= (USM_ARRAY_WRITABLE if flag else 0)
-    arr.flags_ = arr_fl
+    arr._set_writable_flag(flag)
 
 cdef api object UsmNDArray_MakeSimpleFromMemory(
     int nd, const Py_ssize_t *shape, int typenum,
diff --git a/dpctl/tests/test_usm_ndarray_ctor.py b/dpctl/tests/test_usm_ndarray_ctor.py
index 54ccc85916..45b43383fe 100644
--- a/dpctl/tests/test_usm_ndarray_ctor.py
+++ b/dpctl/tests/test_usm_ndarray_ctor.py
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ def test_allocate_usm_ndarray(shape, usm_type):
 
 
 def test_usm_ndarray_flags():
+    get_queue_or_skip()
     assert dpt.usm_ndarray((5,), dtype="i4").flags.fc
     assert dpt.usm_ndarray((5, 2), dtype="i4").flags.c_contiguous
     assert dpt.usm_ndarray((5, 2), dtype="i4", order="F").flags.f_contiguous
@@ -68,6 +69,17 @@ def test_usm_ndarray_flags():
         (5, 1, 2), dtype="i4", strides=(1, 0, 5)
     ).flags.f_contiguous
     assert dpt.usm_ndarray((5, 1, 1), dtype="i4", strides=(1, 0, 1)).flags.fc
+    x = dpt.empty(5, dtype="u2")
+    assert x.flags.writable is True
+    x.flags.writable = False
+    assert x.flags.writable is False
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError):
+        x[:] = 0
+    x.flags["W"] = True
+    assert x.flags.writable is True
+    x.flags["WRITABLE"] = True
+    assert x.flags.writable is True
+    x[:] = 0
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(