Erin L. McCoy
Poetry Participant, '16
Erin L. McCoy’s debut novel, Underlake, is forthcoming from Doubleday in April 2026.
Underlake is a richly glittering debut about the interlocked fates of two women, raised worlds apart, who must join forces on an extraordinary journey, diving leagues beneath the water’s surface—and straight into the fathomless heart of fear, forgiveness, and love. McCoy shrewdly explores the American obsession with inheritance, property, and race, asking how we stake our claim on the timeline of history—and who we erase in the process. More info here.
Attended with the help of Oakley Hall III Memorial Scholarship
Erin L. McCoy
Poetry Participant, '16
Erin L. McCoy’s debut poetry collection, Wrecks, was published by Noemi Press on Oct. 15, 2025, and was a finalist for the Noemi Press Book Award. The book was inspired by the great auk, a flightless seabird driven to extinction in the mid-1800s. It investigates how the human–nonhuman binary and the dehumanization it enables makes space for violence, and is deeply embedded in colonial ideology. More info here.
Attended with the help of an Oakley Hall III Memorial Scholarship
Angie Romines
Writers Workshop Participant, '25
Angie Romines’ essay, “Gone for a Spell,” is reprinted in Best American Essays 2025. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Christina Meldrum Scholarship
Laura Creste
Poetry Participant, '20
Laura Cresté’s debut poetry collection, In the Good Years, was published by Four Way Books in September of 2025. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Sharon Olds Honorary Scholarship
Leslie Hsu Oh
Writers Workshops Participant, '14, '19, '20
Leslie Hsu Oh talks about the memoir she worked on as a Writers Workshops Participant, how the natural world shapes her creative process, and how she raises resilient children and champions for change in “People and Planet: Episode 6, Delaware Humanities Podcasts.” Listen here.
Attended with the help of an O'Dwyer Scholarship
Varun Ravindran
Poetry Participant, ’23
Varun Ravindran’s debut full-length poetry collection, Betweenness, was published by Baobab Press. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Lambda Literary Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, ’14,’22
Vishwas Gaitonde’s prize-winning short story collection On Earth As It Is In Heaven has been published by Orison Books. More info here.
Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship, '22
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, ’14,’ 22
Vishwas Gaitonde’s short story “The Street With Five Speed Bumps” was published in Oratoria magazine. You can read it here.
Attended with the help of a Maat Scholarship '22
Toni Ann Johnson
Writer's Workshops Participant, '25
In February 2026, Screen Door Press, an imprint of the University Press of Kentucky will publish the linked short story collection But Where’s Home? by Toni Ann Johnson. Winner of the 2024 Screen Door Press Fiction Prize, the book follows Johnson’s previous collection, Light Skin Gone to Waste, a 2023 NAACP Image Award nominee for Outstanding Literary Work and winner of the 2021 Flannery O’Connor Award. Deeply emotional, funny, and unflinchingly honest, But Where’s Home? lays bare the realities of Black life in America, challenging readers to confront issues of racism and classism as well as narcissistic abuse and parent-child relationships. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Kimbilio Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, ’14, ’22
Vishwas Gaitonde’s short story “To Tame A Monster” was published in Pleiades Magazine Spring 2025 issue. This story was discussed in workshop at the 2022 Community of Writers conference. More info here.
Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship '22
Nick Makoha
Poetry Participant, '20
Nick Makoha’s second collection, The New Carthaginians, was published by Penguin (Allen Lane) in February 2025. The book, a mythic and formally inventive long poem, explores flight, identity, and the 1976 Entebbe hijacking through three interlinked figures: Jean-Michel Basquiat, a Black Icarus, and “the Poet.” Combining poetry, myth, and history, Makoha builds a new diasporic epic that bridges personal memory and collective mythmaking.
Makoha’s recent work includes essays in Callaloo and Unbound Magazine, a portfolio of poems and prose edited for the Poetry Foundation, and performances across the UK and US, including headline events at the Coronet Theatre, Verve Festival and Hay Festival.
Attended with the help of Cave Canem Scholarship
Robin Somers
Writers Workshops, '07
Robin Somers released Eleven Stolen Horses (Sibylline Press fall 2024), a Wild Horses Mystery. The book was the Finalist in Best Western for Pacific Book Review. More info here.
Attended with the help of William Turnbull Scholarship
Karen Fang
Writers Workshops Participant, '21
Karen Fang’s nonfiction book, Background Artist: The Life and Work of Tyrus Wong, was named Honorable Mention in the 2025 Chinese American Librarians Association Best Book Award for Adult Nonfiction. More info here.
Attended with the help of James D Houston Memorial Scholarship
Lauren Barbato
Writers Workshop Participant, '17
Lauren Barbato’s short story “The Great Renunciation” won the 2025 Short Fiction Award from American Literary Review and appears in the journal’s spring issue. Her story “Dhamma Talks” was also shortlisted for the 2024 Reprint Prize from The Masters Review. More info here.
Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Stella Santamaria
Poetry Participant, '21
Stella Santamaria’s second poetry collection, PERPETUAL, is a finalist for the Two Sylvias Press Wilder Prize 2024. More info here.
Attended with the help of Ancinas Family Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, ’14,’ 22
Vishwas Gaitonde’s essay “Narnia Through Hindu Eyes” was published in Counter Arts. You can read it here. Find Vishwas’ website here.
Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship '22
Karleigh Frisbie Brogan
Writers Workshops Participant, '23
Karleigh Frisbie Brogan’s memoir, Holding: A Memoir About Mothers, Drugs, and Other Comforts, will be published by Steerforth in August 2025. Excerpts from this book won her a 2024 Oregon Literary Fellowship. More info here.
Attended with the help of George Pascoe Miller Scholarship
Stella Santamaria
Poetry Participant, ‘21
Stella Santamaria is a writer in residence at T.S. Eliot House in Gloucester, Massachusetts next summer as part of The Ottoline Book Prize for California Silence, forthcoming 2026 by FENCE Books.
Attended with the help of Ancinas Family Scholarship
Tyler McAndrew
Writers Workshop participant, '19
Tyler McAndrew’s debut book, My Prisoner & Other Stories—which won the 2024 Non / Fiction Prize with Mad Creek Books / Ohio State University Press—is now available for pre-order. More info here.
Attended with the help of Gill Dennis Memorial Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant, '14, '22
Vishwas Gaitonde’s short story “Open Secrets” was published in The Brussels Review, Spring 2025. This story was discussed in workshop in 2014. More info here.
Attended with the help of A Maat Scholarship '22
Sarah Perrin
Writers Workshop Participant, ’24
Sarah Perrin’s short story “Just Girls” was published in Granta. More info here.
Attended with the help of A Ruth Nyswander Del Duca Memorial Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant, '14, '22
Vishwas Gaitonde’s memoir slice ‘Happy Days with Perry Mason’ was published in Gargoyle, March 2025. You can read it here.
Attended with the help of A Maat scholarship '22
Dave Essinger
Writers Workshops Participant, '09
Dave Essinger’s second novel, This World and the Next, was released from Main Street Rag Publishing Company in 2024. “Some fiction feels so real it is astonishing. This book is like that. …it almost felt like it could have been tracking real events.” -Vick Mickunas
More info here.
Attended with the help of a LoJo Foundation Scholarship
Sarah Perrin
Writers Workshops Participant, ’24
Sarah Perrin’s short story “Just Girls” won the 2025 DISQUIET Literary Prize for fiction and will be published in Granta. More info here.
Attended with the help of A Ruth Nyswander Del Duca Memorial Scholarship
Stella Santamaria
Poetry Participant, '21
Stella Santamaria’s California Silence won the Ottoline Book Prize and will be published by FENCE Books in the fall/winter of 2026. More info here and here.
Attended with the help of an Ancinas Family Scholarship
Yuki Tanaka
Poetry Participant, '15
Yuki Tanaka’s first full-length poetry collection, Chronicle of Drifting, will be published by Copper Canyon Press in April 2025. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Lucille Clifton Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, '14, '22
Vishwas Gaitonde’s short story “God Made Chardonnay, The Devil Made Merlot” was published in Litro magazine. You can read it here.
Attended with the help of a Maat scholarship
Lindsey Steffes
Writers Workshops Participant, '16
Lindsey Steffes’ debut novel, Gichigami, won the Juniper Prize for Fiction and will be published by the University of Massachusetts Press in March 2025. More info here.
Attended with the help of an O'Dwyer Scholarship
Lydia Liu
Poetry Participant, '20, '22
Lydia T. Liu’s first chapbook of poems, the problem of deer, was published by Finishing Line Press in January 2025, after being selected as a finalist for the Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. the problem of deer is a lyrical exploration of transitory landscapes. “This is a short book that contains thousands of books.” (Eileen Myles) More info here.
Attended with the help of a C.D. Wright Memorial Scholarship
Pamela Pan
Writers Workshops Participant, '24
Pamela Pan’s story “Baba’s Accordion” is published in California Writers Club’s Best of the Best: 2024 Literary Review. Her short story “Waiting” is published in Vision & Verse: A Fusion of Poetry, Prose, and Photography, 2024. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Maat Scholarship
Susan Henderson
Writers Workshops Participant, '09
Susan Henderson’s novel, The Flicker of Old Dreams (HarperCollins, 2018), is included on This House of Books’ list of the Top 100 Books of the 21st Century. More info here and here.
Attended with the help of a Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Wendy Scheir
Writer's Workshop Participant, '98, '99, '07, '13, '17
Wendy Scheir’s short stories appear in the Spring 2024 issue of The Thieving Magpie and the Fall/Winter 2024 issue of Hypertext Review. More info here.
Attended with the help of Barber, Gill Dennis, Henry Carlisle, and Getty Scholarships
Alan Grostephan
Writers Workshops Participant, '09
Alan Grostephan’s novel The Banana Wars was published by Dzanc Books in May 2024 and chosen by The Wall Street Journal for its summer reading list. More info here and here.
Attended with the help of a UC Irvine Scholarship
Karen Fang
Writers Workshop Participant, '21
Karen Fang’s new book, Background Artist: The Life and Work of Tyrus Wong, which she workshopped with the Community of Writers, is out in print and audio. The biography of a Chinese American immigrant artist launched with several events in California, and has been praised as “the definitive new biography” (Smithsonian Magazine) and “a deserving tribute to a groundbreaking artist” (Publishers Weekly). More info here.
Attended with the help of a James D. Houston Memorial Scholarship
Janine Kovac
Writers Workshop Participant '11, '12, '14, '16
Janine Kovac’s The Nutcracker Chronicles: A Fairytale Memoir was a finalist for the American Best Book Award in the Performing Arts category. In their 5-star review, Readers Favorite had this to say: “The descriptions of [Kovac’s] emotional highs and lows of pursuing a passion—such as the thrill of performance, the sting of competition, and how personal relationships coexist—will resonate with anyone who has ever chased a dream.” The Nutcracker Chronicles launches on November 12, 2024 and is available wherever books are sold. More info here.
Attended with the help of A George Pascoe Miller Scholarship, a Carlisle Family Scholarship, and an Eshleman Scholarship
Yuki Tanaka
Poetry Participant, '15
Yuki Tanaka’s co-translation with Mary Jo Bang, A Kiss for the Absolute: Selected Poems of Shuzo Takiguchi, was published by Princeton University Press in November as part of The Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation. This is the first time the work of the great Japanese surrealist has been made available in English. More info here.
Attended with the help of A Lucille Clifton Memorial Scholarship
Lisa Alvarez
Writers Workshops Participant, '92, '93; Writers Workshops Co-Director
Lisa Alvarez’s short story “Strongman” appears in the new issue of About Place Journal. The issue is a special themed one titled Shaping Destiny: Election Season, Before, During and After. Alvarez read from the story at last summer’s workshop. More info here.
Attended with the help of UCI & Ancinas Scholarships
Ruben Quesada
Poetry Participant, '07
Ruben Quesada’s new poetry collection is now available for Pre-order. Brutal Companion, winner of the Barrow Street Press Editors Prize, will be published on October 15, 2024. More info here.
Attended with the help of a UC Riverside Scholarship
Ruben Quesada
Poetry Participant, '07
Ruben Quesada will be read from his award-winning collection of poetry at Grace Cathedral with poets A. Van Jordan, Dorianne Laux, and Alice Templeton on Wednesday, October 23, 2024, from 7:30-9:00 PDT. Save the date and RSVP here.
Attended with the help of a UC Riverside Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, ’14, ’22
Vishwas Gaitonde’s short story ‘The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of’ was published in Jerry Jazz Musician magazine. You can read it here to ponder over dreams turning to reality, and reality fading into dream.
Attended with the help of a Maat Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant, '14, '22
Vishwas Gaitonde’s longform essay “American Lotus: The Cultural Strengths of Kamala Harris” has been published on Medium. You can access it here. It is suggested that you watch the short embedded videos as you come to them as they complement the narrative
Attended with the help of a Maat Scholarship
Hermelinda Hernandez Monjaras
Poetry Participant, ’23
Hermelinda Hernandez Monjaras is the recipient of a 2024 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Dreamer Scholarship
Karen Fang
Writers Workshops, '21
Karen Fang’s biography of Chinese immigrant artist, Disney legend, and centenarian, Background Artist: The Life and Work of Tyrus Wong, will be published in October. More info here.
Attended with the help of a James D. Houston fellowship
Tyler McAndrew
Writers Workshop participant, '19
Tyler McAndrew’s debut book—a short story collection titled “My Prisoner & Other Stories”—won the 2024 Non / Fiction Prize and will be published fall 2025 with Ohio State University Press / Mad Creek Books. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Gill Dennis Memorial Scholarship
Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum
Writers Workshops Participant, '02; Alumni Reader: '05.
Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum’s debut novel, Elita, will be published in January 2025 by TriQuarterly/Northwestern University Press. Unfolding during the moody Pacific Northwest winter of 1951, Elita is a literary mystery, about which author Melissa Febos writes, “I devoured this novel, held sway by its expert construction and luminous prose, and I am haunted still by the wise and impossible questions that simmer under its breathless plot and within its indelible characters.” More info here.
Attended with the help of an Eshleman Scholarship
Shi Naseer
Writers Workshops Participant, ’23
Shi Naseer’s debut novel, The Cry of the Silkworm, was released in June 2024 with Atlantic Books/Allen&Unwin. Set against the backdrop of the one-child policy, it is the story of a girl’s poignant coming of age in rural China and her quest for vengeance against a government official in Shanghai. Her personal essay on the inspiration behind her novel is forthcoming in The Guardian‘s A Moment That Changed Me column. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Maat Scholarship
Lori D’Angelo
Writers Workshops Participant, '12
Lori D’Angelo’s debut short story collection, The Monsters Are Here, will be published by ELJ Editions in 2024. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Ford Scholarship
Howard Rappaport
Writers Workshop Participant, '17
Howard Rappaport’s novel, Arnold & Igor, a historical/contemporary fiction about the rivalry of modernist composers Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, was published by Fomite Press in June (2024). More info here.
Attended with the help of a John Z Memorial Scholarship
Rickey Fayne
Rickey Fayne‘s first novel, All God’s Children, is forthcoming from Little, Brown in 2025.
Attended with the help of the Kimbilio Scholarship
Corey Campbell
Writers Workshop Participant, '18
Corey Campbell was named a MacDowell Fellow in fiction writing in Spring-Summer 2024. More info here.
Attended with the help of Isobel English Scholarship
Carrie Nassif
Poetry Participant, '21
Carrie Nassif’s speculative memoir in experimental poetry, The Vulture Girl, comes out from Saddle Road Press June 17th. Her book launch will be at SOMOS in Taos, NM, July 27th. More info here.
Attended with the help of Janice Bevilacqua Memorial Scholarship
Mara Finley
Writers Workshop Participant, ‘23
Mara Finley won a Bread Loaf Katharine Bakeless Nason Participant Scholarship in Nonfiction for the 2024 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
Attended with the help of O’Dwyer Family Scholarship
Armen Davoudian
Poetry Participant, '18
Armen Davoudian’s debut book of poems, The Palace of Forty Pillars, was published by Tin House in March 2024. Titled after a landmark in Isfahan, Iran, where twenty pillars are reflected in a courtyard pool, thereby becoming forty, the book explores a life divided between home and exile, queerness and familial belonging. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Barbara E. Hall Scholarship
Angela Siew
Poetry Participant, '20, '23
Angela Siew’s poetry chapbook, Coming Home, was a finalist for the 2023-24 CutBank Chapbook Contest (University of Montana). More info here.
Attended with the help of Attended with the help of a Lucille Clifton Memorial Scholarship
Mara Finley
Writers Workshop Participant, '23
Mara Finley’s story, “Her Berliner” (originally published in The Missouri Review) won first runner up in the Lighthouse Emerging Fiction Writers contest, as well as a fellowship for Jenny Offill’s Advanced Fiction Workshop. More info here.
Attended with the help of the O’Dwyer Family Scholarship
Saba Keramati
Poetry Participant, '22
Saba Keramati’s debut poetry collection, Self-Mythology, was selected by Patricia Smith for the Miller Williams Poetry Series and is available now. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Lucille Clifton Memorial Scholarship
Mara Finley
Writers Workshop Participant, '23
Mara Finley’s story, “Her Berliner,” was published in The Missouri Review’s online BLAST series. More info here.
Attended with the help of an O’Dwyer scholarship
Rashaan Alexis Meneses
Writers Workshop Participant '17
Rashaan Alexis Meneses’ review of Beverly Parayno’s debut short story collection Wildflowers (PAWA Press 2023) wass published in Positively Filipino.
Attended with the help of an Ancinas scholarship
Max Stone
Poetry Participant ’23
Max Stone recently published three poems. “Would you date yourself?” in the February 2024 issue of Ghost City Review, “Dysphoria Blues,” in Issue 2 of Frozen Sea, and “Something is always burning,” in Baby Teeth Journal. His chapbook, Temporary Preparations, was published by Bottlecap Press in July 2023. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Carlisle Family Scholarship
Lauren Barbato
Writers Workshop Participant, '17
Lauren Barbato’s latest short story, “We Heard You Had Something to Say to Us,” appears in the Spring 2024 print issue of North American Review.
Attended with the help of a Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Jaclyn Moyer
Writers Workshops Participant, '17
Jaclyn Moyer’s debut hybrid memoir, On Gold Hill: A Personal History of Wheat, Farming, and Family from Punjab to California, is forthcoming from Beacon Press on March 26th, 2024. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Carlisle Scholarship
Rashaan Alexis Meneses
Writers Workshops Participant, '17
Rashaan Alexis Meneses’ short personal essay “Tribute to a Lost Star” was recently published in Write or Die Magazine.
Attended with the help of an Ancinas scholarship
Tracy Fuad
Poetry Participant, '17
Tracy Fuad’s second collection of poetry, Portal, won the Phoenix Emerging Poets’ Prize and will be published on February 19th by University of Chicago Press. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Galway Kinnell Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant, '14 '22
Vishwas Gaitonde’s story “Mahatma Gandhi’s Pen” has been published in Bewildering Stories magazine. You can read it here.
Attended with the help of a Maat Scholarship, '22
Ruben Quesada
Poetry Participant, '07
Ruben Quesada’s collection of poetry, Brutal Companion, has been selected for the 2023 Editors’ Choice award for poetry. The collection will be published in late 2024. More info here.
Attended with the help of a UC Riverside Scholarship
Louis B. Jones
Writers Workshops Co-director and Teaching Staff / Participant, '89
His essay, “Power Failure” was published in the Winter, 2024 Issue of the ThreePenny Review, edited by Wendy Lesser. Read it here.
Attended with the help of UC Irvine Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, '11, '22
Vishwas Gaitonde’s collection of short stories, On Earth As It Is In Heaven, has won the 2023 Orison Fiction Prize, and will be published by Orison Books.
Attended with the help of a Maat Scholarship
Jay Aquinas Thompson
Poetry Participant, '18
Jay Aquinas Thompson is publishing a hybrid memoir, The Resurrection Appearances: Fragments of a Daybook, with Gold Line Press in January 2024. An account of a grief year told in dreams, poetry, myth fragments, and childhood memories, Resurrection received its first readers as hybrid texts in the poetry workshops at Community of Writers.
Attended with the help of a Hilary Gravendyk Memorial Scholarship
Peggy Dobreer
Poetry Workshop, ‘21
Slow Lightning: Astonished Poetry, was released on November 12. Edited by Peggy Dobreer, this wildly diverse collection of poems, all originating in Slow Lightning daily somatic writing practice, was written with several Community of Writers faculty and alum includes: Janet Fitch, David Francis, Georgia San Li, Jacinta Camacho Kaplan, Darothy Durkac, Carrie Nassif, Jamie O’Halloran and others. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Sharon Olds Poetry Scholarship
Amanda Churchill
Writers Workshop Participant, '21
Amanda Churchill’s debut novel, The Turtle House, will be published by Harper Books on February 20, 2024. Moving between late 1990s small-town Texas to pre-World War II Japan and occupied Tokyo, The Turtle House is an emotionally engaging story about a grandmother and granddaughter who connect over a beloved lost place and the secrets they both carry. “Sweeping yet intimate, Amanda Churchill’s Turtle House spans cultures and continents. Minnie and her granddaughter Lia are unforgettable protagonists, whose grit and grace will inspire you. Together, they find a way through in this gripping debut.” -Vanessa Hua, author of Forbidden City. More info here.
Attended with the help of a James D. Houston Memorial Scholarship
Kristen-Paige Madonia
Writing Workshops Participant, '23
Kristen-Paige Madonia’s short story, “Free Weights”, was recently published in the 2023 issue of Boulevard Magazine. More info here.
Attended with the help of a Carlisle Family Scholarship
Mary Otis
Writers Workshop Participant, '00, '01
Mary Otis’ most recent book, Burst, won the Silver Medal in Literary Fiction 2023 Independent Publisher Book Awards. It was also chosen by Good Morning America and the New York Post as a “Best of Spring Books” pick.
Attended with the help of a Getty Scholarship
Stella Santamaria
Poetry Participant, '21
Stella Santamaria was nominated for Best of Net Nominee for her poem on a kayak in this miami bedroom published by the Rising Phoenix Review. Read it here.
Attended with the help of an Ancinas Scholarship
Jessie Ren Marshall
Writers Workshops Participant, '19
Jessie Ren Marshall’s debut story collection, WOMEN! IN! PERIL!, will be published April 2, 2024 as part of a two-book deal with Bloomsbury. In this ferociously feminist, genre-bending book, Marshall balances humor and gravitas to explore the complexities of queerness, toxic relationships, parenting and divorce, Asian and Asian American identity, and so much more. Whether they exist in the grounded realism of a college dance studio or the speculative world of Deep Space, the women of WOMEN! IN! PERIL! push against the status quo to find a better future. Jessie’s website can be found here.
Attended with the help of a James D. Houston Memorial Scholarship
Matt Broaddus
Poetry Participant, '19
Matt Broaddus’ first book of poetry, Temporal Anomalies, by was published by Ricochet Editions on September 15, 2023. You can find it here.
Attended with the help of a Cave Canem Scholarship
Violeta Orozco
Writers Workshop Participant, '23
Violeta Orozco’s second full-length poetry collection Stillness in the Land of Speed, winner of the New Voices Award was published by Jacar Press in North Carolina.
Attended with the help of a Maat Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant, '14, '22
Vishwas Gaitonde’s short story “The Cow In His Throat” has been published in Books and Pieces magazine. You can read it here and find him on X.
Attended with the help of a Maat Scholarship
Stella Santamaria
Poetry Participant, '21
Stella Santamaria has just accepted a lecturer position in the Writing Studies Department at the University of Miami.
Attended with the help of an Ancinas Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant, '14, '22
Vishwas Gaitonde’s essay “Jaya He! The Story of India’s National Anthem” was published by Serenade Magazine, August 2023 issue.
Attended with the help of a Maat Scholarship, '22
Elizabeth Kadetsky
Writer's Workshops Alumni Reader and Participant, '97, '04
In March of 2023, Elizabeth published a cover essay in American Scholar about the Met’s looted Mother Goddess, and an interview on the research ran on KERA Dallas’s Think. Her ongoing research for the project is supported by a 2022-2024 Fulbright scholar flex grant to India, which follows from Elizabeth’s yearlong Fulbright to India in 2019-2020. Elizabeth is nonfiction editor at New England Review, a role that she took on in 2019. She is a core creative writing faculty member at Penn State University, where she was promoted to Professor in July 2023.
Attended with the help of a UC Irvine scholarship
Matt Broaddus
Poetry Participant, '19
The first book of poetry, Temporal Anomalies, by Matt Broaddus (he/him) will be published by Ricochet Editions on September 15, 2023.
Attended with the help of a Cave Canem Scholarship
Sommer Schafer
Writers Workshops Participant, '13
Sommer Schafer’s inaugural collection of short stories, The Women, will be published by Unsolicited Press on November 14, 2023. Pre-orders begin September 1.
Attended with the help of a scholarship
Ashley Wurzbacher
Writers Workshop Participant, '19
Her novel, How to Care for a Human Girl, will be published by Atria Books on August 8, 2023. The novel follows estranged sisters Jada and Maddy as they come together to deal with simultaneous unplanned pregnancies in the wake of their mother’s death.
Attended with the help of the Carlisle Family Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, '14, '22
Vishwas Gaitonde’s short story ‘Boys on the Bus’ has been published in the magazine Across the Margin.
Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship, '22
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant, '14, '22
His multimedia essay on the music prodigy Lydian Nadhaswaram, “King of Melody, Lord of Rhythm: Lydian Nadhaswaram’s Musical Journey” has been published by Serenade Magazine. You can read it here.
Attended with the help of the Maat Scholarship
Stella Santamaria
Poetry Participant, '21
She is a faculty fellow for the XM Scifi Summer Institute for the Science & Fiction Lab at Florida International University, 2023, in Miami, Florida.
Attended with the help of the Ancinas Scholarship
Stephanie Austin
Writers Workshop Participant, '12
Her creative nonfiction chapbook Something I Might Say will be published with WTAW Press on July 18, 2023.
Attended with the help of a sholarship.
Hilary Zaid
Writers Workshop Participant, '12
Her book, Forget I Told You This will be published September 1, 2023 By University of Nebraska Press.
Attended with the help of the James D. Houston Memorial Scholarship
Juliana Roth
Writers Workshops Participant, '17, '22
She was selected as a 2022-23 Emerging Writer Fellow with The Center for Fiction. The Center for Fiction / Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellowships annually provide a diverse group of nine early-career, New York City-based writers with grants; editorial mentorships; monthly dinners with eminent editors, agents, and authors; access to The Center’s Writers Studio; a Master Class on Performance and Public Reading sponsored by Audible; two public readings in The Center’s performance space; and ongoing support in establishing their literary career. The Fellows were chosen from an impressive pool of 706 applicants in a blind judging process by Cara Blue Adams, Raluca Albu, and Ian Denning.
Attended with the help of the John Zobel Memorial Scholarship, and the Carlisle Family Scholarship
Lauren Kay Johnson
Writers Workshops Participant, '19
Her memoir, The Fine Art of Camouflage, was published by MilSpeak Books in March 2023. An excerpt from the book, “The View From Under My Scarf”, which was workshopped in the Community of Writers Open Workshop with Sands Hall, recently appeared in the Boston Globe Magazine Connections column.
Attended with the help of the Carlisle Family Scholarship
Zelda Lockhart
Writers Workshop Alum, '90
Her 4th novel, Trinity, (HarperCollins, Amistad) will be published July 4. Preorders are available now. Trinity is the riveting story of the daughter-spirit born to stitch love back into the scattered wombs of her Black mothers and call love back into the fishing blues songs of her Black male kin. Praise for Trinity: “If we are ancestrally haunted, we may also be ancestrally healed. This is the lesson of Zelda Lockhart’s Trinity, an epic, vivid and heart-wrenching novel. Reminiscent of the work of Gayl Jones and Alice Walker.” -Imani Perry, author of NYT bestseller South to America.
Attended with the help of a Galway Kinnell Scholarship
Ramona Ausubel
Writers Workshop Participant '07, '12/ Teaching Staff Member
Her new novel The Last Animal was released from Riverhead Books in April 2023. NPR’s Scott Simon interviewed her on Weekend Edition Saturday.
http://ramonaausubel.com/ Attended with the help of UC Irvine Scholarship
Suzanne Goldenberg
Poetry Participant, '21
Six of her poems were published in the April edition of NYC arts journal, The Brooklyn Rail.
Attended with the help of the CD Wright Memorial Scholarship
Erin Almond
Writers Workshops Participant, '22
Her short story “The Unbearable Weight of My Heart” was selected by Jennifer Haigh to win First Prize in Pangyrus Magazine’s Fiction Contest. She’s especially grateful for David Ulin’s insightful comments and edits.
Attended with the help of the Lojo Foundation Scholarship
KB Ballentine
Poetry Participant, '15
Her eighth collection of poetry Spirit of Wild was published in March by Blue Light Press.
Attended with the help of a scholarship.
Mary Torre Kelly
She published a Science-Fantasy novel, The Life Of Death Show, which holds five stars on Amazon. She is actively seeking an agent.
Attended with the help of a scholarship.
Amanda Galvan Huynh
Poetry Participant: `19
Her latest book, Where My Umbilical Is Buried, a poetry collection that delves deep into the waves of grief, was published by Sundress Press.
Attended with the help of the Maat Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant, '14, '22
His short story ‘Swayamvara’ has been published in Brink literary magazine (Issue 5, Spring 2023).
https://twitter.com/weareji Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship. '22
Andrew Kaufman
Poetry Participant: '01 and '08
His fourth full-length book of poems, The Rwanda Poems: Voices and Visions from the Genocide, was published in March 2023 by New York Quarterly Books. It is based on months of interviews he conducted with genocide survivors and perpetrators in Rwanda and with sex slavery survivors in Eastern Congo. Poems from from the book have appeared or are due to appear in 50 years of Poems from the Community of Writers, Bitter Oleander, Christianity and Literature, Great River Review, New York Quarterly, Poetrybay, Skidrow Penthouse, Tar River Poetry Review, Terminus, and Today’s American Catholic. He wrote the first drafts of 7 of these poems while taking part in the 2008 workshops.
Attended with the help of a scholarship
Melinda Palacio
Poetry Participant: '08
She will be Santa Barbara’s 10th Poet Laureate, 2023-2025. Her poetry books include Folsom Lockdown, How Fire Is a Story, Waiting (Tía Chucha Press 2012) and Bird Forgiveness (3: a Taos Press).
Attended with the help of a scholarship
Monica Wesolowska
Writers Workshop Participant: '95; Art of the Wild Participant: '96; Published alum reader: '13
She published her second children’s picture book, Elbert in the Air (Dial Books, 2023, illustrated by Jerome Pumphrey.)
Attended with the help of a scholarship
Jasmin Iolani Hakes
Writers Workshops Alumni: '19
Hula, the debut novel by Jasmin ʻIolani Hakes about a family navigating Hawaiian colonization alongside a burgeoning sovereignty movement, is set to release on May 2, 2023 with HarperVia.
Attended with the help of the Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Joe Bardin
Writers Workshops Participant: '01
Joe Bardin’s essay, “Waiting for It,” was published in Bull Journal.
Attended with the help of a scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant, '14,'22
His multimedia essay “The Harmonium Across Continents and Centuries,” has been published in Serenade magazine. It chronicles the odyssey of a musical instrument, the harmonium, across its 230+ years of existence from Europe to Asia, Africa and the Americas. Embedded music videos provide examples of harmonium music.
https://india.serenademagazine.com/music-education/the-birth-death-and-reincarnation-of-the-harmonium/ Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship '22
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant, '14, ,22
Vishwas Gaitonde’s short story ‘Carabas’ appears in ‘The Journal’ (Issue 46.2, Spring 2023).
http://thejournalmag.org/archives/21716 Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship, '22
Carrie Nassif
Poetry Participant, '21
Her chapbook, lithopaedion will be released from Finishing Line Press in March 10, 2023. A Greek term translated, literally, to “stone baby”, a lithopaedion is a very rare phenomenon that occurs when, in a failed ectopic or abdominal pregnancy, the fetus cannot be reabsorbed by the mother’s body. Instead, it becomes calcified in order to prevent infection, sepsis, and even death in the mother. Nassif could think of no better metaphor for the sacrifices a parentified child often makes to protect the well-being of its parents, one of the motherhood related themes of this collection.
http://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/lithopaedion-by-carrie-nassif/ Attended with the help of Janice Bevilacqua Scholarship
Lauren Barbato
Writers Workshop Participant, '17
Her short story “Fatherhood” is featured on The Razor, a publication from the Gotham Writers Workshop. Accompanying her story is a professional recording from voice actor Alex Shafer.
Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant, '14, '22
His multimedia essay “Bringing in the Sheaves: The Samuels of Chennai,” about a trio of brothers who sing southern gospel in southern India, was published in Serenade magazine, January 2023.
https://serenademagazine.com/bringing-in-the-sheaves-the-samuels-of-chennai/ Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship '22
Clare Frank
Writers Workshop Participant, '18
Clare Frank’s Burnt: A Memoir of Fighting Fire is due out from Abrams Press in May, 2023.
https://www.therealclarefrank.com/ Attended with the help of The Alexander Cushing Locals Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshops Participant, '14, '22
His short story ‘Mardy Gras’ has been published in The MacGuffin, Fall 2022 issue.
https://twitter.com/weareji Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship '22
Gretchen McCullough
Writers Workshop participant '06, '08, '19
Her novel Confessions of a Knight Errant was recently published by Cune Press. The novel is a comedic, picaresque novel in the tradition of Don Quixote with a flamboyant cast of characters. Dr. Gary Watson is the picaro, a radical environmentalist and wannabe novelist who has been accused of masterminding a computer hack that wiped out the files of a major publishing company. His Sancho Panza is Kharalombos, a fat, gluttonous Greek dancing teacher, who is wanted by the secret police for cavorting with the daughter of the Big Man of Egypt. Self-preservation necessitates a hurried journey to the refuge of a girls’ camp in rural Texas. Then a corpse turns up.
Attended with the help of Del Duca Scholarship
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant, '14, '22
His commentary “Wash or Wipe? – That is the Question!” has been published in the inaugural issue of Arasi literary magazine.
https://arasimag.weebly.com/ Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship, '22
Corey Campbell
Writers Workshops Participant, '18
Her short story “Everybody’s Good” appeared in The Gettysburg Review, volume 24, number 1.
Attended with the help of Isobel English Scholarship
Mason Boyles
Writers Workshop participant, '20, '21
His debut novel Bark On is will be available through Driftwood Press in February, 2023.
Attended with the help of Robert Stone Memorial Scholarship
Jung Hae Chae
Writers Workshop Participant, '19
Her memoir-in-essays, Pojangmacha People, won the 2022 Graywolf Press Literary Nonfiction Prize (to be published in June 2025).
https://www.graywolfpress.org/news/jung-hae-chae-wins-graywolf-press-nonfiction-prize Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Stella Santamaria
Poetry Participant, '21
Her poem, “The Miami Cemetery” was selected for The Islandia Journal, issue 4. Santamaria created this experimental poem during her time in the Valley.
https://www.islandiajournal.com/product-page/islandia-issue-4?utm_campaign=093fb8af-8044-41f9-b044-f905956152a1&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail&cid=5586c4b2-ce9f-4e8b-8f9b-cc8d72b159b9 Attended with the help of The Ancinas Family Scholarship
Bruce Rettig
Writers Workshops Participant, '12,'15
His memoir, Refraction, will be published on November 15, 2022. It has won several writing awards, and is published by Wayfarer Books, an Eco-Lit imprint of Homebound Publications. Homebound is a partner of One Tree Planted, and for every book they sell in their store, a tree is planted.
https://brucerettig.com Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Marcia Bradley
Writers Workshops Participant, '19
Her debut novel, The Home for Wayward Girls, will be published by HarperCollins in April, 2023. This work of fiction dives into the Troubled Teen Industry in our country and tells the story of one woman’s escape from a residential program on a ranch west of the Rockies. The novel details abuse, the anxieties she carries on her journey, and ultimately how through her survival she finds hope in the future.
https://marciabradley.com/ Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Daniel Pope
Writers' Workshop participant '19, '21
His short story, “Last Stop,” has been published in Issue 43 of the Bellevue Literary Review.
https://blreview.org/table-of-contents/issue-43/ Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Anuradha Bhowmik
Poetry Workshop participant '18
Her newest collection of poetry, Brown Girl Chromatography, was published in October, 2022, by Pitt Poetry Series.
Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship
Ama Codjoe
Poetry Workshop participant '15
Her newest collection of poetry, Bluest Nudes, was published in September, 2022, by Milkweed.
Attended with the help of Lucille Clifton Memorial Scholarship
Anna V. Q. Ross
Poetry Workshop Participant, '13, '21
Her second book, Flutter, Kick, selected by Jeffrey Harrison for the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award from Red Hen Press, will be published by Red Hen Press on November 8th, 2022.
http://https://www.annavqross.com/books Attended with the help of Lucille Clifton Scholarship, '13
Vishwas Gaitonde
Writers Workshop Participant '14, '22
His essay on the life and times of Queen Elizabeth II, “The Second Elizabeth – A Life Appreciated” was published in Merion West.
https://merionwest.com/2022/09/22/the-second-elizabeth-a-life-appreciated/ Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship
Lauren Barbato
Writers Workshop Participant, '17
Her short story “Women of a Certain Kind” appears in the fall 2022 issue of The Georgia Review.
https://thegeorgiareview.com/shop/issues/fall-2022/ Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Alina Grabowski
Writers Workshops Participant, '17
Her novel, Women and Children First, will be published by SJPLit/Zando in fall, 2023.
http://www.alinagrabowski.com Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Rashaan Alexis Meneses
Writer's Workshop, '17
She will be a Parent-Writer resident at Mineral School, Washington, this Fall 2022, and will participate in the AWP 2023 panel “Impossible Balance: Re-examining the narrative about writing and parenting” with John Messick, Keema Waterfield, Sean Prentiss, and Ukamaka Olisakwe
https://rashaanalexismeneses.com/ Attended with the help of Ancinas Scholarship
Ruben Quesada
Poetry Participant, '07
His poem “Oath Keeper” was published in The New York Times on Sunday, August 14, 2022. It is also available online.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/magazine/poem-oath-keeper.html Attended with the help of UC Riverside scholarship recipient
Melenie Freedom Flynn
Writers Workshop participant '09, '10
She is the recipient of a generous 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council artist fellowship to support the completion of her memoir about growing up in the backseat of Delilah, her family’s big blue Ford LTD, as they moved back and forth between the Rajneesh Commune in Oregon and Las Vegas during the 1980s.
https://massculturalcouncil.org/artists-art/artist-fellowships/funding-list/ Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Akil Kumarasamy
Writers Workshop Participant '15
Her new novel, Meet Us by the Roaring Sea, was published by Macmillan in August, 2022.
https://akilk.com/ Attended with the help of Eshleman Scholarship
Janine Kovac
Writers Workshops Participant, '11, '12, '14, '16
Her novel-in-progress Proposition has been selected for fiscal sponsorship by Fractured Atlas.
Proposition follows the sex-trafficking epidemic in Oakland from the dual perspective of survivors striving to create a better world for themselves and white-savior activists oblivious to the ways they perpetuate systemic inequality, and is based on her essay, “Dancing on the Blade,” for which she received the San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Award for Nonfiction.
https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/project-niner Attended with the help of George Pascoe Miller Scholarship, Carlisle Family Scholarship, Eshleman Scholarship
Antonia Angress
Writers Workshop Participant '19
Her debut novel Sirens & Muses will be published by Ballantine/Random House on July 12, 2022. She is on tour promoting the book and will be doing events in Minneapolis, Brooklyn, Cape Cod, Stillwater, MN and Northfield, MN. See her website for more details.
http://antoniaangress.com Attended with the help of O'Dwyer Scholarship
Tara Betts
Poetry Workshop Participant, '09
Her latest full-length poetry collection Refuse to Disappear (Word Works Books, 2022) was selected for the Hilary Tham Capital Collection and is the June 2022 selection for The Rumpus Poetry Book Club.
https://wordworksbooks.org/product/refuse-to-disappear/ Attended with the help of Cave Canem scholarship
Lauren Barbato
Writers Workshop Participant, '17
She was a finalist in Phoebe’s 2022 short fiction contest. Her story, “We Can’t Live Without the Birds and Animals,” appears in the Spring 2022 issue of Phoebe.
http://phoebejournal.com/we-cant-live-without-the-birds-and-animals/ Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Corey Campbell
Writers Workshops Participant, '18
Her short story “In a Burning Volcano” appeared in Salamander, issue #53 (Fall/Winter 2021-2022). It was a finalist for the Salamander 2021 Fiction Prize.
Attended with the help of Isobel English Scholarship
Stella Santamaria
Poetry Workshop participant '21
Her “zip ode” was selected as the week 1 spotlight poem for WLRN/ O, Miami Zip Ode Project and featured on air and on instagram for the O, Miami Poetry Festival. She will be reading her poem in the virtual Zip Odes Finale on Wednesday, April 27 at 7 PM ET.
Attended with the help of Ancina Family Scholarship
Daniel Pope
Writers Workshop participant, '19, '21
His short story, “Good Neighbors,” which was chosen as a finalist for the 2021 Narrative 30 Below Contest, was published as a Story of the Week in Narrative Magazine in April 2022.
https://www.danielpopewrites.com/ Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Stella Santamaria
Poetry Participant, '21
Her poem was selected for the WLRN/ Zip Odes Project for the O, Miami Poetry Festival.
Attended with the help of Ancinas Scholarship
Anna Hogeland
Writers Workshop Participant, '19
Her debut novel, The Long Answer, was published by Riverhead Books (Penguin Random House) on June 21, 2022.
http://www.annahogeland.com Attended with the help of UCI scholarship
Ruben Quesada
Poetry Workshop participant '07
He has a new poem “My Mother Is a Garden” in Issue 41 of The Adroit Journal.
https://rubenquesada.com/ Attended with the help of UC Riverside scholarship
Juliana Roth
Screenwriting Workshop participant '17
Her new short film Final Curtain Call, on Radio City Music Hall’s Chief organist Ray Bohr, is in post-production.
http://tinyurl.com/letsplayray Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma
Writers Workshops Participant, '14
His new translation of the classical Tamil masterpiece on ethics, power, and love, The Kural: Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural, was published by Beacon Press on January 11, 2022.
https://thomaspruiksma.com/kural Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Erin L. McCoy
Poetry Participant, 2016
Her poem, “How a lake flash-froze a herd of horses,” was selected by Kaveh Akbar for inclusion in Best New Poets 2021. This is McCoy’s second appearance in the Best New Poets anthology.
https://erinlmccoy.com/blog/best-new-poets-anthology-mccoy-poem Attended with the help of Oakley Hall III Memorial Scholarship
Melenie Freedom Flynn
Writers Workshops Participant '09, '10
She is the recipient of a generous 2022 Elizabeth George Foundation grant to support the completion of her memoir about growing up in the backseat of Delilah, her family’s big blue Ford LTD, as they moved back and forth between the Rajneesh Commune in Oregon and Las Vegas during the 1980s.
Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Jung Hae Chae
Writers Workshops Participant, '19
Her essay, “Hole(s),” won the 2021 Crazyhorse Nonfiction Prize and appeared in the Winter 2021 issue.
https://crazyhorse.cofc.edu/catching-up-with-2021-crazyhorse-nonfiction-prize-winner-jung-hae-chae/ Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Martina Clark
Writers Workshops Participant, '13
Her memoir, My Unexpected Life: An International Memoir of Two Pandemics, HIV and COVID-19, has just won an award from POZ Magazine for 2021 Best in Literature. While it holds less literary weight, it does hold high endorsement from the community of people living with HIV which, considering the subject matter of Clark’s memoir and her own life with HIV, it sends a resounding endorsement from a key readership.
http://https://www.poz.com/article/poz-awards-2021-winners Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Jan Verberkmoes
Poetry Participant, '17
Her debut poetry collection, Firewatch, will be published by Fonograf Editions on December 7th, 2021.
https://fonografeditions.com/catalog/f0no17-jan-verberkmoes-firewatch-print-book/ Attended with the help of Galway Kinnell Memorial Scholarship
Meghan Robins
Writers Workshops Participant, '15
Her short essay “Being a Woman is Like Making French Onion Soup” won first place in the WOW! Women on Writing Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest.
http://https://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/100-FE1-Q32021EssayContest.html Attended with the help of Alexander Cushing Memorial Scholarship for Locals
Rashaan Alexis Meneses
Writer's Workshop Participant, '17
Her piece “On Teaching at the End of the World” was recently published in Literary Hub’s series “Teaching Through a Pandemic” on October 18, 2021.
https://lithub.com/on-teaching-at-the-end-of-the-world/ Attended with the help of Ancinas Scholarship
Susan Henderson
Writers Workshop Participant, '09
Her short story, “Dead Eddie” will be in the 150th anniversary anthology of the Elm Leaves Journal out of Buffalo State.
https://www.thenationalbookreview.com/features/2021/3/20/q-and-a-novelist-marcia-butler-on-the-writers-process-finding-inspiration-and-moose Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation scholarship
Stella Santamaria
Poetry Workshop Participant (Virtual Valley), 2021
Two of Stella Santamaria’s poems were published in The Acentos Review, September 2021 issue after attending Community of Writers, Poetry Program in the Summer of 2021 in the Virtual Valley.
http://www.acentosreview.com/September2021/ Attended with the help of the Ancinas Family Scholarship
Martina Clark
Writers Workshops Participant, '13
Martina Clark’s memoir, My Unexpected Life: An International Memoir of Two Pandemics, HIV and COVID-19, is being published by Northampton House Press and comes out October 5th, 2021. This memoir was her workshop piece in 2013.
http://martina-clark.com Attended with the help of the Carlisle Family Scholarship
Debra A. Daniel
Writers Workshops Participant, '01
Debra A. Daniel’s novella-in-flash, A Family of Great Falls, was short listed for the Bath Novella-in-flash Award 2021, and was published by Ad Hoc Fiction in the UK. Two of her pieces were also shortlisted for the Smokelong Quarterly Mikey Award, the Bath Flash Fiction Award, and long listed for the Reflex Fiction Award.
http://adhocfiction.com Attended with the help of Nona Stuck Fiction Scholarship
David Mills
Poetry Participant, '21
His poetry collection, Boneyarn, was a June bestseller at Small Press Distribution. This collection is the first book of poems about slavery in New York City, where the oldest and largest slave cemetery in the United States is located. If you are interested in a signed copy, you can email David at edgarallanpoit@yahoo.com. Boneyarn is also available at Small Press Distribution and Amazon.
https://www.spdbooks.org/Pages/Item/60066/Poetry-Bestsellers-June-2021.aspx Attended with the help of Veteran's Poetry Scholarship
Antonio Lopez
Poetry Participant '17
His debut collection of poetry, Gentefication, is coming out through Four Way Books September 15, 2021. It was selected by Gregory Pardlo as the winner of the 2019 Larry Levis Prize in Poetry.
https://fourwaybooks.com/site/gentefication/ Attended with the help of Lucille Clifton Scholarship
Corey Campbell
Writers Workshops Participant, '18
Her short story “Outside the Mayan” recently appeared in Story Issue 10.
Attended with the help of Isobel English Scholarship
Nawaaz Ahmed
Writers Workshops Participant, '11
His debut novel, Radiant Fugitives, following three generations of a Muslim Indian family confronted with a nation on the brink of change in Obama-era San Francisco and Texas, was published by Counterpoint Press on August 3, 2021.
https://www.nawaazahmed.com Attended with the help of Ford scholarship
Janine Kovac
Writers Workshop Participant: '11, '12, '14, '16
Her essay “Dancing on the Blade” won the San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Award in Nonfiction and appears in the spring 2021 issue of Under the Sun.
https://underthesunonline.com/wordpress/2021/dancing-on-the-blade/ Attended with the help of 2011: George Pascoe Miller; 2012: Carlisle Family; 2014: Eshleman Scholarship
Lauren Barbato
Writers Workshop Participant, '17
Her short story “Patroness” appears in the latest issue of Pacifica Literary Review.
http://www.pacificareview.com/2021/05/13/patroness-lauren-barbato/ Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Tracy Fuad
Poetry Participant '17
Her debut collection of poetry, about:blank, was chosen by Claudia Rankine as the 2020 winner of the AWP Donald Hall Prize and will be published by University of Pittsburgh Press in October, 2021. The book is available for pre-sale now.
https://upittpress.org/books/9780822966685/ Attended with the help of Galway Kinnell Memorial Scholarship
Jennifer Sperry Steinorth
Poetry Participant, '19
An artifact of erasure at once poetry and visual art, Her Read, a graphic poem by Jennifer Sperry Steinorth will be published in full color and hardback by Texas Review Press in June, 2021. In the tradition of reusing canvases, with correction fluid, scalpel & embroidery floss, Steinorth transforms a tome of art criticism, The Meaning of Art by Herbert Read, into feminist verse. Though the maternal body appears with frequency in Read’s illustrated text which spans from prehistory to the modern age, he includes zero female artists. Her Read, a graphic poem, is an excavation of buried voices– a reclamation of bodies framed in gilt & an homage to those whose arts remain unsung.
https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781680032284/her-read;https://www.jennifersperrysteinorth.com/her-erasure-read Attended with the help of I did (blessedly) receive a scholarship, which made attendance possible, but I cannot seem to locate the name!
K.M. English
Poetry Participant, '16
Her debut full-length collection, Wave Says, was published by Kore Press on May 15, 2021.
http://www.kmenglishpoet.com Attended with the help of Cushing Scholarship!
Shangyang Fang
Poetry Participant, '19
His poetry collection, Burying the Mountain, will be published by Copper Canyon Press in October, 2021.
https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/authors/shangyang-fang/ Attended with the help of The Sharon Olds Honorary Scholarship
Chaney Kwak
Fiction, 2012
His debut memoir, The Passenger: How a Travel Writer Learned to Love Cruises & Other Lies from a Sinking Ship, comes out from Godine in June, 2021. A tragicomic story about an (almost) sinking cruise ship, The Passenger journeys from the Norwegian coast to the South China Sea, from post-WWII Korea to pandemic-struck San Francisco.
http://chaneykwak.com/passenger Attended with the help of Scholarship recipient (and I thank The Community's generosity in the book's acknowledgements)
Teri Ellen Cross Davis
Poetry Participant, '19
Her new collection, a more perfect Union, (Mad Creek Books, an imprint of Ohio State University Press) was selected by Kathy Fagan for the 2019 OSU Journal/Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize. It was published in February, 2021 and is available now!
https://www.poetsandparents.com/a-more-perfect-union Attended with the help of Lucille Clifton Memorial Scholarship
Leslie Hsu Oh
2020, 2019 Writers Workshops Participant
A chapter from her memoir-in-progress was published in the February 2021 issue of Travel + Leisure.
http://www.lesliehsuoh.com Attended with the help of The O’Dwyer Scholarship
Stacy D Flood
Writers Workshop Participant, '98
An unanchored traveler meets devastating consequences as he searches for a new life in The Salt Fields, a debut work of prose from Stacy D. Flood, a stark and poignant Southern Gothic novella focused on the African American Great Migration after the Second World War, and a work that will leave readers thinking long after the final page.
https://lanternfishpress.com/catalog/the-salt-fields Attended with the help of Getty Scholarship
Jenny Pritchett
Writers Workshops Participant '04
Her new book, You Look Tired: An Excruciatingly Honest Guide to New Parenthood, was published by Running Press/Hachette in May, 2021. An audiobook is also available.
https://www.jennytrue.com/ Attended with the help of Walker Foundation Scholarship
Yang Huang
Writers Workshops Participant,'19
Her third literary novel, My Good Son, won the University of New Orleans Publishing Lab Prize. It was published on April 29, 2021.
“MY GOOD SON is about a tailor named Mr. Cai in post-Tiananmen China and the dreams he holds for his only son, Feng. Mr. Cai schemes with one of his clients, Jude, a gay American expat, to get his son to the States, and the novel, about parental expectations, social class, and sexuality, highlights both the similarities and differences between Chinese and American cultures.”
https://www.yanghuang.com/goodson Attended with the help of Barbara Hall Memorial Scholarship
Anthony Cody
Poetry Participant '18
His debut collection, Borderland Apocrypha (Omnidawn), was a 2020 National Book Award Finalist in Poetry, Winner of the 2018 Omnidawn Open Book Prize, was recently named a 2020 Southwest Book Award Winner from the Regional Border Library Association, longlisted for The Believer Magazine 2020 Editor’s Award in Poetry, and is now a finalist for the Jean Stein Award from PEN/America.
https://pen.org/literary-awards/2021-pen-america-literary-awards-finalists/ Attended with the help of Galway Kinnell Memorial Scholarship
Arisa White
Poetry Participant, 2010
Her new memoir, Who’s Your Daddy, was recently published by Augury Books. Who’s Your Daddy ( is a lyrical, genre-bending coming-of-age tale featuring a queer, Black, Guyanese American woman who, while seeking to define her own place in the world, negotiates an estranged relationship with her father.
“A lyric anthem for the fatherless, for seekers of the places and people that made us, for the artists ready to unearth and reshape their own stories. I gulped this exquisite manual like precious medicine, a spell that made me more myself.” —Melissa Febos, author of Abandon Me
https://arisawhite.com/about/ Attended with the help of Cave Canem Scholarship
Leslie Hsu Oh
Writers Workshop Participant 19, 20
An excerpt from her memoir and photographs appear in the February 2021 issue of Travel + Leisure Magazine.
http://www.lesliehsuoh.com Attended with the help of The O’Dwyer Scholarship
Amy Haddad
Poetry Participant
She recently received honorable mention in the Backwaters Press Poetry Prize. She will be awarded $1,000 and her manuscript, An Otherwise Healthy Woman, will be published in the spring of 2022. Haddad is a nurse, ethicist and poet who taught in the health sciences at Creighton University in Omaha, NE for 30 years.
http:// Attended with the help of NA
Laura Cresté
Poetry Participant '20
Her chapbook, You Should Feel Bad, was selected by Stephanie Burt for a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship and was published in November 2020.
https://poetrysociety.org/shop/chapbooks/you-should-feel-bad Attended with the help of Sharon Olds Honorary Scholarship
Antonia Angress
Writers Workshop Participant, '19
Her debut novel Sirens & Muses will be published by Ballantine/Random House in 2022.
http://antoniaangress.com Attended with the help of the O'Dwyer Scholarship
Regina Louise
Writers Workshops Participant '01, '14; Screenwriting Participant, '03
Her new book, Permission Granted: Kickass Strategies to Bootstrap Your Way to Unconditional Self-Love, will be published by New World Library in June, 2021. Permission Granted illustrates proven paths from “you couldn’t possibly” to “just watch me!” Regina Louise puts a unique spin on tried-and-true techniques of personal growth, coaching readers to deeply understand who they are and what they have been through. From this self-awareness, they can move into self-compassion and learn to give themselves the care and support they may have lacked.
https://www.iamreginalouise.com/ Attended with the help of UC Riverside Scholarship
Jade Yeung
Poetry Participant, '20
She had the honor of reading alongside Patricia Spears Jones, Ali Black, A. Van Jordan, Janice Lowe, Peter Covino, and Michael Broder this year. You can check out the recording here.
https://brooklynrail.org/events/2020/09/16/radical-poetry-reading-with-patricia-spears-jones/ Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship
Lauren Barbato
Writers Workshop, '17
Her short story “Fatherhood” appears online in the December 2020 issue of Hobart.
https://www.hobartpulp.com/web_features/fatherhood Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Anthony Cody
Poetry Participant '18
Anthony Cody’s collection Borderland Apocrypha (Omnidawn, 2020), was was longlisted for the 2021 PEN America’s Jean Stein Award, and Anthony was named a 2020 Poets & Writers Debut Poet for that collection. To read about his first book and hear him read form his collection visit www.pw.org or pick up the January/February 2021 edition of Poets and Writers.
https://www.pw.org/content/a_life_in_poetry_our_sixteenth_annual_look_at_debut_poets Attended with the help of Galway Kinnell Memorial Scholarship
Jenn Alandy Trahan
Writers Workshops Participant, '08, '17
Jenn Alandy Trahan’s short story, “The Freak Winds Up Again,” is the November 2020 issue (#271) of One Story.
https://www.one-story.com/index.php?page=stories&pubcode=os&story_id=271 Attended with the help of Carlisle Family Scholarship
Rhoda Huffey
Writers Workshops Participant, '85/ Writers Workshop staff, 2000 onward
Rhoda Huffey’s novel 31 Paradiso will be published by Delphinium Books in the spring of 2022.
http:// Attended with the help of attended on UCI scholarship
Susan Henderson
Writers Workshop Participant, '09
She judged the 2020 High Plains Book Award for Fiction (winner: Joe Wilkins’ Fall Back Down When I Die). She taught workshops for Hampton Roads Convergence of Writers and the Brandeis National Committee. And she was recently interviewed by Sean Murphy, Executive Director of 1455 Literary Arts, about books, the writing process, and more.
https://youtu.be/WsKXArIen5k Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Lyndsey Ellis
Writers Workshops Participant, '17
Her debut novel, Bone Broth, will be published by Hidden Timber Books in spring 2021. Her short story, “Jazz & Other Words for Love,” appeared in issue 2 of the Community of Writers’ new online literary journal, Omnium Gatherum Quarterly.
http://hiddentimberbooks.com/2020/10/16/bone-broth-cover-reveal/ Attended with the help of Maat Scholarship (Waimea Williams)
Jabari Jawan Allen
Poetry Workshop participant '18
He will be teaching an advanced poetry workshop on Wednesdays, November 4 – 18, 2020 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. MST on Zoom with the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University.
Over three sessions, students will explore the erotic god, subversion versus abolition in form, and the contemporization of the sonnet through the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, John Donne, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Countee Cullen, Gwendolyn Brooks, Wanda Coleman, Malachi Black, Phillip B. Williams, Natasha Oladokun, and more. Registration is $109. Learn more and register today at https://piper.asu.edu/classes/jabari-allen/advanced-poetry-workshop
https://piper.asu.edu/classes/jabari-allen/advanced-poetry-workshop Attended with the help of Lucille Clifton Scholarship Recipient
Lauren Barbato
Writers Workshop participant '17
Her essay “What Would You Call It?” appears online at North American Review.
https://northamericanreview.org/ Attended with the help of Lojo Foundation Scholarship
Lisa Alvarez
Writers Workshops Teaching Staff; Writers Workshop Participant, '91, '92
Her poem “On the Origin of Karl Marx” appears in So It Goes, the annual literary journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library.
https://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/ninth-edition-contributors/ Attended with the help of UCI scholarship and Ancinas scholarship