Jessica Barksdale's (2015) novel, The Burning Hour, was a finalist in the 11th National Indie Excellence Awards, Regional Fiction: West.

Sidney Brammer (2013) will be a participant writer at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference in July. Also, Sidney’s screenplay, Tales of the Borderland, received an Honorable Mention in the 2017 Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc. Writing Contest in May.

Nancy Canyon (2007) read her poem “Such Is the Ego” at SpeakEasy 19: Poems of Darkness, Poems of Light on April 8.

Chelsey Clammer (2016) was hired to be a copywriter and editor for Amplify Snack Brands. Chelsey was also invited to be the creative nonfiction judge for The Los Angeles Review Bi-annual Awards for Summer 2017. You can now preorder her thesis, Circadian, which will be published by Red Hen Press in October 2017.

Cate Gable (2016) read her poetry at the WA 129 launch on April 13 in Olympia, WA. Cate also read with Tod Marshall and Bob Pyle for Humanities Washington on June 4 in Oysterville, WA.

Jeb Harrison’s (2015) book, The Healing of Howard Brown, was awarded the 2017 Independent Press Award in the category of Literary Fiction.

Cate Hodorowicz (Hennessey) (2016) was hired as an acquisitions assistant at University of North Carolina Press in Chapel Hill, NC. Also, Cate was nominated for a 2018 Pushcart Prize.

Alicia Hoffman (2015): A launch event for Alicia’s book, Railroad Phoenix, was held on April 4 at Nox in Rochester, New York, where she was joined in a reading by RWW alumna Carol McMahon (2016). Alicia also had a poetry reading and book signing at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, on April 20; she was invited by RWW alumna M. J. Iuppa (2006).

Erin Coughlin Hollowell (2009) was awarded a 2017 Rasmuson Foundation Fellowship for work on her third collection of poems. Erin was also appointed to the faculty of the University of Alaska Anchorage low-residency MFA program.

Emily Holt’s (2016) short film, “Now and at the Hour,” which she wrote, coproduced, and coedited, was presented at Catholic + Art, a reading/panel discussion, also featuring participant Jen Soriano (2018), at Seattle University in April 2017. You can contact Emily if you would like a link to the video.

M. J. Iuppa (2006) was awarded the New York State Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching in May.

Jill Kandel’s (attended 2008) “Writing the Silence Away” was published in the anthology The Magic of Memoir: Inspiration for the Writing Journey, published by She Writes Press. The essay also won second place in the anthology contest. A shortened version was featured on mindbodygreen.

Carol McMahon (2016) was a featured reader at the Writers & Books event Poetry, Potluck, and Pinot 2017 in April and at Rochester Arts and Lectures’ Women and Poetry Festival on May 13.

Ian Ramsey (2015) recently hosted the first annual Kauffmann Environmental Writing Prize and the first annual Kauffmann Writing Seminar, both of which are open to all Maine high school students. Ian also created a visiting writers series that included authors Jon Turk, Jeffrey McCarthy, Brooke Williams, and Sean Prentiss.

Tammy Robacker (2016) was named June Poet-in-Residence at the Seattle Review of Books, where a different poem from her new poetry collection, Villain Songs, was featured each week during the month of June. Tammy’s new chapbook manuscript, Mother, Mirror, was named a finalist in the 2016 Coal Hill Review Chapbook Contest. She celebrated book launch parties for Villain Songs in Portland, OR, in April and in Tacoma, WA, in May, and she gave a reading of poetry from Villain Songs at Open Books in Seattle, WA, on June 24. She was interviewed by Chelsey Clammer (2016) for WOW! Women on Writing ("Breathe and Proceed: Poet Tammy Robacker on How to Submit the Hard Stuff").

Tina Schumann (2009): The anthology Two-Countries: US Daughters & Sons of Immigrant Parents, which she edited, is available now for preorder; it is due to be published by Red Hen Press in October.

Cameron Walker's (2008) essay, “The Sadness of Solving a Mystery,” won an American Society of Journalists and Authors Writing Award for Articles in the category of Opinion/Op Ed in May.