Alumni

Elissa Favero (2024) was named a 2026 Jack Straw Writer. Selected by Claudia Castro Luna, this year's Writing Program Curator, Elissa joins a cohort of twelve to write, learn about the medium of recorded audio, and develop presentation skills for live and recorded readings. She will share her writing at a May reading at Seattle's Jack Straw Cultural Center.

Nancy Geyer’s (2013) essay “Each Breath: Art & Remembrance” was the runner-up in the eighth annual Sewanee Review Nonfiction Contest and will be published in the Spring 2026 issue.

Katie Humphries’s (2021) short story “Heads Up” won Bronze in the category of unpublished short story at the Royal Palm Literary Awards in Orlando, Florida, in October. This event was sponsored by the Florida Writers Association (FWA).

Margie Lukas’s (2007) historical fiction novel, Spirits Do Not Rest: Heartbreak at Wounded Knee, was published in December 2025.

John Milkereit’s (2016) poem “Essay on Living” was nominated by Synkroniciti for a Pushcart Prize.

Aleah Romer's (2024) short story “In the Land of Heroes” won first place in the Ink of Ages Fiction Contest.

Tina Schumann (2009) was interviewed on Sound Poetry for Radio Tacoma 101.9 (Part 1 and Part 2).

David Taylor’s (2023) literary podcast, The People's Recorder, was featured in the Jan/Feb 2026 issue of Poets & Writers.

Faculty

Kelli Russell Agodon's (Faculty & 2007) next collection of poems, Accidental Devotions, will be published by Copper Canyon Press on May 12, 2026. You can preorder a signed and/or personalized copy from Billie Swift's (2016) bookstore, Open Books: A Poem Emporium, here.

Geffrey Davis was the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day Series Guest Editor for January 2026.

Former Faculty

Rebecca McClanahan’s newest book, Light Falls on Everything: A Daughter’s Memoir of Caregiving, Grief, and Possibility, was published by The University of North Carolina Press in March 2026.

Brenda Miller’s new hybrid collection, Love You, Bye: A Daughter’s Journey in Essays and Poems, was released by Skinner House books in April 2026. It is available for order here. She held her book launches on April 12 at Village Books in Bellingham, WA, and April 15 at Third Place Books, Ravenna location, in Seattle, WA.