An important thing for us to remember as creators and artists is that inspiration is cyclical. We all have someone—or many someones—whose creativity has taught us and shaped us through their words, their works, and their actions, and in turn, our creative work teaches and shapes others, whether we’re writing engaging poems, heartfelt memoir, or just Star Trek fanfiction.

We all came to RWW because something or someone inspired us to do so—maybe we came because we found poets and writers we admired, looked up to, and wanted to continue learning from, or maybe we came because a friend we trusted told us to apply. Whatever our reason, by joining the Rainier Writing Workshop, we solidified our place in that cycle of aspiration and creativity, making our way into a community that lives to inspire and to be inspired.

While there may not be any Star Trek fanfiction here, our prolific RWW community has been hard at work as always, and over the course of the last mentorship year, several of our esteemed alumni have published book-length works—be those novels, memoirs, or collections of poetry and short stories—and we are pleased to share with you a gallery of those 2020–2021 book publications by our talented and inspirational RWW alumni.