ANNOUNCEMENTS

CANOPY LITERARY REVIEW

Canopy Literary Review will be launching soon and you are invited to submit your work. Their focus is transgender/nonbinary authors, but all are welcome. General concept is humans adapting to ill-fitting or oppressive social constructs. More details at canopyreview.org. Contact Heather Jones (Fiction, W’25) at editor@canopyreview.org with questions or if you’d like to join the editorial team. Follow them on Instagram and Bluesky to help spread the word.

ALUMS 

A flash piece titled “An Abecedarian Essay on Terror” by Sarah C. Baldwin (Creative Nonfiction, S’15) was published in issue #60 of Salamander.

Ryan Brod (Creative Nonfiction, S’17) is excited to co-teach the two-day, nonfiction workshop Ground Beneath Your Feet: Leveraging Landscape in Narrative Writing for Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. The workshop, which he’ll teach alongside writer, homesteader, forager and wild foods teacher Jenna Rozelle, runs February 7th & 8th from 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. at Mechanics’ Hall in Portland. For more information or to sign up, visit MWPA’s website.

J Brooke (Poetry, S’19) is part of an off-site reading/discussion/event (with free drinks and great music) at this year’s AWP to benefit Trans Youth—drop by if you’re there! Also, in their continued role as Editor of Prose Reviews for The Rumpus, they would like to remind writers who have an interest in reviewing a book that they can contact them at J.Brooke@therumpus.net.

Veda Boyd Jones (Fiction, S17) explores family and friendships, kindness and spitefulness, in the third of her slice-of-life Lost Creek novel series, One Block Down Main, available now on Kindle.

Rebecca Kightlinger (Fiction, W’14) announces that her third book, The Sisters of the Sorrows Cove, Book Three of The Bury Down Chronicles, will be released by Rowan Moon Press on February 1, 2026.

John Christopher Nelson‘s (Fiction, S’15) nonfiction piece about cuisine as a cultural cornerstone, “Cascarón,” will be featured in Secret Restaurant Press‘s forthcoming Breakfast 3. 

Suri Parmar‘s (Popular Fiction, W’17) short documentary Flat (2025) has been accepted to nine film festivals, including five that are Academy Award-qualifying. Their film received nominations for Best Documentary Short at Chilliwack Independent Film Festival, Best Alberta Short Film at Calgary International Film Festival, and Best 2SLGBTQ+ Short Film at Vancouver Asian Film Festival, with Flat selected to screen at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival this month in Missoula, Montana. Additionally, they recently won a Devil’s Ink Award (Best Writing) at Toronto Horror Film Festival for co-writing the feature film Killing Off Connor (2025).

Marisca Pichette (Popular Fiction, S’21)is pleased to return to MetroWest with a new workshop on February 7: “The Impractical Writer.” She will talk writing time (none), word count goals (nonexistent), creative routine (curiously absent)—and how to remain an author despite all evidence to the contrary! On the publication side, check out her latest story, “Twelve Facts About the Dermestid Beetle,” in Nightmare Magazine and her poem “Mary’s Bag” in Small Wonders.

Bruce Pratt‘s (Fiction, S’04) short memoir piece, “Two Greg’s a Bill, a Bruce and a 1960s Epiphone Texan,”will appear in a future edition of Portland Magazine—most likely next September. His poems “Heater” and “Southern Syntax”are included in the latest Aethlon: The Journal of Sports Literature.

Patricia Smith (Poetry, S’08 and former Faculty) won the 2025 National Book Award in Poetry for her collection The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems.

Jacob Strunk’s (Fiction, W’07) short story “Bella’s Home” appeared in MicroLit almanac. His novella From the Inside lands in paperback and digital on February 21 from Black Hare Press.

Robin Clifford Wood (Creative Nonfiction, S’15) is one of 10 writers teaching FREE writing classes in celebration of Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s beautiful, nature-inspired work. The classes and other events are part of a collaboration between MWPA, Camden Festival of Poetry, and Portland Public Library. Robin’s class will take place on February 25th at the Edythe Dyer Library in Hampden, ME, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. and will include prompts, readings, writing time, and discussion. Come explore your writing voice, inspired by the natural world.

FACULTY  

Tom Coash‘s (Scriptwriting) short plays Raghead and T-Day + 1 have been accepted for publication by Heuer Publishing for their Spring catalogue.

Raina León (Poetry) is the next poet laureate of Philadelphia from 2026-2028. In addition to the Letras Boricuas grant (announced last month), Raina also recently received the Leeway Transformation Award (which provides unrestricted annual awards of $15,000 to women, trans*, and gender nonconforming artists and cultural producers living in greater Philadelphia who create art for social change and have done so for the past five years or more, demonstrating a long-term commitment to social change work). Raina also just received the news that she received the Velocity Fund Grant for the Swing Mezzo project in which she is crafting a choreopoem that celebrates the life of Doris Rheubottom: “The Velocity Fund offers twelve Philadelphia-based artists and collectives $5000 to develop and present new projects—particularly those that are experimental in genre, collaborative in practice, grounded in their communities, and thoughtful in their impact. Independent artists, collaborative groups, and non-incorporated collectives are welcome to apply. The Velocity Fund intends to directly support artists and arts-based cultural organizers who conduct their practice outside the studio, and who present them outside traditional art spaces. A Regional Regranting Program of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Velocity has funded multidisciplinary and varied work that use visual arts—including (but never limited to) printmaking, performance, video, puppetry, sculpture, and curation—to expand, archive, learn with, and lift up their publics.” It’s starting to be a really great year!

Elizabeth Searle’s rock opera is back onstage in a new full production, produced by Dogged Utopia Productions in Asheville, NC. It runs February 26th-March 8th. The theater describes the show this way: “Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera is a high-energy, darkly comic musical that reimagines the infamous 1994 figure-skating scandal with over-the-top theatrical flair. Packed with powerhouse rock anthems, biting satire, and unexpected heart.” Book & Lyrics by Elizabeth Searle; music by Michael Teoli. On the book front, Elizabeth’s book The Drama Room was listed as a “Recommended Book of 2025” in ArtsFuse magazine. For updates, visit www.elizabethsearle.net.