Fall 2023

Gustavo Adolfo Aybar

Janée J. Baugher

Kimberly L. Becker

Amelia Brunskill

Tara Campbell

Cara Diaconoff

Estelle Erasmus

Amy Gottlieb

Miranda Joy

Diana Lopez

Ceilidh Michelle

Joanne Nelson

Aimee Ogden

Ursula Pike

Mark Pleiss

Doug Ramspeck

Sara Rauch

Erin Riha

Sean Singer

Jill Talbot

Helen Thorpe

Claire Wahmanholm

Allison Whittenberg

Spring 2023

Neil Aitken

Maryka Biaggio

Patricia Clark

Sayantani Dasgupta

Jehanne Dubrow

Anika Fajardo

J. Kates

Tony Keith Jr.

Athena Kildegaard

Sophia Kouidou-Giles

Bronson Lemer

Lara Lillibridge

Sarah Fawn Montgomery

Keenan Norris

Derek Otsuji

Jessica Payne

Paul Pedroza

Dawn Raffel

Karen Rigby

Moazzam Sheikh

Jennifer Steil

Yvonne Ventresca

Evan Morgan Williams

Kristen Witucki

Fall 2022

Nina Renata Aron

Gustavo Adolfo Aybar

Rachel Beanland

Maryka Biaggio

Leland Cheuk

Patricia Clark

Garrard Conley

David Eye

Lucy Ferriss

Tony R. Keith Jr.

Lara Lillibridge

Michael Meyerhofer

Gina Nutt

Daniel Olivas

Jeannine Ouellette

Anne Leigh Parrish

Doug Ramspeck

Joanna Rokoff

Anika Scott

Joann Smith

Matthew Thorburn

Helen Thorpe

Claire Wahmanholm

Spring 2022

Neil Aitken

Alexa Doran

Lily Hoang

Amorak Huey

J. Kates

Shikha Malaviya

Emily Maloney

Mark Pleiss

Dawn Raffel

Rochelle Spencer

Allison Whittenberg

Kristen Witucki

Fall 2021

Neil Aitken

Maryka Biaggio

Jen Breach

Alexa Doran

Jehanne Dubrow

David Eye

Lucy Ferriss

J. Kates

Lara Lillibridge

Daniel A. Olivas

Anne Leigh Parrish

Mark Pleiss

Dawn Raffel

Sean Singer

Joann Smith

Rochelle Spencer

Doug Sutton-Ramspeck

Matthew Thorburn

Claire Wahmanholm

Kristen Witucki

Spring 2021

Neil Aitken

Rachel Beanland

Yvette Benavides

Maryka Biaggio

Despy Boutris

Rus Bradburd

Jen Breach

Cara Diaconoff

Alexa Doran

Meg Eden

Suzanne Farrell Smith

Donna Freitas

J. Kates

Lara Lillibridge

Diana López

Shikha Malaviya

Faiqa Mansab

Ellen Meeropol

Michael Meyerhofer

Emily K. Michael

Danielle Rollins

Lex Williford

Kristen Witucki

Fall 2020

Kathryn Aalto

Neil Aitken

Bill Beverly

Maryka Biaggio

Jen Breach

Daniel Allen Cox

Eileen Cronin

Sayantani Dasgupta

Julie Hanson

Lily Hoang

Soniah Kamal

J. Kates

Chynna Laird

Lara Lillibridge

Emily Maloney

Shikha Malaviya

Ellen Meeropol

Mark Pleiss

Mark Jude Poirier

Dawn Raffel

Anika Scott

Claire Wahmanholm

Allison Whittenberg

Kristen Witucki

Richard Terrill

W.C. Woods

Spring 2020

Kathryn Aalto

Jasmine V. Bailey

Callista Buchen

Maisy Card

Nan Cuba

Tyler Dilts

Lucy Ferriss

Donna Freitas

Lily Hoang

Amorak Huey

Nancy Johnson

Lara Lillibridge

Diana López

Benjamin Ludwig

R.L. Maizes

Emily Maloney

Michael Meyerhofer

Elizabeth Deanna Morris Lakes

Amanda Niehaus

Paul Pedroza

Mark Jude Poirier

Leslie Schwartz

Jennifer Steil

John Elizabeth Stintzi

Lisa C. Taylor

Richard Terrill

David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Lex Williford

Janet Wong

Rita Woods

Fall 2019

Rose Andersen

Janée J. Baugher

Matt Bell

Chris Cander

Sarah Carson

Marlena Chertock

Kim Chinquee

Sandy Coomer

Sayantani Dasgupta

Allison Pitinii Davis

Meg Eden

David Eye

Jenny Lee Ferguson

Rebecca Morgan Frank

Atar Hadari

Alison Hammer

Jessica Handler

James Tate Hill

Soniah Kamal

J. Kates

Athena Kildegaard

Angie Kim

Phil Klay

Keith Kopka

Marie Myung-Ok Lee

Lara Lillibridge

Shikha Malaviya

Emily Maloney

Michelle Menting

Michael Meyerhofer

Chinelo Okparanta

Anne Leigh Parrish

Mark Jude Poirier

Dean Rader

Dawn Raffel

Kate Ristau

Joshunda Sanders

Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel

Jennifer Steil

Rachel Swearingen

Richard Terrill

Erica Trabold

M.A. Vizsolyi

Pat Willard

Spring 2019

Allen Braden

Jehanne Dubrow

Pamela Erens

Emily Fridlund

Amy Gottlieb

Danielle Hanson

Athena Kildegaard

Phoebe Kitanidis

Sandra Gail Lambert

Alex Lemon

Benjamin Ludwig

Emily Maloney

Faiqa Mansab

Tif Marcelo

Kristi Maxwell

Michael Meyerhofer

Joe Milazzo

Christina Olson

Katie Rose Guest Pryal

Jenny Sadre-Orafai

Anne Sanow

Jay Sheets

Renee Simms

Suzanne Farrell Smith

Richard Terrill

Natalia Treviño

Fran Wilde

Evan Morgan Williams

Lex Williford

Xu Xi

Fall 2018

Neil Aitken

Allen Braden

Callista Buchen

Chris Cander

Norma Cantú

Geffrey Davis

Chris Dombrowski

Jason Gray

Erin Hoover

Allegra Hyde

Zeke Jarvis

J. Kates

Sarah Leamy

Mira T. Lee

Alex Lemon

Sassafras Lowrey

Steph Post

Lilliam Rivera

Keena Roberts

David Rocklin

Jennifer Steil

Tom Stern

Chris Tonelli

Erica Trabold

Jessica Wilbanks

Hilary Zaid

Spring 2018

Neil Aitken

Caroline Bock

Callista Buchen

Sandy Spencer Coomer

Jenny Yang Cropp

Alex DiFrancesco

Anjali Enjeti

Tyler Dilts

David Ebershoff

Pamela Erens

Natalie Giarratano

Elizabeth Isadora Gold

Amy Gottlieb

Keith Kopka

Laura Ellen Joyce

Sandra Gail Lambert

Barbara Lindsay

Benjamin Ludwig

Kristi Maxwell

Claire Messud

Maggie Smith

Joseph Schuster

Shanthi Sekaran

Grant Souders

Doug Sutton-Ramspeck

Jill Talbot

Anne Valente

Ken Waldman

Stephanie Powell Watts

Kao Kalia Yang

Fall 2017

Kathryn Aalto

Adam Clay

Neil Connelly

Tasha Cotter

Laura Creedle

Jenny Ferguson

Lucy Ferriss

Gail Folkins

Roxane Gay

Reyna Grande

Gail Hosking

Allegra Hyde

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

J. Kates

Jean Klein

Sassafras Lowrey

Benjamin Ludwig

Shikha Malaviya

Christina Olson

Paul Pedroza

David Rocklin

Matthew Thorburn

Spencer Wise

Spring 2017

Kimberly L. Becker

Chelsea Biondolillo

Dan Calhoun

Sandy Coomer

Chauna Craig

Margaret Lazarus Dean

Jaquira Díaz

Jehanne Dubrow

Jenny Ferguson

Masha Hamilton

Zeke Jarvis

Soniah Kamal

Margaret Malone

Jeannine Ouellette

Virginia Pye

Doug Ramspeck

JD Schraffenberger

Elizabeth L. Silver

Danez Smith

Jill Talbot

Laura Valeri

Sidney Wade

Ken Waldman

Brendan Walsh

Xu Xi

Fall 2016

Julia Boyd

Michael Broder

Dan Calhoun

Hélène Cardona

Tracy DeBrincat

Amina Gautier

Leslie Harrison

Rachel Howzell Hall

Christine Hyung-Oak Lee

Kelly Luce

Shikha Malaviya

Marilyn McCabe

Joe Milazzo

Sharon Millar

Lisa Nikolidakis

Jeannine Ouellette

Lori Ostlund

Jodi Paloni

Zach Powers

Katie Rose Guest Pryal

Chaitali Sen

Spring 2016

Fred Arroyo

Katharine Beutner

Allen Braden

Traci Brimhall

Gail Folkins

Brandi Megan Granett

Barbara Helfgott Hyett

dawn lonsinger

Benjamin Ludwig

Shikha Malaviya

Najiyah Maxfield

Jeannine Ouellette

Jon Papernick

Emilia Phillips

Alice Sebold

Claude Clayton Smith

Sharon Estill Taylor

Eliot Treichel

Ken Waldman

Fall 2015

Michael Broder

"[S]ome people are mentorship magnets—everybody wants to help them the moment they meet them—and other people are not. I was not. And I think those are the people who need the most help. But they need help from people like me, who realize how hard it can be to get the help you need."

Norma Cantú

"It is important to connect with other writers to allay the fears and put the doubts into perspective."

Chauna Craig

"Transitions often provoke crises when a writing career doesn’t go as planned, and mentors who have ‘been there’ are such valuable sources of information and support."

Eileen Cronin

"Mentorships help you: to learn how to be the best editors to your own work; to learn how to be generous with your talents; to strive to go beyond writing stories that are funny or dramatic toward writing stories with lasting power."

Lori Desrosiers

"No writer should have to write in a vacuum. Having people to show your work to is a great boon and helps with every aspect of writing, from idea formation to final editing and submission."

Dale Griffiths Stamos

"Writing begets writing. Although inspiration is lovely when it hits. The process of sitting down and putting words to paper will bring other words from your subconscious to the surface."

Minal Hajratwala

"There’s still a real shortage of diversity in the writing coach landscape, and I find that many of my clients are really happy to have a person of color/queer person/etc. who can help them unpack some of the particular issues around silencing and finding one’s voice that can happen as a result of oppression."

Robert Hellenga

"Writing doesn't seem to get any easier, especially as I move farther and farther away from my own experience."

Rachel Howzell Hall

"I want to pay it forward, be there for someone who may feel as marginalized as I did."

Kristiana Kahakauwila

"Write the book you want to read. I like this advice because it's a reminder that so many stories are still silenced, are still unavailable. If you feel like your story isn't represented out there, then write it."

Kerrin McCadden

"I think the relationships forged in mentorship give the mentee an avenue for all those dark-of-the-night questions—a place to really ask them with intent and open ears."

Jennifer Morales

"If you think your work is good, then fight for it. Pester everyone you know to advocate for you. And don’t give up."

Verónica Reyes

"I hope to help an emerging Chicana/o or Latina/o poet or writer of color. I hope to provide support to a queer/lesbian poet who needs advice from a Chicana from East L.A. I hope to provide a face to what it means to be a working poet in this society. I hope to give back what I wished I had as a young poet from the streets of my community."

J.E. (Eric) Robinson

"As a novice, I wish I had a more experienced writer willing and able to jettison personal tastes and prejudices so that he may hear out clearly ideas I had."

Jenny Sadre-Orafai

"My mentors always stressed perseverance. Their knowledge and guidance means everything to me. I revisit it nearly every day I teach. I am always reminded of who I learned from and what I learned."

Leslie Schwartz

"Mentoring is an extraordinary experience and one I rely on to keep my own creative self alive. Interaction with new writers keeps me fresh, and I always hope they make it out there. When they do, it is a thrilling experience. I simply like to create community and to give what I have. I was there once too."

Brando Skyhorse

"It never goes like you hope. You never find balance, meet your goals, or find your audience, because each level of small success opens a larger field of potential challenges."

Christine Sneed

"The poet Roland Flint said that you have to focus on the work, above all, and on the joy that writing brings to your life. The work is what will endure and the pleasure you take in it. Other aspects—money, attention from readers and publishers, prizes—those might come at some point, but it's your love of writing that will carry you through the times when you feel worried or anxious about your future."

Michael Steinberg

"In the best-case scenarios, mentors and mentees (myself among them) have formed lifelong personal, collegial, and professional relationships."

Molly Sutton Kiefer

"We are not alone. This is what a mentorship can do. Say: Hey, here's what I did to get through this particular period, and here's how I came out of it. Here's what you can do. I see you, I see where you are going, and I'm there."

Earl Swift

"We writers are much like rivers—we’re the sum of many streams. I hope to serve as a useful stream."

Edwin Torres

"I think the mentee relationship has wonderful attributes for both parties, creating an open field and finding new friends. But also calling to question your own work: Does it support what you're teaching? Can you bring one more person to their own possibility?"

Jessica Treadway

"[I hope to gain a sense of] connection, and the satisfaction of helping someone in the way I would have appreciated had this program been available when I was a young writer."

Seth Brady Tucker

"Of course, it is important to have good readers, but it is even more important to have a good network of supporters these days; the competition is more and more fierce to be published, and new writers need someone to help them navigate the competitive world of publishing."

Susan Wingate

"[Struggles in the writing life] happen, I believe, on and off again through our careers, but when I had my mentor on my side, these instances didn't feel as daunting. His encouragement helped invaluably."

Spring 2015

Laurel Blossom

"To work with a mentor who believes in your work and treats you as a colleague is an enriching, esteem-building, and (at its very best) transformative experience. I would hope to be such a mentor."

Allen Braden

"I think a good mentor guides the aesthetic development and direction of a mentee without insisting he or she writes as the mentor does."

Renee D’Aoust

"There is time, you have time, even if you feel as if you don’t. The urgency needs to be on the page, not in your fear of the page or your hope for success."

Lisha Garcia

"Follow the voice that one's passion demands. If one can't live without the writing, then the world deserves access to that voice."

Mike Harvkey

"The best way to think of writing is as a lifelong practice, a pursuit of perfection that will never be reached."

Allison Hedge Coke

"Giving generously ensures fullness, fruition, and fine times. Mentoring is essential cyclical truth. Passing along what you pick up allows those that receive two handfuls to run with, yours and their own."

Michael Klein

"Working with a mentor enables the mentee to -- when it's a good working relationship -- be much freer and not as self censoring as they might be when in a classroom or other kind of group situation."

Elline Lipkin

"I think mentorship is essential, and I'll venture saying more so for women writers who (generally speaking) are less apt to submit their work and believe their voice and vision need to be heard."

Rachel Mennies

"The best advice I've ever received about my writing is to remember that we're writers (art-makers) first, and authors second."

Brian Oliu

"The thing I try to teach writers is that we are all in this together: just because I have pieces published doesn't mean that we're not on the same level—I've just been at it longer. Your book has a birthday. You just don’t know what it is yet."

Lori Ostlund

"I think that I understand well how important the small successes are--a 'good' rejection, a kind word from another writer, making a semifinalist list for a contest. Sometimes it's nice to have other people in your life who understand the significance of these things and how they can buoy you during a difficult period."

Paul Pedroza

"One can never underestimate the power of just knowing someone has been through what you're just beginning to do and is there to support you emotionally, as well."

Jennifer Perrine

"The pleasurable, important part of writing is the deep, deliberate process of making something, so slow down and enjoy it. Publishing might be satisfying, but it's not the reason why we write."

Luke Rolfes

"After one of my first rejections, one of my mentors told me this about publishing: There is undoubtedly a person out there who will love every word that you will ever write. There is also a person out there who will hate every word. The trick is getting your writing on the right person's desk on the right day when he or she is in the right mood to fall in love with your work."

Candy Schulman

"I found a lifelong mentor with Hayes B. Jacobs, who was smart, stern, disciplined, and incredibly encouraging. I would not be a writer today if not for him. To this day, I quote him in my classes and feel spurred on daily because of the effect he had on me."

Robin Scofield

"One time in my thirties, I thought that I should give up this expensive habit of writing poems and expecting an audience. I was on my way to my weekly writing workshop with The Tumblewords Project. At the workshop, that very night, I wrote the first three poems of what would become a sequence which became my first full-length book."

Jeffrey Stayton

"I'd like to give back what was freely given to me."

Lisa C. Taylor

"Read widely and spend as much (or more) time revising as you do writing. View your original lines as the doorway to a piece that will become stronger over time. If a piece just isn't working, sometimes you have to put it aside for a while."

Deb Olin Unferth

"Mentors are there to give feedback and ideas about all manner of things, from how to handle rejection (or at least how not to let it crumple you) to how and why to write when other matters feel more urgent."

Evan Morgan Williams

"Write on, in spite of the many obstacles in your life. You have to make it happen, and, unless you have a devoted muse at your side, you are the only one who will habitualize the importance of it."

Fall 2014

Fred Arroyo

"A mentor can help to foster a space where ambition, perfection, and the marketplace are momentarily quelled, and in this space, writing as an art can be fostered and nurtured."

Chauna Craig

"Mentors can provide support and encouragement for sustaining a writing life."

Renee D’Aoust

"There is time, you have time, even if you feel as if you don’t. The urgency needs to be on the page, not in your fear of the page or your hope for success."

Lori Desrosiers

"No writer should have to write in a vacuum. Having people to show your work to is a great boon and helps every aspect of writing."

Brandi Granett

"When you immerse yourself in something you love through service, this deepens your own connection to your craft."

Ernestine Hayes

"I hope to provide encouragement to a writer who is now at a stage where I once was. Had I had a mentor... I would have more readily believed in myself."

Jeffery Hess

"I believe that mentors can demystify perceptions of the literary community."

Jen Hirt

"I just want to ‘pay it forward’… lots of experienced writers and editors have helped me out, and it was so useful."

Janet Sylvester

"I think that our increasingly virtual publishing world needs the push-back of personal relationships between experienced and new writers."

Amy Wallen

"A mentor can often make suggestions on different approaches when a writer is struggling with draft, submissions, or even finding the discipline to sit in the chair."