We love to hear from former students! Check out our alumni news stories below, or view our alumni profiles. Fill out the alumni update form to send us your news.
Your support makes a tremendous difference. Private gifts to the department have enabled our faculty and students to achieve excellence not otherwise possible. Learn more about giving.
Anselma Prandhita, 2025, a PhD in language and rhetoric, was profiled by the College of Arts and Sciences last summer. A scholar of speculative fiction and the English language, Prihandita completed a dissertation that explores writing challenges faced by historically marginalized students, while also producing short stories in the speculative fiction genre. One of her stories, "Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being,” won a prestigious Nebula Award. To read more about Prihandita's…
Derek Sheffield, ’90, ’99, a poet and English teacher, was appointed Washington State’s Poet Laureate in April by Governor Bob Ferguson. A passionate naturalist known for co-editing the best-selling "Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry" with Elizabeth Bradfield, ’94, and CMarie Fuhrman, Sheffield is “always packing” binoculars and hand lens and birds by ear—often in the woods near his home in Leavenworth. He has butterflied alongside Robert Michael Pyle, ’69, ’73, the lepidopterist, and…
Novels, Stories, and Poetry Collections
Exhibition Text, D. Frederick Thomas (MFA 2014)
Vagabond Press, October 2024
From the press:
Invited by a formerly estranged friend to write about her enigmatic new artwork for an upcoming show, an unnamed narrator makes the journey from Brisbane to Baltimore hoping to make sense of things both past and present. Following the strange logic of a Möbius strip, Thomas’s debut…
The UW Alumni Magazine, Viewpoint, published an article about the 50th anniversary of Shawn Wong's anthology, Aiiieeeee! along with 50 years of UW Press publishing Asian American writing, mentioning many English Deptment graduates who published books as well. To read the article click here: Finding the Words: UW Press Celebrates "Aiiieeeee!" and a 50 year legacy of Asian American Literature.
Derek Sheffield (BA ’90, MFA ’99) wanted to let you know about the book he recently published with C Marie Fuhrman and Elizabeth Bradfield (BA ‘98): Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry. Cascadia Field Guide features select UW English Alums and faculty, including Colleen J. McElroy, Linda Bierds, David Wagoner, and Frances McCue.
Says Derek:
This book was five years in the making, and it's been so gratifying to see how it's becoming something of a cultural phenomenon. Since its…
On the occasion of the publication of E.J. Koh's (PhD 2023) debut novel, The Liberators, the University of Washington Magazine celebrates Koh's remarkable, award-winning achievements as an artist and scholar:
During her time as a UW graduate student, Koh published a critically acclaimed memoir, completed her novel and worked as a writer adapting the best-selling novel by Min Jin Lee, “Pachinko,” for an Apple TV+ series. “These works, combined with her dissertation, demonstrate a writer…
Brian Christian's (MFA 2008) most recent book of nonfiction, The Alignment Problem has been named as one of the "5 Best Books About Artificial Intelligence" by The New York Times. As the NYT reviewer writes:
If you’re going to read one book on artificial intelligence, this is the one. Though it was published in 2020, which in terms of A.I. is practically prehistory, I still think it’s fairer and more illuminating than almost anything published since. Its chief value is its…
The English department is pleased to announce that well-known author and UW Creative writing alumnus Erin Marie Lynch will be doing a poetry reading from her new book, Removal Acts. The reading is scheduled on November 6th at 7:00 PM in the UW Husky Union Building room 332. More information about the event can be found here.
Erin Marie Lynch's work is often viewed in several publications such as The New England Review, Narrative and Best New Poets. She has…
Ricardo Ruiz's (BA, English Creative Writing 2021) first book of poetry, We Had Our Reasons: Poems by Ricardo Ruiz and other hard-working Mexicans from Eastern Washington (Pulley Press), has won the Washington State Book Award for poetry. The Washington State Book Awards honor works of outstanding literary merit by Washington authors.
We Had Our Reasons is a collection of poems created by Ricardo Ruiz in collaboration with other members of his Mexican farm community…
Renowned author Marilynne Robinson has received the Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus Award (ASLD). This award is the highest honor bestowed upon a University of Washington graduate and is presented annually by the UW and UW Alumni Association. It recognizes a legacy of achievement and service built over a lifetime.
Since Robinson earned her Ph.D. at the UW in 1977, she has become one of the world’s premier fiction writers. A Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the…
