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.
The English Department's Aileen Kuang (BA, '26) was awarded a Dean's Medal in the Humanities this year. Kuang's professor for the Critical Practice course, Jesse Oak Taylor, had the following to say about her incredible value in the classroom: "She just brings the room to life, making the conversations collective while elevating the discourse well above the norm for a class at this level." On top of being an outstanding student, Kuang completed an…
Along with 6 other UW students, Vecksle Drake(MATESOL, '26) has received a Fulbright award for the 2026-2027 academic year. The award will fund Drake's teaching and research in Mongolia. UW Today covered the full list of Fulbright awardees, including Drake. The UW Graduate School Newsletter profiled Drake's work and goals for the scholarship. “What excites me the most about this research is examining the complexities of cultural knowledge and how…
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…
