Congratulations to all our WWLA faculty and students who wrapped up 2017 in style!
"Taking Care With Broken Things: How I Came to Practice Ethical Taxidermy" by Summer Block (Essay Writing) was published by Catapult. Summer also wrote about the 25th Annual Sea Chantey Festival for The Awl. Look for her review in the anthology Critically Acclaimed: Fake Movies, Real Reviews, coming out January 9 and edited by former WWLA instructor Adam Cushman.
Sara Campbell wrote about one of her favorite records, R.E.M.'s Murmur, for The RS 500, an online outlet that's publishing stories and essays about Rolling Stone's top 500 albums of all time.
Melissa Chadburn (Nonfiction II) went undercover as a temp worker for her Longreads essay, “The Human Cost of the Ghost Economy,” which was among the 25 most popular Longreads exclusives of 2017 and the 10 best stunt journalism stories of 2017.
Andrea Ciannavei’s poem “Landowner” was published by Writers Resist.
“Unknocked,” a story by Chris Daley (Improve Your Submission Game), was published by Front Porch Journal.
Kristen Daniels will be a resident at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in March 2017.
April Dávila’s story “Quitter” was published by F(r)iction Online.
Christopher DeWan (The Art of the Short Story) is one of six fellows invited to join the inaugural Script Lab at Middlebury College's historic Bread Loaf campus this January. He is a recipient of a 2018 grant from the Arts Enterprise Laboratory for flash fiction. Chris was also named one of Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch by the International Screenwriters’ Association. His collection Hoopty Time Machines was reviewed at Glassworks Magazine.
You can now read Jennifer Alise Drew’s essay “Personal Matters” in The Iowa Review.
Ruby Dutcher has an essay in the forthcoming book, Modern Loss: Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome.
Jackie Elam’s flash nonfiction “Looking in the Mirror: The Ugly Truth of Search Engines” was published by HeadStuff.
Seth Fischer (Novel II) is the new nonfiction editor at The Nervous Breakdown. Lunch Ticket republished his story/adjusted excerpt "Coyote in the Blood" for their special celebrating 20 years of the Antioch MFA Program.
Terrance Flynn performed his story “Ambrosia” at The Moth Mainstage in Portland.
Melissa Haley wrote about women pilots in the 1930s for Acid Free, the publication of the Los Angeles Archivists Collective.
Tahoma Literary Review will publish DeLon Howell’s essay “Listening for the Boys.”
Edan Lepucki’s novel Woman No. 17 was a notable work of fiction by The Washington Post, a recommended book by the San Francisco Chronicle, and one of POPSUGAR's Best Books of 2017. Los Angeles Times critic-at-large Susan Straight highlighted the novel in her column about her favorite books of the year. Edan also interviewed Margaret Atwood for a PEN Center USA event.
"Villanelle: Warning," a poem by Elline Lipkin (Poetry II), was published in the fall issue of Moria. Her poems "Agape, Age Three" and "Yes, I Am" were published in the fall issue of Tinker Street.
Kate Maruyama (Novel I) will be part of the Shades & Shadows Reading at The Mystic Museum on January 20.
Only one month until A Perfect Universe, the new story collection from Scott O'Connor (Fiction I; Getting to the Heart of Your Characters), is available for purchase (but you can pre-order today!).
Sarah Osman's essay "A Teacher's Letter to Her Students About Charlottesville" was published by Hello Giggles.
Wonder Valley, the new novel from Ivy Pochoda (Plot & Pacing), was included in LitHub’s Best Crime Books of 2017, Entertainment Weekly’s 14 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in November, Village Voice's 2017's Best Crime Fiction, Los Angeles Times's Best Fiction of 2017, POPSUGAR's 12 Must-Read Books of November, and NPR’s Guide to 2017’s Great Reads, among others. It was also featured on Good Morning America as Michael Connelly’s favorite book of the year/the book he’s giving his friends this holiday season. Ivy also wrote about Wonder Valley and Twentynine Palms for The New York Times and snowboarder Chloe Kim for Vogue.
Grace and the Fever by Zan Romanoff (Nonfiction I) was included in NPR’s Guide to 2017’s Great Reads and Vulture's 10 Best YA Books. Her Personal Geography series at Medium concluded with her essay “The City Burning.” (See also “Where to Have a Near-Death Experience in Los Angeles.”) Zan also wrote about “The Peculiar Sadness of Animated Alcoholics” for The Awl, “The Consumerist Church of Fitness Classes” for The Atlantic, and "Why We Learned to Fight" for Bon Appétit.
Samantha Jean Sumampong's essay "I Was the Roommate from Hell" was published by Role Reboot.
Christina Simon has joined the editorial team at Angels Flight Literary West. Her essay “Tarnished Silver” was published in the summer 2017 “Death” issue of The Broken City.
Two fairy tales by Sally Stevens, “The Sad Queen, the Selfish King, and the Magical Flowers” and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves—A Collective Overview,” will be included in a forthcoming anthology from Between the Lines Publishing.
Laura Warrell (Westside Fiction), along with guest instructor Natashia Deón and many other excellent writers, will be reading for Angels Flight • Literary West’s Year of the Woman: Writing for Change event on January 13.
Lauren Westerfeld’s poem “Hologram” appeared in the fall/winter 2017 issue of [PANK]. Noble/Gas Quarterly published her poems “As Saturnine in Spring” and “After Flash Rain in Summer” in their latest issue.
Writing Workshops Los Angeles will start offering online courses in February!
Two Cities Review published Elizabeth Youle’s story “The Caver.”
The editors of TriQuarterly nominated "Civilian," a poem by Kim Young (Poetry I), for a Pushcart Prize. Also, Kim’s poem "Tiger," originally published in The Cincinnati Review, was selected by the Academy of American Poets for inclusion on the site Poets.org.