Jason Reynolds (WFYP, MFA faculty) has had a busy month. First, he was awarded a 2024 MacArthur Fellowship. He also announced that he is founding Heirloom Literary & Media, a new literary agency. He appeared on The Daily Show, promoting his YA novel Twenty-Four Seconds from Now, which he also discussed in an interview in Publishers Weekly.
Lyz Lenz (Fiction, June 2011) was a recipient of a 2024 Iowa Author Award.
Jorge Armenteros (Fiction, June 2012) has a new novel, The Curvature Of An Absence, out with Spuyten Duvvil Press.
Kate Fussner (WFYP, June 2021) was longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Awards in the Middle Grade/ Young Adult category for her novel-in-verse The Song of Us.
Enzo Silon Surin (Poetry, 2012) was longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Awards in the Poetry category for his collection American Scapegoat.
Tracey Baptiste (WFYP, MFA faculty) has published a new middle-grade novel, Boy 2.0, with Hachette Book Group.
Saraciea J. Fennell’s (WFYP, January 2020) anthology The Black Girl Survives in this One is featured in a New York Times article “R.L. Stine’s Favorite Halloween Books Will Give Your Kids Goosebumps.”
Kevin Prufer (Poetry, MFA faculty) has been awarded the 2024 University of North Texas Rilke Prize for his poetry collection The Fears.
Jody Hobbs Hesler’s (Fiction, June 2017) novel Without You Here is reviewed in Midwest Book Review (scroll down to the General Fiction Shelf), and has been named by Electric Literature as one of “15 Small Press Books You Should Be Reading This Fall.”
The Floating World, the latest from Axie Oh (WFYP, June 2017) is now available for pre-order.
Suzanne Edison (Poetry, July 2016) has a poem “Looking at a photograph of a person looking out a window at Mt. St. Helens years after eruption” published in SWIMM Every Day.
Elizabeth Shick (Fiction, January 2019) received a review of her novel The Golden Land in the blog Enchanted Prose.
Publishers Weekly has spotlighted the musical theater adaptation of Michelle Knudsen’s (WFYP, MFA Writing Faculty) children’s book Library Lion.
A Terrible Place for a Nest by Sara Levine (WFYP, January 2006) has been highlighted as the Review of the Day by the School Library Journal.
Black Coal and Red Bandanas: An Illustrated History of the West Virginia Mine Wars, the latest graphic novel by Raymond Tyler (Fiction, June 2020) is now available for sale.
And finally, we have not one, not two, but three Lesley MFA authors included in the newly-published anthology, On the Block: Stories of Home. Stories about the multigenerational immigrant families living at the Entrada apartment building include “Apt 5B: Lila Sooklal” by Tracey Baptiste (WFYP, MFA Writing Faculty), “Apt 6A: Ro Chen” by Andrea Wang (WFYP, June 2011), and “Apt 3D: Amira Dawoud” by Jasmine Warga (WFYP, June 2013).
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Do you have any recent writing successes or news you’d like to share with the Cambridge Common Writers community? Let us know by reaching out to us at [email protected]!
Opportunities & Resources
- The 2025 Massachusetts Poetry Festival has extended its deadline for proposals to November 17th at 11:59 p.m. EST. They are calling all poets, educators, literary organizations and creatives to submit your ideas for festival programming—from interactive workshops and panel discussions to poetry slams, performances, poetry in conversation with music, art, dance, and other creative formats. Panelists will be paid, and both in-person and virtual events will be considered.
- David Elliott, emeritus faculty for the Writing for Young People genre, is conducting a writing retreat focused on retellings May 2025 in Greece. Participants will stay in a beachfront hotel in a village on the island of Evia, visit ancient sites as inspiration for workshops, and then participate in seminars and workshops meant to generate new work as the writers hone their craft. Those interested in attending should fill out this form.
- The 2025 Perugia Press Prize is open for submissions until November 15th. They are looking for poetry manuscripts by U.S.-based woman-identifying poets with no more than one previously published full-length book. You are still eligible if you have published a poetry chapbook/s or books in other genres.
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