The Writers Studio is proud of the success of its students.
Read all about the latest success stories of our teachers and students, who have published stories and poems in a vast array of magazines and journals including The Atlantic, Ploughshares, Open City, Five Points, Harpers, The Paris Review and Glimmer Train. They have also published books with many respected independent publishers and major houses including Tin House Books, Random House, and Houghton Mifflin. They have been reviewed in The New York Times Book Review, been chosen as fellows at the prestigious Yaddo and MacDowell writers’ colonies, been featured on National Public Radio and The Oprah Winfrey Show, and have won prizes ranging from the Emmy to the Pushcart to the Pulitzer.
For a list of new and notable publications and awards by current and former students, visit Success Stories.
ALUMNI
Jennifer Egan, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for A Visit from the Goon Squad. Her other novels include The New York Times bestseller, Manhattan Beach, which was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and was chosen as New York City’s One Book One New York read. Her nonfiction appears regularly in The New York Times, and she recently completed a term as President of PEN America.
Julie Otsuka, author of The New York Times bestseller, The Buddha in the Attic and winner of a Guggenheim fellowship, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and an Asian American Literary Award.
Jane Avrich, author of the The Winter Without Milk: Stories and recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. Her stories have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and Story.
Amy Schatz, American director and producer of documentaries and children’s shows and series. Her work has earned eight Emmy Awards, seven Directors Guild of America Awards, three Peabody Awards, a Parents’ Choice Award, the Gracie Award, and five Animation Emmy Awards.
Kimberly Reed, American film director and producer who is best known for her documentaries Prodigal Sons and Dark Money, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. In 2007, Filmmaker magazine named her one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”
Shirley Velasquez, director of content at Latina Media Ventures. Her writing has appeared in Elle, Glamour, American Way, Woman’s Day, Cosmopolitan Magazine for Latinas, InStyle, Ms., Latina, Family Circle, The New York Sun, Patriot Acts: Narratives of Post-9/11 Injustice (McSweeney’s/Voice of Witness) and Border-Line Personalities: A New Generation of Latinas Dish on Sex, Sass, and Cultural Shifting (Harper Collins).
Jenny McPhee, author of three novels and the co-author of Girls: Ordinary Girls and Their Extraordinary Pursuits. Her translations from the Italian include books by the authors Primo Levi, Giacomo Leopardi, and Pope John Paul II. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Glimmer Train, Zoetrope, and Brooklyn Review, and her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, and Bookforum, among others. She is on the board of the Bronx Academy of Letters.
Martha McPhee, author of five novels, winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. Her work has appeared in several literary journals, including The New Yorker and Harper’s Bazaar. She is a tenured professor in creative writing at Hofstra University.
Martha Southgate, author of four novels, including Another Way to Dance, which won the Coretta Scott King John Steptoe Award for New Talent. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in many publications, including The New York Times Magazine and the Op-Ed page, O, The Oprah Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly. She is a Fellowship Coach in the OpEd Project, whose purpose is to change who writes history.
Jeff Friedman, poet and professor, is the author of seven books of poetry. His poems and translations have appeared in many literary magazines, including American Poetry Review, Poetry, New England Review, Agni Online, Solstice, Plume, Flash Fiction Funny, Flash NonFiction Funny, and The New Republic.
Jean Godfrey-June, author of the memoir, Free Gift with Purchase: My Improbable Career in Magazines and Makeup. Her writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, Elle, and Lucky magazine, where she was also an editor. She is currently the executive beauty editor at Goop.