creative writing at yale

Yale Creative Writing

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Writing in Place

Students in Cynthia Zarin’s spring 2020 creative writing workshop, “Writing About Place,” never expected to write their final essays from lockdown, stuck in various apartments and childhood homes across the country. The class spent the first half of the semester writing about places they'd visited, routes they'd taken, and campus buildings with opportunity for exploration. For the final assignment, Professor Zarin asked her English 478 students to reflect on their current realities with essays entitled “Writing in Place.” These essays deal with how to process and describe loss as it occurs, how to discuss personal sadness despite feeling grateful, and above all, how to find joy in unexpected places.

"Every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”

You can find the essays on the Yale Daily News

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Creative writing at yale.

This may be one of the more niche posts I’ve made on this site, but it’s something I would have appreciated as a Baby Bulldog, so it’s worth a shot. If you’re an early admit (congrats, bowwowwow, boola boola, all that JAZZ!!!) or a prospective applicant (also very good!), and you might be interested in creative writing, this is the post for you.

I was very into writing fiction as a high schooler. Classic story: wrote exclusively Dursley-focused Harry Potter fanfic in my tween years (someone had to corner that market), then got a little older and started working on original stuff. I did competitions, summer programs, independent study—you name it. When it came time to apply to colleges, a robust creative writing program was important to me.

One of my biggest concerns in committing to Yale was that I wouldn’t be able to pursue writing in the way I wanted. While Yale does have a creative writing concentration within the English major, it doesn’t offer a stand-alone creative writing major. (And if you do go the CW concentration route, you need to complete 11 normal English courses in addition to the four writing courses you take.) Also, a lot (but not all!) of Yale’s CW courses are application-based, requiring you to submit a writing sample and a statement of purpose. This is because CW classes are often small workshops, so they need to cap off around 12-15 students.

I haven’t been accepted into every CW class I’ve applied to, and I probably haven’t taken as many classes as I could have at a school that offered a CW major. BUT I have managed to take five CW classes over five semesters, and really loved each one. Of these five, only two required applications, and they all spanned genres—fiction, journalism, playwriting, and poetry. 

After two-and-a-half years here, I can say with great confidence that Yale is a wonderful place to be a young writer. For one thing, the faculty is stellar. (Fiction Professor Susan Choi just won the National Book Award !), and the English department is constantly attracting cool literary people to campus. For another, if you’re into journalism, you really couldn’t be at a better place— The Yale Daily News runs like a national paper, and student editors are working almost full-time hours. Additionally, there is a huge range of publications on campus, including my personal favorite, The New Journal , which often publishes long-form creative nonfiction. Also, Yale students really and actually read these publications. It’s not unusual to see students pouring over the YDN at breakfast, cereal spoon hovering mid-air.

But the best part of creative writing at Yale is the other students. In my experience, there’s no competition among student writers here, even though everyone is definitely working at the top of their game. Students really support each other’s projects, whether that’s one-on-one workshopping, connecting a friend with the editor of an on-campus publication, or passing along internship opportunities or class recommendations. I know that writing in college, especially among young people who are often competing for the same fellowships or coveted spots in certain seminars, can be a cut-throat pursuit. But, in my experience, that is far from the case at Yale. 

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The “About” page for your site should provide information that explains the purpose of your department or organization, and its relationship to Yale University. For example:

For more than a century, English at Yale has been an important force in the academic study of literature and a key part of Yale’ educational mission. The Department teaches the majority of freshmen in Yale College, graduates more than 100 majors in every Yale class, and trains PhDs in English, who become scholars and teachers of literature. Over the decades our PhDs have gone on to leadership positions throughout the academic profession.

For undergraduates, the Department offers an array of introductory courses designed to develop fundamental writing skills, powers of argument and analysis, and a historical perspective on literature. The English Major introduces students to the many traditions of imaginative writing in English through courses focused on both familiar topics such as Milton or Modern American Literature and the newest areas of faculty investigation. The Department aims to help deepen students’ insights into their own experience and to develop their ability to express their ideas orally and in writing. Yale English majors have an astonishing recent history of writing awards and successful publication.

In addition to courses in literature and expository writing, the Department is the home of creative writing at Yale. Our illustrious writers work in all of the major genres - fiction, poetry, play and film writing, nonfiction prose, journalism - and together they make this one of the strongest undergraduate programs in creative writing in the United States.

• Precepting at YSN
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2021 Creative Writing Awards

2021 honored students.

One of our students’ assignments during their first clinical experience is to begin a journal. Through their journal they can watch their own transformations. Through their writing we can understand contemporary nursing and midwifery through the eyes, hands, and feelings of these remarkable students and soon-to-be advanced practice registered nurses and certified nurse midwives.

YSN’s annual Creative Writing Awards are enlivened by the inspirational presence of YSN Professor Linda Honan. Yale nursing students submit their narratives, journal entries, and other creative writing for consideration of one of three significant student awards.

The 2021 Creative Writing Award winners are Camila Soto Espinoza,  Maxwell Shaw-Jones, and  Tim McGehee .

Camila Soto Espinoza

Camila Soto Espinoza is a second year CNM/WHNP student at Yale School of Nursing. She was born and raised in Chile, where she discovered her love for midwifery at a very young age. In 2015, she graduated as a certified midwife from the University of Concepción, and worked in multiple public hospitals across the country. It was through the stories of her patients that she was inspired to understand the connection between culture and medicine. She moved from Chile to the US in 2018 to start her masters at Yale University. Camila has used her voice and writing skills to share her experiences as a FGLI student, immigrant, and advocate for diversity, inclusion and change. She became an RN in 2019, a Yale Institute of Global Health fellow at UNICEF in 2020, and has served as a student representative and co-chair for YSN’s diversity, equity and inclusion council for two years.  She has spent the COVID era working as an RN to keep the Yale community safe, and on research to understand the immune response caused by COVID infections. She’s currently completing her integration at Massachusetts General Hospital, and is expected to graduate in May of 2021 as a midwife and women’s health NP with a concentration in global health.

Read Camila’s essay, “Monotony,” here .

Maxwell Shaw-Jones

Maxwell is a GEPN student in the Family Nurse Practitioner Specialty. In 2018 he graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in English. He spent the following few years alternatively traveling and working a weird, wide range of jobs. After trying out being an island caretaker, a fiberglass laminator, and a museum security guard, he eventually realized he wanted to be a nurse. Maxwell is interested in the ways nursing can be used to address all manner of issues outside of what we typically think of as ‘health’ and will be co-facilitating the Fall 2021 US Health Justice Elective.

Read Maxwell’s essay, “His Feet,” here . 

Tim McGehee

Tim is a first year AGPCNP student from Milford, Connecticut. After briefly training to sail in the merchant marines, he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard drawn to its missions of homeland security and safety of life at sea. From the North Atlantic to the Caribbean, he stood watch over his cutter’s propulsion plant as a machinery technician. There he built the skills of maintaining, troubleshooting, and repairing machinery. In a twist of fate, Tim was struck by the similarities between troubleshooting machinery and diagnosing disease. After four years, he separated from the Coast Guard taking his chances on college and a career in healthcare. Upon graduating from the University of Connecticut with honors, he worked as a nursing home CNA. There he developed an appreciation for the power of building strong relationships with patients, the holistic nursing model of care, and the medical needs of older adults. He has continued to work in the long-term care setting as an RN. Outside of YSN, Tim is married with two young boys. He intends to work in primary care as a nurse practitioner with the Department of Veteran Affairs.

Read Tim’s essay, ‘ ‘Pain, You Say?’ A Nursing Home Monologue’ here .

Honorable Mentions

The following students are being saluted as honorable mentions:

Kendall Cote ’23 MSN, Helen Day ’23 MSN, Ashleigh Evans ’23 MSN, Stacey Frizzell ’23 MSN, Leoncia Gillespie ’23 MSN, Elizabeth (Libby) Grant ’23 MSN, Kay Green ’22 MSN, Kierra Jackson ’21 MSN, Nicole Kuhnly ’21 MSN, Jill Langan ’21 MSN, Kathleen Lessard ’23 MSN, Sarah Ann Lovell ’22 MSN, Kylee Martin Horlacher ’23 MSN, Sajni Persad ’23 MSN, Jordan Quintin ’23 MSN, Marina Rosenberg ’23 MSN, Kendall Tamler ’21 MSN, and Shiliu Wang ’23 MSN.

We wish to extend our thanks to our judges:

Preliminary Judges:

Nina Adams, Dr. Deborah Fahs, Betsy Groth, Dr. Lorence Gutterman, Katie Pellico, Mary Pierson, and Shel Swanson.

Distinguished Judges:

Echo Heron, critical care nurse and  New York Times  bestselling author of nine books; Anne Fadiman, award-winning author, essayist, editor, and teacher; Anna Quinlan, Pulitzer-Prize winning author; and Lee Woodruff, author of three bestselling books. 

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Writing resources, english 114 guides.

These guides were created by Felisa Baynes-Ross to support students’ writing and research in English 114 and may also be used by the instructors who teach these courses, as well as students and instructors in other courses. The creation of these guides was possible with an FAS Professional Development Leave and support from Jessica Brantley, Maria del Mar Galindo, Sarah Harford, Margaret Homans, Heather Klemann, Stefanie Markovits, Ben Pokross, Jae Kirkland Rice, Erica Sayers, and Rasheed Tazudeen.

“What You Should Know About Writing” addresses misconceptions about writing and provides strategies for success in English 114 and other courses.  Download “What You Should Know About Writing” (PDF) .

“Reading Strategies” offers practical strategies and approaches to help you read scholarly texts. Download “Reading Strategies” (PDF) .

“Key Elements of an Academic Argument” defines the key elements of an academic argument and provides examples to help you close read arguments. Download “Key Elements of an Academic Argument” (PDF) .

“Close Reading for Argument” outlines the steps involved in analyzing academic arguments. Download “Close Reading” (PDF) .

“Writing Academic Argument” identifies some key moves to help you join academic conversations. Download “Writing Academic Argument” (PDF) .

This “Revision Guide” explains the role of revision in writing and offers strategies to help you revise effectively. Download “What is Revision?” (PDF) .

Some Matters of Form

Download here

Yale Young Writers' Workshop

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About the Yale Young Writers' Workshop 

Virtual high school program: july 7 - 12, 2024.

Yale is excited to offer a one-week online summer writing workshop for 16 - 18 year old rising high school juniors, and seniors. We’re seeking bookish wordsmiths interested in adding to their writerly toolbox! Writers will generate and share their work in an intimate, non-competitive, online community.

Writers choose from one of three genres: fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. We have capped the workshops at twelve writers per genre to ensure all voices are heard. Participants attend talks on the craft of writing, open mics, faculty and visiting author readings, student readings, and learn about careers in writing.

Each day starts with a craft talk from a visiting writer followed by a small group workshop for three hours in the afternoon. The craft talks expose writers to genres outside of their own. The workshop is a safe creative space to experiment, play, and develop storytelling skills. Students will generate new material and then read it back to the group for feedback with an eye for revision.

Participants will read one assigned book from a visiting writer prior to the start of the workshop. This will create a shared literature and allow students to investigate writing techniques from published work, and then have the opportunity to ask the author about their creative process.

Our faculty are gifted teachers and published writers. They will meet writers where they are and teach them skills to help them write their next story, essay, or poem. Our faculty may be the closest readers you’ve ever had. They will challenge writers to produce their best work.

Before You Begin the Program:

• Your instructor will assign a short exercise for you to complete before the first workshop.
• You’ll be assigned one book to read by a visiting writer. The writer will present and then visit with your genre group. Book assignments below.
• Start writing now in your journal. Activate your muse in preparation for your workshop.

Guest Authors . Writers are required to read the book for their workshop but are welcome to read all visiting authors’ work.

Poetry Guest Author - Allison Joseph  Assigned Reading Confessions of a Barefaced Woman  (For Sean Forbes and Catherine Pierce’s workshops)

Fiction Guest Author - Jennifer McCauley  Assigned Reading When Trying to Return Home  (For Jotham Burrello, Kristin Bair, Sarah Darer Littman and Lara Ehrlich's workshops)

Graphic Forms Guest Author - Trung Le Capecchi-Nguyen  Assigned Reading The Magic Fish  (For Anne Thalheimer's workshop)

Non-Fiction Guest Author - Jane Wong Assigned Reading This Is the Place: Women Writing About Home  (For Catina Bacote’s workshop)

• Application Opens: January 16, 2024
• Application Deadline: April 1, 2024
• Decisions Released: will be released on a Rolling Amissions Basis Every Week
• Payment Due (to secure your spot): Within 2 weeks of Admission

Eligibility:

• Applicants must be between 16 - 18 years old and a rising high school junior or senior.

Admission Process:

• A writing sample is required. It needs to accompany your application for admission and must be uploaded electronically. Submit your writing sample as a Word document: 500 words, double-spaced in Times Roman, 12-point font, one-inch margins. Each page must include your name. Note genre of the submission: Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry or Graphic Forms.
• 2 Letters of Recommendation 

Refund Policy:

• We will refund 75% for cancellation requests received by April 26, 2024, and 50% for cancellation requests received by May 3, 2024.   We will be unable to honor refund requests received after May 3, 2024.

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Creative writing.

If you would like to dedicate time to creative writing (poems, essays, stories), join our monthly YPA Creative Writing Sessions. The first hour consists of productive quiet writing, after which we have an open session for discussing and sharing. Note this is not a class. Check out the Newsletter and Facebook/Twitter pages for the details about our next session

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Health Professions Creative Writing and Art Contest Awards Ceremony on May 2

Program for Humanities in Medicine: Health Professions Creative Writing and Art Contest 2024 Awards Ceremony Thursday, May 2, at 5 p.m.

Please join, in person or virtually, for this annual celebration of our students and their creativity. Students will read their award-winning poetry and prose, and display and describe their visual artworks.

Learn more and register to watch virtually here .

Virtual Quick Question appointments end Friday, April 26th. Advising Appointments are available throughout the summer and year-round.

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Reading + Q&A with Novelist Kaori Fujino & Translator Kendall Heitzman

• Share This: Share Reading + Q&A with Novelist Kaori Fujino & Translator Kendall Heitzman on Facebook Share Reading + Q&A with Novelist Kaori Fujino & Translator Kendall Heitzman on LinkedIn Share Reading + Q&A with Novelist Kaori Fujino & Translator Kendall Heitzman on X

“ Nails and Eyes ” Reading with Kaori Fujino and Kendall Heitzman.

When: Thursday, April 25, 4:00pm Where: Humanities Quadrangle, Room 136

About Nails and Eyes:

A young girl loses her mother, and her father blindly invites his secret lover into the family home to care for her. Obsessively trying to curate a pristine life, this new interloper remains indifferent to the girl, who seems to record her every move – and she realizes only too late all that she has failed to see.

With masterful narrative control, Nails and Eyes—appearing in English for the first time—builds to a conclusion of disturbing power. Paired with two additional stories of unsettled minds and creeping tension, it introduces a daring new voice in Japanese literature.

Kaori Fujino, a lifelong resident of Kyoto, is best known for fiction that reimagines tropes from horror, science fiction, Hollywood thrillers, urban legends, fairy tales, and museum culture. She holds an MA in aesthetics and art from Doshisha University. In 2013, Fujino was awarded the Akutagawa Prize, Japan’s most prominent literary prize, for Nails and Eyes.In the fall of 2017, she was in residence at the University of Iowa’s prestigious International Writing Program. Her stories have appeared in English translation in Granta, Monkey, and the US-Japan Women’s Journal.

Kendall Heitzman is associate professor of Japanese literature and culture at the University of Iowa, where he teaches literature, film, theater, and the Japanese-to-English translation workshop. He is the author of Enduring Postwar: Yasuoka Shōtarō and Literary Memory in Japan (Vanderbilt University Press, 2019). His translations of Furukawa Hideo appear in recent issues of the literary journal Monkey. His translation of Fujino Kaori’s Nails and Eyes (Pushkin Press, 2023) received the Japan-US Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature.

This tour is co-sponsored by the Japan Foundation New York and the University of Iowa’s Center for Asian and Pacific Studies.

Kaori Fujino, a lifelong resident of Kyoto, is best known for fiction that reimagines tropes from horror, science fiction, Hollywood thrillers, urban legends, fairy tales, and museum culture. In 2013, Fujino was awarded the Akutagawa Prize, Japan’s most prominent literary prize, for Nails and Eyes . In the fall of 2017, she was in residence at the University of Iowa’s prestigious International Writing Program.

Kendall Heitzman is associate professor of Japanese literature and culture at the University of Iowa, where he teaches literature, film, theater, and the Japanese-to-English translation workshop. He is the author of Enduring Postwar (2019). His translation of Fujino Kaori’s Nails and Eyes (Pushkin Press, 2023) received the Japan-US Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature.

Office of Career Strategy

Visiting yale.

Ashleigh F. Streiff B. 2000, Maryland, USA.

“Juried Undergraduate Exhibition,” Ridenbaugh Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID At Invitation, University of Idaho’s President’s House, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID “In Medias Res,” Ridenbaugh Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID

At Invitation, “Painting Show,” Ridenbaugh Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID “VAC is Back!”, Reflections Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID “Pens, Pencils & Paint,” Ridenbaugh Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID At Invitation, University of Idaho’s President’s House, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID. 2023-2024 “Palouse Plein Air,” Moscow City Council, Moscow, ID. (Winner: City Purchase Award) “Mirage,” Reflections Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID. At Invitation, “Painting Show,” Moscow City Council, Moscow, ID. Fall 2023-Spring 2024

“Figures”, Downtown Arts Center, Honolulu, HI “Palouse Plein Air”, Moscow City Council, Moscow, ID. (Winner: Best Watercolor) At Invitation, “Student Painters,” Moscow City Council, Moscow, ID. At Invitation, “Student Printmakers,” Ridenbaugh Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID. “Clay?!”, Ridenbaugh Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID.

At Invitation, “Student Show”, Iolan’i Gallery, Windward Community College, Kaneohe, HI.

“Foundations Juried Exhibition”, The Looking Glass Gallery, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC.

“Student Show”, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC.

Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Painting and Ceramics, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID. (Forthcoming)

Extracurriculars and Honors

2022 - 2024

President of Visual Arts Community (VAC), University of Idaho President of Vandal Print Guild (VPG), University of Idaho Volunteer Artist, Vandaljacks, University of Idaho Dean’s List, University of Idaho Alumni Award for Excellence, University of Idaho

2019 - 2020

Resident Artist, Cannon Hall, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC.

Work Experience / Training

2021 - 2022

Gallery Attendant, Iolan’i Gallery, Windward Community College, Kaneohe, HI.

Studied Under:

Kelly Oakes, Durham, NC. 2019-2020. William Zwick, Honolulu, HI. 2020. Mark Brown, Honolulu, HI, 2020-2022. Daunna Yanoviak, Kailua, HI. 2021- 2022. Mark Norseth, Honolulu, HI. 2021-2023.

“Introduction to Figure Drawing,” Stacey Leanza, Class, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2018. “Printmaking; Mono-prints,” Stacey Leanza, Class, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2018. “Mixed Media,” Stacey Leanza, Class, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2018. “Introduction to Portrait Drawing,” Kelly Oakes, Class, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2019. “Painting Portraits in Alla Prima,” Kelly Oakes, Workshop, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2019. “Demystifying the Modern Portrait,” Marie Rossettie, Class, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2019. “Intuitive Painting,” Heather Gerni, Workshop, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2019. “Oil Painting Crash Course,” Vanessa Murray, Workshop, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2019. “Live Portrait Sessions,” Alla Parsons, Downtown Arts Center, Honolulu, HI. 2023. “Introduction to Watercolor,” Dwayne Adams, Class, Downtown Arts Center, Honolulu, HI. 2023.

Creative Writing:

“Writing the Killer Mystery,” C1121, Central Carolina Community College, 2019. “Flash Fiction Made Easy,” C1058, Central Carolina Community College, 2019. “Charting Your Path To Publication,” C1060, Central Carolina Community College, 2019.

Newspapers and Articles

Long, Maryanne, “Windward Artists Turn Impression Into Expression,” Windward O’ahu Voice, February 9th, 2022.

Meet the 2024–2025 Fellows of the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers

The New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers has selected 15 gifted academics, nonfiction writers, and creative writers for its 26th class of Fellows in 2024–2025. The Cullman Center is an international fellowship program open to people whose work will benefit directly from access to the collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

Books written at the Cullman Center have gone on to extraordinary acclaim and influence. In the last year alone, they have received a National Book Critics Circle Award, a National Book Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. 

The coming year’s Fellows were selected from a pool of 620 applicants from 66 countries and included a diverse range of academics, independent scholars, novelists, playwrights, poets, and others. They are:

• Academics Oleg Budnitskii, Joseph Giovannini, James Goodman, Jochen Hellbeck, Jennifer Morgan, and Sara Roy
• Fiction writers Isabella Hammad, Tracey Rose Peyton, and Patricio Pron
• Nonfiction writers Heather Clark, Leslie Jamison, Iman Mersal, Emma Tarlo, and Abigail Santamaria
• Graphic novelist Eric Orner

“The competition for this year’s Fellowships was stiffer than ever,” said Salvatore Scibona, the Sue Ann and John Weinberg Director of the Cullman Center. “The breadth and originality of the new Fellows’ work blew us away.”

Throughout the Fellowship term, which runs from September 2024 through May 2025, the new class of Cullman Center Fellows will have access to the renowned research collections and resources of The New York Public Library, as well as the invaluable assistance of its curatorial and reference staff. The Fellows receive a stipend of $85,000 and the use of a private office in the Cullman Center’s quarters at the Library’s landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. 

The Center fosters an atmosphere of creative and scholarly collaboration both within the Library and in the larger cultural environment of New York, which includes hosting public  Conversations from the Cullman Center , a series of free programs that focus on the books Fellows worked on while in residence at the Library.

Cullman Center Fellows regularly receive distinguished honors and awards for these books. Prize-winning and prominent past Fellows include: André Aciman, Annie Baker, Elif Batuman, David Bell, David Blight, Jennifer Croft, Hernan Diaz, Jennifer Egan, Álvaro Enrigue, Ada Ferrer, Nicole Fleetwood, Ruth Franklin, Rivka Galchen, Annette Gordon-Reed, Anthony Grafton, Steven Hahn, Saidiya Hartman, Hua Hsu, Mitchell S. Jackson, Patrick Radden Keefe, Nicole Krauss, Hari Kunzru, Hermione Lee, Larissa MacFarquhar, Megan Marshall, Ayana Mathis, Richard McGuire, Lynn Melnick, Pankaj Mishra, Lorrie Moore, Téa Obreht, Gregory Pardlo, Caryl Phillips, Darryl Pinckney, Lauren Redniss, Sally Rooney, Karen Russell, Stacy Schiff, Danzy Senna, James Shapiro, Dash Shaw, Mark Stevens, T. J. Stiles, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Brandon Taylor, Colm Tóibín, Justin Torres, Edmund White, Colson Whitehead, and Alejandro Zambra.

For more information about the Center, its current and former Fellows, and its programs for teachers and the general public, visit  www.nypl.org/csw .

Meet the 2024-2025 Fellows at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers

Oleg budnitskii.

"The Red Army Is Not Ideal": Soviet Soldiers' Violence Against Civilians, 1939–1947.

Oleg Budnitskii is a professor of history. From 2011 to 2023 he was the founding director of the Center for the History and Sociology of World War II and Its Consequences, at the National Research University–Higher School of Economics, Moscow. He is the author or coauthor of nine books, and editor or co-editor of twenty-seven other volumes on imperial Russian, Soviet, and modern Jewish history. His most recent books are  War, Conquest, and Catastrophe: Jews in the Soviet Union: A History, 1939–1945 (coauthored with David Engel, Gennady Estraikh, and Anna Shternshis) and  Another Russia: Studies in the History of the Russian Emigration . He is on the editorial boards of the  Russian Review and  East European Jewish Affairs . He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including fellowships from the National Humanities Center in North Carolina, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Fulbright Program, the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and IREX. At the Cullman Center, he will work on a book about Soviet soldiers' violence against civilians during and after the Second World War.

Heather Clark

Cracked Stars Shining: A Life of Anne Sexton

Heather Clark is the author of three award-winning books, most recently  Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath , which won the Truman Capote Award and the Slightly Foxed Prize; was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the  LA Times  Book Prize; and was a  New York Times Top Ten Notable Book. She has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Leon Levy Center for Biography Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Fellowship, and a Yaddo residency. She is Vice President of BIO, Biographers International Organization, and Professor Emerita of contemporary poetry at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Her group biography,  Waking in the Dark: The Boston Years of Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich, and Maxine Kumin , is forthcoming from Knopf. Her novel,  The Scrapbook , will be published by Pantheon in 2025. At the Cullman Center, she will work on a biography of the American poet Anne Sexton.

Joseph Giovannini 

Zaha Hadid: A Biography

Joseph Giovannini is a critic, author, architect, and teacher based in New York. He has written for the  New York Times , the  Los Angeles Times ,  Architect Magazine ,  Architectural Record ,  Art in America , and the  New York Review of Books , and has served as the architecture critic for  New York Magazine , the  Los Angeles Herald Examiner , and the Los Angeles Review of Books . He has also taught widely in graduate architecture programs. ​His book  Architecture Unbound: A Century of the Disruptive Avant-Garde  was published in 2021 by Rizzoli. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale, a master’s in French language and literature from Middlebury College, and a master’s in architecture from Harvard's Graduate School of Design. At the Cullman Center, he will be working on a biography of the architect Zaha Hadid.

James Goodman

No Way Out: On Sidney Poitier

The Janice B. and Milford D. Gerton/Arts and Letters Foundation Fellow

James Goodman is the author of essays, short stories, and three books:  Stories of Scottsboro , which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History;  Blackout ; and But Where Is the Lamb?: Imagining the Story of Abraham and Isaac . His work has been supported by the Guggenheim Foundation, the Shelby Cullom Davis Center, and Rutgers University–Newark, where he is a Distinguished Professor, teaching history and creative writing. He is currently working on two books. One is about aphorisms about history, how they sometimes help us understand what history is (and what it is good for) and how they often lead us astray. At the Cullman Center, he will be working on the other, tentatively titled  No Way Out , on Sidney Poitier, for the Significations series at Penguin Random House.

Isabella Hammad

Untitled Novel

The Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow

Isabella Hammad is the author of  The Parisian and  Enter Ghost . Her writing has appeared in the  Paris Review , the  Nation ,  Granta ,  Conjunctions , and elsewhere. She was awarded the Plimpton Prize, an O. Henry Award, the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Palestine Book Award and a Betty Trask Award, and her work has been supported by the Lannan Foundation and Columbia University’s Institute for Ideas and Imagination. At the Cullman Center, she will be working on a novel set in part at the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, Indonesia.

Jochen Hellbeck

Soviet Suffering Under Nazi Rule: A Forgotten History

The John and Constance Birkelund Fellow

Jochen Hellbeck is a Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, whose work focuses on Soviet and modern European history. He is the author of  Revolution on My Mind ,  Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich , and the forthcoming  A War Like No Other,  which presents the standoff between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union as the central axis of the Second World War. At the Cullman Center, he will work on a book about Soviet suffering as a forgotten history of the Second World War. 

Leslie Jamison

The Stranger Self: Crafting the “I”

Leslie Jamison is the  New York Times  bestselling author of  Splinters ; The Empathy Exams ;  The Recovering ; Make it Scream, Make it Burn ; and  The Gin Closet . She is a regular contributor to the  New Yorker ,   and has written frequently for many other publications including the  New York Times ,   the  Atlantic , the  New York Review of Books ,   and the  Virginia Quarterly Review.  She directs the nonfiction writing program at Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn with her family. During her Cullman Center Fellowship, she will be working on a book project that draws on personal experience, literary criticism, and archival research to examine the art of self-construction in several senses: exploring how writers of personal nonfiction build an “I” on the page, and how this literary process might illuminate the broader art of self-construction as a fundamental part of daily life.

Iman Mersal

Baghdad Ink

Iman Mersal is an Egyptian writer, translator and literary scholar. A professor of Arabic language

and literature at the University of Alberta, she is the author of five books of Arabic poetry. In English translation, her poems have appeared in the  New Republic , the New York Review of Books ,  Parnassus ,  Paris Review , and the  Nation , among others.  The Threshold translated by Robyn Creswell and published in 2022, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and won the 2023 National Translation Award. Mersal received the 2021 Sheikh Zayed Book Award in Literature for her creative nonfiction book  Traces of Enayat . At the Cullman Center, she will work on  Baghdad Ink , a mixture of personal memoir and political and cultural history, through archival research. 

Jennifer L. Morgan

The Eve of Slavery: Racial Inheritance in Seventeenth-Century North America

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow

Jennifer L. Morgan is professor of history at New York University in the Departments of Social and Cultural Analysis and of History. She is the author of  Reckoning with Slavery: Gender, Kinship and Capitalism in the Early Black Atlantic , which won the Mary Nickliss Prize in Women’s and/or Gender History from the Organization of American Historians and the Frederick Douglass Prize awarded by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University; and of  Laboring Women: Gender and Reproduction in the Making of New World Slavery . Her research examines the intersections of gender and race in the early modern Black Atlantic. At the Cullman Center, she will work on a history of the origins of slavery and freedom in the seventeenth century that centers around Elizabeth Key—the black woman who sued for her freedom in Virginia in 1656—and other people of African descent who attempted to protect themselves and their children from the encroaching tide of racial slavery. 

Dear Jimmy Carter

The Jean Strouse Fellow

Eric Orner is a cartoonist and graphic novelist whose “day jobs” as an attorney and speechwriter on Capitol Hill and in the Bloomberg and DeBlasio administrations have inspired his creative work, including  Smahtguy: The Life and Times of Barney Frank . Earlier in his career  he created the widely published LGBTQ+ comic strip  The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green , which was anthologized in four books from St. Martin’s Press and adapted as a feature film in 2006. At the Cullman Center, he will work on a new graphic novel called  Dear Jimmy Carter.   

Tracey Rose Peyton

By Hook or Crook

The Rona Jaffe Foundation Fellow

Tracey Rose Peyton is the author of  Night Wherever We Go , which was a Barnes and Noble Discover Pick and was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction Debut Novel Prize and the California Book Award for first fiction. Her short work has appeared in  Guernica , Prairie Schooner , American Short   Fiction , and  Best American Short Stories 2021 . She is a two-time finalist for the Keene Prize for Literature and a recipient of grants and fellowships from the Michener Center for Writers, Hedgebrook, and Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. At the Cullman Center, she will work on a new novel about Black artmaking in the early twentieth century. 

Patricio Pron

That's How the Light Gets In

Patricio Pron, born in Argentina, is the author of six books of short stories and eight novels, including  Don’t Shed Your Tears For Anyone Who Lives On These Streets , as well as multiple essays. His work has won awards including the Juan Rulfo, Cálamo, and Alfaguara prizes, and has been regularly anthologised and translated into twelve languages. His short stories have been published by the  Paris Review , the  Brooklyn Rail ,  Conjunctions ,  Hayden Ferry’s Review ,  Guernica ,  Chicago Review ,  BOMB Magazine ,  A Public Space , the  Guardian  and  Zoetrope , and selected by Dave Eggers for  The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010 . In 2010  Granta  chose him as one of the twenty-two best Spanish-language writers of his generation. Most recently, he was the Director's Guest at the artist residency Civitella Ranieri and visiting professor at the Department of Literature at the University of Cologne. Pron holds a PhD in Romance Philology from the Georg-August-University in Göttingen and lives in Madrid. His latest work is the novel  La naturaleza secreta de las cosas de este mundo . At the Cullman Center he will work on a novel called  That's How the Light Gets In.

“A Rose Shoulders Up”: Reflections of a Jew in Gaza 

Sara Roy is an associate of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University where, for over thirty years, her work has focused on the Palestinian economy, Palestinian Islamism, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with an emphasis on the Gaza Strip. She is the author of  The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development and  Failing Peace: Gaza and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict among other books and writings. She has lectured widely in the US, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. Her work has been translated into several languages and her awards include the British-Kuwait Friendship Book Prize in Middle Eastern Studies. At the Cullman Center, she will work on a book that will reflect on her personal history as a child of Holocaust survivors and her experience with Palestinians under Israeli occupation, especially in Gaza, over nearly four decades.

Abigail Santamaria

I am Meg: The Life of Madeleine L’Engle

Abigail Santamaria is the author of Joy: Poet, Seeker, and the Woman Who Captivated C.S. Lewis.  For her work as a biographer and essayist, she has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars program, the Leon Levy Center for Biography, MacDowell, the American Philosophical Society, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and was named a Creative Writing Award finalist by the Cintas Foundation, an organization honoring artists of Cuban heritage. Santamaria’s essays have appeared in the  New York Times Book Review ,  Vanity Fair , and the  Wall Street Journal , among other venues. At the Cullman Center, she will work on a literary biography of Madeleine L’Engle.

Separation: Apostasy and Its Afterlives

Emma Tarlo is an anthropologist, writer, curator, and professor emerita of anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has written five books and curated exhibitions in Britain and India. Her first book,  Clothing Matters: Dress and Identity in India , was awarded the Coomaraswamy Prize. Her book  Entanglement: The Secret Lives of Hair won the Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing in 2017 and was the result of a three-year research project on the global trade in human hair supported through the award of a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship. She went on to curate several collaborative exhibitions on hair, most recently the touring exhibition  Hair, Untold Stories co-curated with Sarah Byrne at the Horniman Museum in London. Her most recent book,  Under the Hornbeams is a nonfiction memoir about her friendship with two men who have been living without shelter in London’s streets and parks for two decades. At the Cullman Center, she will work on a book of narrative nonfiction based on the interplay between personal diaries and literary and analytical accounts of the long-term social and psychological experiences faced by people who leave high demand religious groups. 

The Cullman Center is made possible by a generous endowment from Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman in honor of Brooke Russell Astor, with major support provided by Mrs. John L. Weinberg, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Estate of Charles J. Liebman, The von der Heyden Family Foundation, John and Constance Birkelund, and The Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, and with additional gifts from Helen and Roger Alcaly, The Rona Jaffe Foundation, The Arts and Letters Foundation Inc., William W. Karatz, Merilee and Roy Bostock, and Cullman Center Fellows.

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