If you have ever dreamed of studying with professional writers who know the publishing world inside and out, this is your chance.

Our faculty is composed of expert teachers who are also successful authors and scholars. They will introduce you to the exciting challenges of studying creative writing and literature at the college level.
 

ASHLEY M. JONES: POETRY

Ashley M. Jones holds an MFA in Poetry  from Florida International University, and she is the author of Magic City Gospel  (Hub City Press 2017), dark / / thing  (Pleiades Press 2019), and REPARATIONS NOW! (Hub City Press 2021). Her poetry has earned many awards, including the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award, the Silver Medal in the Independent Publishers Book Awards, the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry, a Literature Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize, and the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award. She was a finalist for the Ruth Lily and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship in 2020. Her poems and essays appear in or are forthcoming at CNN, POETRY, The Oxford American, Origins Journal, The Quarry by Split This Rock, Obsidian, and many other venues. She teaches at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, she co-directs PEN Birmingham, she is the founding director of the Magic City Poetry Festival, and she is currently the guest editor at Poetry Magazine. 
 

IDRA NOVEY: FICTION

Idra Novey is the author of the novel Those Who Knew, a finalist for the 2019 Clark Fiction Prize, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and a Best Book of the Year in over a dozen media outlets including NPR, Esquire, BBC, Kirkus Review, and O Magazine. Her first novel, Ways to Disappear, received the 2017 Sami Rohr Prize, the 2016 Brooklyn Eagles Prize, and was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize for First Fiction. Her poetry and fiction have been translated into a dozen languages and she’s written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, and The Paris Review. She is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Poets & Writers Magazine, the PEN Translation Fund, and the Poetry Foundation. Her co-translation with Ahmad Nadalizadeh of Iranian poet Garous Abdolmalekian, Lean Against This Late Hour, is currently a finalist for the 2021 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. She teaches fiction at Princeton University.
 

MANUEL MUÑOZ: FICTION

Manuel Muñoz is the author of the short story collections Zigzagger and The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue, the latter of which was shortlisted for the 2007 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. His first novel, What You See in the Dark, was published in 2011. He is the recipient of a Whiting Writer’s Award and fellowships from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Three of his short stories have received O. Henry prizes, and one was chosen for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 2019. He served as a juror for the 2011 PEN/O. Henry Prize and as a judge of the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Awards. His work has appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times, American Short Fiction, Glimmer Train, Epoch, and Boston Review, and has aired on National Public Radio’s Selected Shorts. A native of Dinuba, California, Muñoz has been on the faculty of the University of Arizona’s creative writing program in Tucson since 2008.

JASON FAGONE: JOURNALISM

Jason Fagone is a journalist and author. Currently the narrative writer at the San Francisco Chronicle, his stories have appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ, and Grantland. His most recent book, The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies, was named one of NPR’s best books of 2017 and became a PBS documentary, and a magazine story he wrote is being developed into a feature film by the makers of Hidden Figures. In 2014-15, he was a Knight-Wallace Fellow in journalism at the University of Michigan.

PAUL LISICKY: MEMOIR

Paul Lisicky is the author of six books including Later: My Life at the Edge of the World, The Narrow Door: A Memoir of Friendship, and Unbuilt Projects. His work has appeared in The Advocate, The Atlantic, Conjunctions, The Cut, Fence, The New York Times, Ploughshares, Tin House, and elsewhere. His awards include fellowships from The Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, where he has served on the Writing Committee since 2000. He’s taught in the creative writing programs at Cornell University, NYU, Sarah Lawrence, the University of Texas at Austin, and elsewhere. He currently teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Rutgers University-Camden, and lives in Brooklyn.
 

COURTNEY E. RYDEL: ENGLISH LITERATURE

Courtney E. Rydel, proud Jersey girl, holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania (2012) and a BA in English with minors in Creative Writing and Classical Studies from TCNJ (2006). She appeared in a documentary called “Deadly Journeys of the Apostles” that aired on the National Geographic channel in thirty-eight countries. With ornithologist Jennie Carr, she created the #MedievalBirds project, bringing together biology and poetry.
 

KIMBERLY QUIOGUE ANDREWS: ENGLISH LITERATURE

Kimberly Quiogue Andrews is Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Washington College. She is also the author of two volumes of poetry: A Brief History of Fruit (from the University of Akron Press) and BETWEEN (from Finishing Line Press). Her awards include the Akron Prize for Poetry, the New Women's Voices award, the Ralph Cohen Prize for criticism, and a development grant from the American Council of Learned Societies. Her scholarship has appeared in journals such as College English, Textual Practice, Modernist Cultures and New Literary History, and recent poetry has appeared in literary magazines such as The Florida Review, The Asian American Literary Review, Poetry Northwest, and Crab Orchard Review, among others.   

JACK DESPEAUX & ANNMARIE MAGNUS: HOW TO WRITE A SUCCESSFUL COLLEGE ADMISSIONS ESSAY

Jack Despeaux graduated from Washington College in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Philosophy & Religion. He was highly involved on campus in the arts, athletics, and student life, so you can ask him about any of those subjects! Jack is now entering his third year as an Admissions Counselor, where he works with students from New England, Montgomery County, MD, and parts of Washington, DC.

Annmarie Magnus graduated from Kenyon College in 2019 with a degree in English and an Emphasis in Creative Writing. She started off as a tour guide for Kenyon and, while walking backwards was a challenge, she immediately fell in love with helping students find their homes. The moment she stepped onto Washington College's campus, she knew that this was where she wanted to be, thanks to the strong sense of community that radiated through everyone she met. Her main advice in regard to the college admissions process? Be authentic, and the rest will follow.