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Congratulations to Clemson University for acquiring Christopher Anderson, pictured here with a comically large burrito, for the class of 2030!
Congratulations to Oberlin College who have acquired Ava Randolph for the fall of 2026! Ava, a second-year CW Senior, will be a part of Oberlin's BA + BFA program, intending to graduate with a Bachelors of the Arts in Creative Writing with a minor in Psychology and concurrent Bachelors of the Fine Arts in Integrated Arts. Ava is the recipient of the John F. Oberlin Scholarship, a merit based scholarship based on academic achievement.
Congratulations to the University of North Carolina--Charlotte for their acquisition of Alex Byrd, a fourth-year CW Senior, for the fall! Alex will be majoring in Theatre, with a concentration in Directing, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Writing.
Congratulations to Sarah Lawrence College who will be hosting fourth-year CW Senior Ricaya Ray until she graduates as a part of the Class of 2030! Ray will be focusing on Writing with a secondary focus in Film History and was the recepient of both the Sarah Lawrence Renewable Scolarship and a Sarah Lawrence Institutional Award.
Congratulations to Washington College who has acquired fourth-year CW Senior, Sally Liggett, this fall! Sally will be majoring in English, with a concentration in Creative Writing, and minoring in History. She was selected as a Presidential Fellow by the college and received the Sophie Kerr Scholarship to help finance her studies.
Congratulations to Davidson College for acquiring fourth-year CW Senior Gina Palma for the Class of 2030! Gina is the recipient of the Patricia Cornwell Creative Writing Fellowship which names her as a select group of five incoming students who will be given preferential access to Creative Writing classes and workshops with Visiting Authors. She will be double majoring in English and History.
Congratulations, Mount Holyoke College who will be acquiring second-year CW Senior Sage Sommese for the fall of 2026! Sage, who was given a Leadership Award by the college, will be double majoring in English (with a concentration in Creative Writing) and Dance (with a concentration in Ballet) and will also persue a Four College Consortium certificate in Buddhist Studies which entails a study abroad experience in Nepal.
Congratulations to Clemson University, Honors College who will be acquiring CW Senior Anya Sexton (middle, pictured with Sage Sommese and FAC Visual Arts Senior Lily Caligan-Gillian) this fall! Anya, a fourth year Creative Writing student, will be majoring in Philosophy with a Law, Liberty and Justice emphasis and potentially double-majoring in Psychology.
Summer time we are heading your way! CW students are all over the place this year, securing coveted spaces in some of the nation's top steAm summer programs. Sophomore Liz Figueroa and Junior Margot Ritter will both be attending the Kenyon Review Young Writer's Workshop in Gambier, Ohio for two weeks this June. Both Liz and Margot were awarded full scholarships to attend. Junior Charlotte Popat will also be joining the ranks of this long-running and prestigious young writer's program with a one week stint in the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop online this June. Sophomore Chloe Bird will also be attending a workshop program virtually this summer as she attends the Yale Young Writer's Workshop Online, and fellow Sophomore Allison Churches has earned a place in the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship program where she will work one-on-one with a creative writing mentor over the summer months. Finally, over in the science side of things, switch-hitter Liliana Greenbaum, a third-year Junior in the CW program, will spend a portion of her summer in California attending the Science Internship Program at The University of California, Santa Cruz as an intern for the research project, "Memory Consequences of AI Use During Studying," at the Storm Memory Lab as one of only 8% of applicants who were admitted this year. Congratulations to all! Come and tell us what you learned in the fall.
Congratulations to Bea Fink, a Junior in the Creative Writing program, whose short story, "Grapefruit," earned her a Finalist with Distinction placement in the 2026 YoungArts Competition! Bea, pictured on the far right with other FAC YoungArts winners, attended the annual YoungArts week in Miami in January of this year where she studied with poet Mahogany Brown, among other notable artists, and is elegible for an award of up to $10,000 to support her ongoing artistic endeavors.
Publication alert! Sophomore Allison Churches has two poems, "Peaches" and "Nah-gah, North Star," published in the latest issue of The Howl, while first year Junior Ana Zubieta-Robinson has a poem, "My Bed, Nana's Bed," appearing in Issue 3 of The CanTeen Magazine. CW Seniors Gina Palma and Sally Liggett both have work featured in Johnny America, and Gina's flash fiction piece, "No Vampires in Pennsylvania," is featured in the Cast of Wonders Podcast.
CW Students were well represented in this year's Nancy Thorpe Poetry Prize from Hollin's University! Juniors Cadence Zbin, Charlotte Popat & Margot Ritter, as well as Sophomores Chloe Bird & Allison Churches were all Honorable Mentions, in the top 20% of all contestants. Junior Bea Fink won Runner-Up for her poem, "Night Three--" which will be published in the forthcoming issue of Hollin's literary magazine, Cargoes. Congratulations to all!
Congratulations Creative Writing Seniors, Class of 2025
Lillie Markel--Rhodes College; Esme Padilla-Cortez--USC, Beaufort; Brie Goff--St. Leo's University, Amanda Nicoloff--Western Carolina University; Trinity Larsen--Warren Wilson; Jade Harmon--Converse College; Tad Carrig--Greenville Technical College; Allison Kim--University of Rochester; Jessenia Gordillo--Clemson University; Tesia Hennessey--University of Evansville; Cole Couillard-Dix--Greenville Technical College
CW Senior Lillie Markel (first on right) was one of six FAC Young Arts award winners for the 2024 season and was awarded a $250 cash grant for her poetry.
Congratulations to CW Senior Allison Kim whose poems "A Great Egret Stands in a Puddle Off the Highway," "I Pretend, a Crab Shell, No End " and "Brother of the Sixth Swan, Working in a Sushi Restaurant," were the winners of Bennington College's 2024-2025 Young Writer's Award in Poetry. Read her work here
Congratulations Creative Writing Seniors, Class of 2024
Emily Allison--Queens University of Charlotte; Patricia Manley--Western Carolina University; Jewel Carter--Hollins University; Mary Bostic Fort--Clemson University; Lena Patton--University of North Carolina, Asheville; Shelby Nichols--Furman University; Autumn Green--Greenville Technical College: Lorelei Webb--Winthrop College.
FAC CW Juniors Lillie Markel and Allison Kim's poems, "August Drive," and "Eulogy," were both named Honorable Mentions in the Leonard Milberg '53 Princeton Young Poets Prize from Princeton University. Check out their names in lights here
Fine Arts Center Young Arts Finalists, including Sun Clark (second from left) a Finalist with Distinction in Poetry, who attended the Young Arts week in Miami and was awarded a $5,000 grant; and Emily Allison (first on right) who was named a Finalist in Poetry and was awarded a $1,500 grant.
Congratulations Creative Writing Seniors, Class of 2023
Isabelle Veenstra--University of Maine, Farmington; Lindsey Grace--Rhode Island Institute of Technology; Mariah Coe Perkins--Spellman University; Andrea Hernandez Ramirez--Hamilton College; Parker Burgio--Clemson University; Meadow Harmon--Greenville Technical College
Congratulations to Anna Castro Spratt, FAC sophomore, who has been named the inaugural youth poet laureate for the city of Greenville. Anna will serve a two year term in the position beginning in the spring of 2023. Read more about Anna and the poet laureate program here.
Congratulations Creative Writing Seniors, Class of 2022
Callie Gosnell--Converse College; Makiya Smith--Wofford College; Elizabeth Scott--Furman University; Finnegan Garity--University of Wisconsin, Madison; Ryan Carroll--Washington College; Skylar Baumgardner--Wofford College; Anna Saurbrey--Warren Wilson College; Cass All--Furman University; Veronica Buehring--University of Iowa
Congratulations to Emily Allison who is the S.C. State Poetry Out Loud state representative for 2021 and was the nation wide winner of the Poetry Ourselves, the written portion of the competition, for her original poem, "Galatea" chosen by poet Chen Chen
Congratulations to Makiya Smith '21 who is a 2021 National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS) Creative Writing Scholar in Fiction. Makiya was awarded a $2,000 cash grant to support her future education in the arts.
Congratulations Creative Writing Seniors, Class of 2021
David Jones--Furman University, Herman Lays Scholar; Hayley Hansen--Coastal Carolina; Perrin Keene--College of Charleston; Julia Rodriguez-Rosales--Greenville Technical College; Angel Channer--University of South Carolina; Luisa Penaflor--University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Thomas Wolfe Scholar; Sarah Sham--University of South Carolina
Congratulations to Luisa Penaflor who is the 2021 Thomas Wolfe Scholar at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill! The award covers everything including room and board, laptop and orientation fees, and includes meetings with authors invited on campus, and a summer stipend starting at $3,000 and increasing to $5,000 by the end of the four years which can be used for personal writing projects or study abroad. The Thomas Wolfe Scholarship offers full four year financial support to one incoming freshman with exceptionally focused literary ability and promise.
Congratulations Creative Writing Seniors, Class of 2020!!!
Arley Trice; NYU
Pen Zuleger; Emerson College
Lajadia Seawright; Clemson University
Mia Larson-Baldwin; American University
Creative Writing Junior Luisa Penaflor is the 2019 Winner of the Nancy Thorpe Poetry Prize sponsored by Hollins University for her poem, "This Is Not A Heritage Poem." As the winning poet, Luisa will receive a $350 cash prize, publication in Cargoes, Hollins’ award-winning student literary magazine, a renewable scholarship up to $5,000 provided through the Creative Talent Award in Creative Writing applicable in the event that she enrolls at Hollins University, and free tuition and housing for the University’s Hollinsummer creative writing program (for rising 9-12th grade students).
Creative Writing Senior Pen Zuleger was a 2020 YoungArts Merit winner for her novel, Sebbatiscade, which she wrote as her final project for the Long Form Writing class at the Fine Arts Center.
Creative Writing Senior Elena Castro was accepted to Yale University as a member of the Class of 2020 on a full scholarship. Elena is planning on studying English with a concentration in Creative Writing and Ethnicity, Race and Migration.
Creative Writing Sophomore Luisa Penaflor has worked in conjunction with Glenis Redmond at the Peace Center to organize and promote the Say Your Peace poetry slam, occurring June 8, 2019, free and open to participants grades 8-12.
First annual Fine Arts Center/Peace Center collaborative reading was held April 30th featuring FAC Guest Artist Sabrina Orah Mark, with additional readers from the FAC Creative Writing progam and Poetic Conversations workshop. Deep thanks to Glenis Redmond, Larisa Gelman and the Peace Center for acting as mentors, partners and hosts to a wonderful evening of writing out loud.
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