Celebrating Our Graduating Class of 2023!

Please join us in celebrating our graduating class of 2023, recent alumni achievements, and this year's departmental awards winners!

Oliver Santos

Outstanding Contribution to English Award 

Megan McIntosh 

Robert G. Shedd Award

Jaxson Shor

Journalism Award 

Amira Cooper

Sandra King Geest Scholarship

Corinne Newsome

Sandra King Geest Scholarship 

Noah Park

Environmental Focus Essay Award

Trisha Tomcy

Bartleby Poetry Award

Stuart Holton

Braly Fiction Award

Kainoa Sittman

Braly Poetry Award

Congratulations to all our students who have landed prestigious positions or acceptance into graduate programs! Many of our students, like Ashley Williams, Harley Nguyen, and Grace Reeb, are pursuing exciting opportunities. Check out their stories below!

Ashley Williams

Harley Nguyen

"After a chaotic gap year for my personal and professional life, I have decided to attend University of Maryland this upcoming fall (2023) as an English M.A. student with a focus on poetics, fully funded by an assistantship at the university's Center for Literary and Comparative Studies. While I am still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do, my interests lie in the organizational and introspective power of poetry. Specifically, I want to engage with contemporary poets in how this genre of writing, long regulated as a pretentious art piece or a very academic form of creativity, is the most flexible medium of writing of all and has been used for decades by many queer and/or BIPOC in community building, mutual aid, and interrogating one's own identity. UMBC's diverse and supportive community allowed me to find a home with other writers, especially the slam poetry community, and I hope to foster connections in the same areas in the fall."

Grace Reeb

"I am excited to announce that I will be a student at Goucher College this fall, in the MFA in Creative Nonfiction program. I will work one-on-one with a faculty mentor to compose a 150-page manuscript during my two years in the program. I will also complete residencies in Baltimore and New York focusing on editing and publication. All of these aspects of Goucher's program will empower me to achieve a writing goal: publishing a memoir about my Asian identity (work that began in UMBC's English Honors Program!) I also hope to gain experience teaching through a graduate assistantship at Goucher. My pursuit of an MFA has been made possible by the care and support of the UMBC English faculty -- thank you eternally!"