IVC alumni Jenn Alandy Trahan has been awarded a Stegner fellowship. Stanford University awards five fellowships each year in fiction. A partial list of Stegner fellows includes Raymond Carver, Phillp Levine, Ken Kesey, ZZ Packer, Samantha Chang, Wendell Berry, Tobias Wolff, Robert Pinsky, Vikram Seth, and Scott Turow. In other words, this is a big deal.
Jenn came to IVC after graduating from UCI with a BA in English and spent a couple years in the Creative Writing porgram here before applying to graduate school. She would fit the classic mold of a "returning student" who did not have a transfer plan because she had already completed her undergraduate work.
Read all about it via UCI:
Jenn Alandy Trahan, who received her B.A. in English from UCI in 2006, has been awarded a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford. The fellowship pays for two years within Stanford’s prestigious Creative Writing Program. Trahan was first published in W.W. Norton’s Hint Fiction anthology in 2010. Her short story, “Webb,” was nominated for a Pushcart award by Permafrost at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks in 2013. Trahan went on to receive her MA in English and her MFA in Fiction at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana.Here's a link to an article Jenn wrote about her experiences at IVC and the development of her writing: "Take A Hint: Jenn Alandy's Long Walk to Print."
Go Lasers!
*
3 comments:
Go Lasers indeed!
So much talent, facing in both directions inside of our classrooms, at the little school in the orange groves. It would be nice if the college would find one place to exhibit these achievements on a continuing basis. Not a hall of fame, exactly, but a place of honor for students, faculty and alumni. Online and in some physical space. It's easy to be proud of the work of our friends and colleagues when we are made aware of it. Thanks, Lisa. This one was really nice.
Another college where I teach has three places of recognition (in display cases) in the admin building, the student services building and the library. The displays do not stay static but change monthly with each school/dept./program taking charge of a particular month and particular display. This way it doesn't just become a place to store dusty trophies and ancient certificates and plaques. This way it actively educates the students (and everyone else) about the achievements of alumni (and staff). No one school or program dominates either. IVC should try this. Some displays on campus have been there for YEARS.
Post a Comment