Kim Stafford, professor emeritus and founding director of the Northwest Writing Institute, gathers poems that “sing with empathy, humor, witness, and story.” The book’s poems have been set to music, quoted in the New York Times, posted online in the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day series, and shared in a myriad of other ways in order to engage with a world “thirsting for the oxygen of healing song.” Red Hen Press, 2024. 136 pages.

Rachel Jamison Webster BA ’97 draws on oral history and conversations with her DNA cousins to imagine the lives of their shared ancestors across 11 generations, among them 18th-century Black mathematician, writer, and astronomer Benjamin Banneker. Holt Paperbacks, 2024. 384 pages.

Bridey Thelen-Heidel BA ’94 pens an astonishing narrative of a young girl raised to be both her mother’s protector and punching bag. For fans of I’m Glad My Mom Died and The Glass Castle, Bridey’s story highlights the indomitable spirit of a young girl who grew into a woman who dared to break the cycle of abuse. She Writes Press, 2024. 296 pages.

Donald “Corey” Long BA ’02 pens a biography of Ritchie Valens, the young singer and songwriter of the 1950s who influenced generations of musicians during a career that lasted just nine months due to his untimely death on “the day the music died.” The book includes a foreword written by Ritchie’s sister, Connie Valens. Self-published, 2024. 251 pages.

Jantzen Shinmoto BA ’18, MAT ’19 offers a book that goes hand in hand with other travel guides to show a deeper, more intimate level of Hawai‘i—not just places to go and food to eat. If you are planning to visit, move to, or vacation in Hawai‘i and you want to get an inside, honest perspective on how to respect all Hawai‘i has to offer, then this book is for you!
Self-published, 2024. 62 pages.

Jacob Rawson BA ’05 studied overseas in Beijing during his junior year, an experience that immersed him in the rich tapestry of Chinese culture and language and helped set the stage for his future endeavors as well as this book. Combining rigorous research with vivid personal narrative, Rawson explores the connection between physical journeys and spiritual discovery, bridging the majestic landscapes of China with those of the American Northwest.
Jain Publishing Company, 2024. 163 pages.

Robin Romm, a creative writing instructor, offers a new collection of short stories that “revels in the mess behind the slick veneer of modern life.” Disquieting, original, and strangely reassuring, these 10 new stories make quick work of the easy truths and thoughtless salvos that keep us from seeing the wildness of our irreducible lives. The first story in the collection, “Marital Problems,” won a 2024 O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction and appears in The Best Short Stories 2024: The O. Henry Prize Anthology. Four Way Books, 2024. 189 pages.

Corey Van Landingham BA ’08 pens her third collection of poetry. Inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, the book follows the first year of a marriage, inviting the reader in as a confidant while adhering to, but also subverting, traditional expectations of marriage. Van Landingham is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, as well as a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University. Sarabande Books, 2024. 100 pages.

Prosser Stirling CAS ’77 offers a vibrant array of poems blending vivid imagery and precise language. This debut collection explores profound connections and life’s elusive moments with lyrical mastery.Saint Julian Press, 2024. 98 pages.

Nick Lantz BA ’03 mixes sincerity with irony and lyric with vernacular in a series of poems that brilliantly captures the disruption and disorder of our lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.
University of Wisconsin Press, 2024. 116 pages.

Ciel Downing BA ’98, MA ’00 offers a volume of poems that focuses on redemption, healing, and celebration, depicting a life of wild pendulum swings, hard living, and grand joys. Moonpath Press, 2024. 114 pages.

Sara Flores BA ’06 helps empathic women embody confident public speaking and unapologetic self-expression even if their voices have been dismissed, devalued, or disrespected in the past. Combining engaging personal stories, powerful practices, and client examples from her 16 years as a voice coach, she helps readers overcome habits of people-pleasing so they can spread their soulful message with ease.Creative Voice Publishing, 2024. 342 pages.