Our Alumni Update page features information from our writing students who have graduated from Loyola. If you majored in writing, or were a writing minor or interdisciplinary major, and would like to add your information to this page, please email Dr. Allen Brizee (habrizee@loyola.edu).
Maria Dontas, '12, is an Account Manager at 24/7 Media, a company whose aim is to provide multi-platform internet marketing strategies. She is also recording a solo EP.
Caitlin Aymong, '12, is attending Teacher's College at Columbia University for an Ed.M. in School Psychology.
Juliana Horbachevsky, '12, is a Publicity Assistant for the Pocket/Gallery Books imprint of Simon & Schuster.
Thomas Johnson, '12, received a full tuition waiver with a teaching assistantship to Catholic University's English PhD program. This summer he published a book review in The Weekly Standard.
Pat Taylor, '11, is currently a News Reporter for the East County Times in Essex responsible for field reporting, editing and page layout.
John Cappiello, '11, teaches at Northeast High School in Kansas City, MO.
Kathryn Tracey, '11: Phi Beta Kappa; Editor for Olida Publishing, Aberdeen, Scotland. She was recently hired as a Faculty Research Assistant for the Director of the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics at University of Maryland, College Park after a stint editing technology curriculum in Annapolis. Ryn reports, “Everyone said that majoring in writing really prepares you for anything - and they were right! I certainly never imagined myself immersed in a workplace filled with talk of optics and wavelengths and applied physics . . . . My job involves a lot of drafting and editing communications from the director's office, serving on campus communications committees, and preparing journal articles for publication.”
Natasha Hochlowski, '10: Natasha's dual degree in chemistry and writing has led her to several jobs in the pharmaceutical industry. After a year of chemistry graduate work at Princeton University, she worked for a year as a technical writer/editor at XenoBiotic Laboratories, followed by six months as a quality assurance specialist at Covance, Inc. Currently, she is working in Horsham, PA as a Labeling Specialist with Teva Pharmaceuticals, the largest producer of generic pharmaceuticals worldwide. At Teva, she is responsible for ensuring the accuracy of all drug labels and package inserts through proofreading, ensuring quality control, and reviewing/approving labeling.
Greg Howard, '10, finished the New York University Masters of Arts program in magazine writing in January 2012. After a six-month fellowship at the Dallas Observer, where he blogged and published four cover stories, he became a staff writer for the Village Voice, blogging and writing cover stories. Visit his blog at http://blogs.villagevoice.com/author.php?author_id=3341.
Ross Losapio, '08, entered his final year in the MFA program (poetry) at Virginia Commonwealth University where he is Lead Associate Editor for Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts. This fall, he will serve as Associate Editor Emeritus and will teach an honors section of “Reading & Writing of Fiction & Poetry” at Virginia Commonwealth University His poems have appeared recently in Copper Nickel, the minnesota review, and The Emerson Review.
Raina Fields, '08, just accepted a position as Chancellor's Minority Professional Teaching Fellow at Virginia Community College System. Raina graduated from the Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing (Poetry) and English Literature at Virginia Tech in May 2012. While there, she served as an instructor of English composition/creative writing and an editor of the minnesota review. She wrote a collection of poems, Last Rites for Uptown, and published poems in journals such as Callaloo, Sweet, Diverse Voices Quarterly, PANK, 580Split, and others. Currently, she works as a Communications Manager for Virginia Consumer Voices for Healthcare in Richmond, VA. She is at work on a second collection of poetry and hopes to get her first collection published within the next couple of years.
Alison Koentje, '08, is an editorial assistant at UpToDate, a Boston company that provides the latest research and diagnostic protocols to practicing clinicians. She works in the Oncology section and edits medical monographs and plans on graduating from Northeastern University's Masters of Public Health program this coming May.
Laryssa Wirstiuk, '07, received her MFA from the University of Maryland in 2009. She is founder and editor-in-chief of Too Shy to Stop, an online arts and culture magazine, and she blogs about new media at Comma ‘n Sentence. She recently funded the printing of her first book, a collection of short stories titled The Prescribed Burn, using Kickstarter. The book will be published by my small press, Painted Egg Press, this September and will be available in paperback and e-book editions at theprescribedburn.com. Wirstiuk is also an adjunct professor at Rutgers University, where she teaches creative writing and blogging. In addition, she tutor privately and blog about writing at craftyourdrafts.com.
Chelsea Haddaway Williams, '05, worked with a political consulting firm in Baltimore on Martin O'Malley’s first run for governor. She received my M.A. in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College in 2009. For the last two and a half years, she’s worked as a Communications Manager at UMBC.
Kristen Kearby (Writing '05, MBA '11) is a management/organizational consultant to a gold mine in Tanzania. The job involves analyzing the organizational structure, the management practices and policies, and the work processes to optimize the production of gold, while balancing the safety, health, security, environmental, and community requirements. She is keeping a blog at http://tanzaniaatfirstlight.blogspot.com/ Previously, she worked as a technical writer and proposal manager for KCI Technologies, a full-service engineering firm.
Brian Oliu, '04, is an Instructor of Composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at the University of Alabama. His collection of Tuscaloosa Craigslist Missed Connections, 'So You Know It's Me,' was released by Tiny Hardcore Press in 2011. A series of lyric essays based off of videogame boss battles, 'Level End', was released in 2012 by Origami Zoo Press. Work has been anthologized in 'Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 2,' (Norton, 2008), 'Metawritings: Toward a Theory of Nonfiction,' (U. of Iowa Press, 2012), & 'Borderlands: Explorations to the Fringe of Nonfiction,' (U. of Nebraska, 2012).
Dana Moss, 04, is an MA/PhD student at the University of California, Irvine, with an emphasis on social movements, state repression, the Middle East, and qualitative methods. She received an interdisciplinary MA from Villanova University in 2009 in Liberal Studies with an emphasis on Middle Eastern and North African Studies. Moss co-founded and co-directs The Yemen Peace Project, a small non-profit dedicated to educating Americans about Yemen and supporting Yemenis in their fight for democracy and justice. She “cannot emphasize how valuable my training in creative writing has been for life in academia -- everyone, ESPECIALLY in the social sciences (contrary to popular belief), has to write constantly, and I feel blessed that I have had training and guidance in this area.”
Stephanie Chizik, '04, earned a Masters in Fine Arts for creative nonfiction writing from Chatham College. Currently, Stephanie is an associate editor for Four Point Publishing LLC in San Diego, California. She is also the primary editor of a bi-monthly trade magazine and contributing writer for another magazine that LLC publishes. Her freelance work includes publications in 101 Things to Do in San Diego, www.52perfectdays.com, and Conte Online. Stephanie notes: "I studied under Jane Satterfield, Barbara Mallonee, Ron Tanner, Judith Dobler, Jennifer Follett, and Daniel McGuiness. I can say, without a doubt, that I left Loyola with a solid foundation and understanding of the modern writing process, gleaned through valuable lessons from each of my Loyola writing professors. I also left Loyola with a core group of writing peers to whom I still rely on for feedback on my work."
Maggie Dougherty's, '04, first job after graduating from Loyola with a writing degree was planting trees in West Africa. As a Peace Corps volunteer, she spent two years in The Gambia, where, in addition to planting trees, she wrote lots of letters and journals, read extensively, met amazing people, and worked with schools, women's groups, and individuals on small-scale agroforestry and gardening projects. Currently, Maggie is a first year student in Georgetown's Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) Program, concentrating in International Development/Humanitarian Assistance, as well as working as a trade/agricultural policy intern with Women Thrive Worldwide. Maggie noted: "As a student in Loyola's writing program, I worked with Jane Satterfield, Ron Tanner, Lia Purpura, Ned Balbo, Dan McGuiness, and Karen Fish. I enjoyed the diversity of classes and professors within the program, each offering students technical knowledge and new, more nuanced ways to perceive the world around them. The skills and perspective I gained at Loyola have helped in every position I've had since graduation. I still enjoy writing creative non-fiction, fiction, and poetry, and look forward to focusing more on writing following graduate school."
Erin Karper, '98 (Spanish and Writing Major, French Minor), is an associate professor in the English department at Niagara University where she teaches first-year composition, professional writing, visual rhetoric, and writing for the Web, as well as directing the writing studies minor and serving as the acting director of the first-year composition program. Erin's time at Loyola prepared her for a rigorous graduate program in rhetoric and composition at Purdue University (MA, 2000; PhD, 2004) where she was in charge of Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL) and the technology coordinator for Purdue's Professional Writing Program.
Julianna Baggott, '91 (Creative Writing and French), is the author of nineteen books under her own name and two pen names, most notably PURE, the first in a trilogy, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year (2012) and an ALA Alex Award-winner, now in development with Fox 2000. Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry, The New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, on NPR's Talk of the Nation and All Things Considered.