Alumni Updates

Carrie L. Johnson (2003) I graduated from George Mason University's English Department in 2003.  In conjunction with my major, I minored in African American Studies. Currently, I am a third-year teacher in the Prince William County Public School System, teaching 9th and 11th grade English at C. D. Hylton Senior High School, Woodbridge, Virginia. In July 2005, I participated in a month-long National Endowment for the Humanities Institute titled: Slavery, Literacy, and Freedom: African American Literature, Culture, and Folklore. This institute was held at George Mason, and sponsored by the George Mason English department. When I am not teaching, I am assisting with the Cadette Girl Scout Troop at my church, Neabsco Baptist Church, where I am a faithful member of the choir. I was recently accepted into George Mason's graduate program, and will begin coursework for my masters in education in spring of 2006. 

Joshua Grinnell (2003) I graduated from the Fiction concentration in January of 2003. Since then I've held several jobs pertaining to international student exchange, finally culminating in my graduation in 2005 from Georgetown University with a Master of Arts in Arab Studies. I currently work as a Grant Administrator for the National Resource Center on the Middle East at Georgetown. I live in Arlington and entertain thoughts of translating everything I read in English 325 into Arabic.

Cara Baylus (Fiorini) '99 I graduated from George Mason's English department with a concentration in Fiction Writing in the Spring of 1999. I am currently in my fifth year of graduate study at the University of Chicago, writing my dissertation in English. It's entitled "Investments of Care: Affect, Ideology, and Victorian Childhood." I am currently teaching two classes in the English department at the University of Chicago. When I am not teaching in Chicago, I live in Fairfax with my husband of five years, a Senior Designer with the Smithsonian Institution.

Alumni: Email us your story.

Former Graduate Students in the news:

Peter Streckfus (2000, MFA Poetry) recently had his manuscript, The Cuckoo, chosen by Louise Glück as the winner of this year's Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. The book is scheduled to be released April 2004. Peter's poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, Matrix, Natural Bridge, Pleiades, and Slope. The Cuckoo was also chosen this year by C.D. Wright as a finalist in the Academy of American Poets Walt Whitman Award. He's presently the chief writer and publicist at the San Francisco Art Institute and resides in the city with his wife, Bird Vitko.

Rebecca Wee  (1992, MFA, Poetry) has been awarded a Library of Congress Witter Bynner Fellowship for 2003-2004. English Professor Rebecca Wee is one of two poets nationwide selected by United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins to receive the fellowship, which is intended to support Wee's writing of poetry. Wee currently teaches creative writing, literature, and composition at Augustana College.

Caroline Kettlewell (1995, MA, Prof. Writing and Editing) has published Electric Dreams:
One Unlikely Team of Kids and the Race to Build the Car of the Future (Carroll and Graf, 2004). Booklist calls it "Inspirational" while Kirkus Reviews calls it "Exciting and inspirational."  It has garnered a starred review from Publishers Weekly, where it is described as "a can't-miss true story reminiscent of the movie Breaking. "

Mark Winegardner (1988, MFA, Fiction) has been selected by Random House and Mario Puzo's son to write the next Godfather sequel.  Winegardner is the author of a recent collection of short stories, That's True of Everybody, and the novel Crooked River Burning, both published by Harcourt.  Winegardner is the director of the Creative Writing Program at Florida State University.