Season 19 Mentors
AWP celebrates the twenty-three writers volunteering their time in Season 19 of the Writer to Writer Mentorship Program. We selected mentors for this session based on their experience and their commitment to supporting their mentees’ writing goals through this journey.
If you would like to volunteer as a mentor, apply via Submittable today! Season 20 will run from May 6–July 26, 2024.
Doug Ramspeck
Poetry
Doug Ramspeck is the author of nine collections of poetry, one collection of short stories, and a novella. Individual poems have appeared in Southern Review, Georgia Review, Slate, Missouri Review, and many other literary journals. His author website can be found at dougramspeck.com.
Doug Ramspeck is working with Sara Rosenberg.
Janée J. Baugher
Poetry
Janée J. Baugher is the author of the only guidebook of its kind, The Ekphrastic Writer: Creating Art-Influenced Poetry, Fiction and Nonfiction (McFarland, 2020), as well as the full-length poetry collections Coördinates of Yes (Ahadada Books, 2010) and The Body’s Physics (TebotBach, 2013). She’s an assistant editor at Boulevard Magazine, and she’s been featured on Seattle Channel TV and at the Library of Congress.
Janée J. Baugher is working with Ellen White Rook.
Allison Whittenberg
Poetry
Allison Whittenberg is an award-winning poet, short story writer, playwright, and novelist. Her novels are Sweet Thang, Hollywood and Maine, Life is Fine, Tutored (Random House 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2010). Her work has appeared in Flying Island, Feminist Studies, Iconoclast, and Ekphrastic Review. She is author of the full-length short story collection, Carnival of Reality (Loyola University Press, 2022). Whittenberg is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee.
Allison Whittenberg is working with Andrew Garvin.
Sean Singer
Poetry
Sean Singer is the author of Discography (Yale University Press, 2002), winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, selected by W.S. Merwin, and the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America; Honey & Smoke (Eyewear Publishing, 2015); and Today in the Taxi (Tupelo Press, 2022) which won the 2022 National Jewish Book Award. He runs a manuscript consultation service at www.seansingerpoetry.com.
Sean Singer is working with Elizabeth Tomanio.
Gustavo Adolfo Aybar
Poetry
A lover of hybrid forms of literature, tattoos, and all things martial arts, Gustavo Adolfo Aybar writes about fatherhood, masculinity, baseball, and law enforcement. With an MA in romance languages and literature from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Aybar became a writer, translator, and scholar. His first full-length collection, We Seek Asylum, is indicative of his education and diverse passion, along with new work available online via SpanglishVoces.com.
Gustavo Adolfo Aybar is working with Nicole Bird.
Kimberly L. Becker
Poetry
Kimberly L. Becker, of mixed descent, including Cherokee, is author of five poetry collections: Words Facing East and The Dividings (WordTech Editions), Flight (MadHat Press), The Bed Book and Bringing Back the Fire (Spuyten Duyvil). Her poems appear widely in journals and anthologies, including most recently in Unpapered: Writers Consider Native American Identity and Cultural Belonging (University of Nebraska Press). She has received several grants and residencies and has read at Busboys and Poets, the National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC), Split This Rock, and Wordfest. She has served as mentor for PEN America's Prison Writing and AWP's Writer to Writer programs. www.kimberlylbecker.com
Kimberly L. Becker is working with Fatma Omar.
Claire Wahmanholm
Poetry
Claire Wahmanholm is the author of Meltwater (Milkweed Editions 2023), Wilder (Milkweed Editions 2018), Redmouth (Tinderbox Editions 2019), and Night Vision (New Michigan Press 2017). Her work has been supported by the McKnight Foundation, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. She is the winner of the 2022 Montreal International Poetry Prize, and her work most recently appears in Triquarterly, Missouri Review, Ninth Letter, Blackbird, Washington Square Review, and Cream City Review. She lives in the Twin Cities. Find her online at clairewahmanholm.com.
Claire Wahmanholm is working with Beth Curran.
Helen Thorpe
Creative Nonfiction
Helen Thorpe is the author of four books of narrative nonfiction about people who have moved between countries: Just Like Us, Soldier Girls, The Newcomers, and Finding Motherland. Her books document the experiences of immigrants, soldiers deployed in foreign conflicts, asylum seekers, and refugees in the midst of resettlement. She teaches narrative nonfiction at Lighthouse Writers Workshop.
Helen Thorpe is working with Alison Fromme.
Ursula Pike
Creative Nonfiction
Ursula Pike is the author of An Indian among los Indígenas: A Native Travel Memoir. She teaches Memoir and Personal Essay at Austin Community College and has an MFA in creative nonfiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Ursula was featured as one of Poets & Writers' 5 over 50.
Ursula Pike is working with Susan Baek.
Jill Talbot
Creative Nonfiction
Jill Talbot is the author of The Last Year: Essays (winner of the Wandering Aengus Press Editor's Prize, 2023), The Way We Weren't: A Memoir (Soft Skull, 2015), and A Distant Town: Stories (Winner of the 2020-2021 Leiby Award from the Florida Review, 2021). Her essays have appeared in AGNI, Brevity, Colorado Review, Gulf Coast, Hotel Amerika, LitMag, The Paris Review Daily, and more. She is associate professor of creative writing and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of North Texas.
Jill Talbot is working with Carolina Pfister.
Estelle Erasmus
Creative Nonfiction
Estelle Erasmus is the author of Writing That Gets Noticed: Find Your Voice, Become a Better Storyteller, Get Published (June 2023, New World Library). She is an adjunct writing professor at New York University's School of Professional Studies, an in-demand speaker, a former magazine editor-in-chief, and the host of the popular podcast Freelance Writing Direct. Her website is estelleserasmus.com and her Substack is https://estelleserasmus.substack.com.
Estelle Erasmus is working with Leslie Stonebraker.
Mark Pleiss
Creative Nonfiction
Mark Pleiss is a writer in Des Moines. He publishes essays, scholarly criticism, reviews, and fiction. His work has appeared in Tupelo Quarterly, Colorado Review, Fine Lines, the Omaha Pulp, Sequel, and elsewhere. His collection of linked short stories, April Warnings (2019), was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. Mark holds a doctorate in contemporary peninsular Spanish literature. He currently teaches at Simpson College and serves as the fiction editor for Janus Head. He's from Omaha, Nebraska.
Mark Pleiss is working with Brooke Randel.
Joanne Nelson
Creative Nonfiction
Joanne Nelson is the author of the micro essay collection, My Neglected Gods, and the memoir, This Is How We Leave. Her writing appears in numerous journals and anthologies; she won the Hal Prize in nonfiction, as well as other literary awards, and has contributed to Lake Effect on Milwaukee’s NPR station. She gives presentations on mindfulness and writing, creativity, and the second half of life.
Joanne Nelson is working with Max Boenish.
Ceilidh Michelle
Creative Nonfiction
Ceilidh Michelle is the author of the memoir Vagabond: Venice Beach, Slab City and Points in Between, and the novel Butterflies Zebras Moonbeams. She has contributed to Room, MacLean's Magazine, and others. She lives in Montreal.
Ceilidh Michelle is working with Jessie Rothwell.
Cara Diaconoff
Fiction
Cara Diaconoff is the author of Unmarriageable Daughters: Stories and a novel, I’ll Be a Stranger to You. She has taught writing and literature at various institutions including Whitman College and Southern Methodist University and, presently, at Bellevue College, near Seattle. Currently, she is completing a collection of stories inspired by Russian folk tales and historical settings.
Cara Diaconoff is working with Lori D'Angelo.
Diana Lopez
Fiction
Diana Lopez is the author of the adult novella, Sofia's Saints, and of several middle grade novels including Confetti Girl, Lucky Luna, and her latest, Los Monstruos: Felice and the Wailing Woman, the first in a series. Her short works have been featured in various journals and anthologies, most recently in Living Beyond Borders and Nepantla Familias. She currently serves as the president of the Texas Institute of Letters.
Diana Lopez is working with Victoria Martinez Diaz.
Miranda Joy
Fiction
Miranda Joy is a fantasy-romance author from upstate New York whose works include These Wicked Lies, These Wicked Truths, and A Curse of Malice & Mercy. Her stories revolve around flawed characters who, despite their traumatic pasts, embark on transformative journeys of self-discovery, ultimately finding their inner strength and embracing the power of love. Currently in the final stage of her MFA in creative writing at Southern New Hampshire University, Miranda is preparing to teach collegiate-level writing while honing her craft.
Miranda Joy is working with Kamie Maddocks.
Erin Riha
Fiction
Erin Riha writes young adult speculative novels about ambitious girls who don’t know they’re not supposed to exceed expectations. She is the author of the Embers in Wait series. Her debut novel, But for the Mountains, was a finalist for the Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
Erin Riha is working with Audrey Hosford.
Amelia Brunskill
Fiction
Amelia Brunskill is a writer and a librarian. Her first novel, The Window, was a young adult mystery, and her second, Wolfpack, was a young adult novel in verse. Her short fiction has been published in Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, Arts & Letters, and Luna Station Quarterly, and has been nominated for a Pushcart and awarded an Illinois Arts Council Agency Literary Award.
Amelia Brunskill is working with Saida Bulhan.
Sara Rauch
Fiction
Sara Rauch is the author of What Shines from It: Stories and XO. Her writing has appeared in Revolute, Meetinghouse, Split Lip, So to Speak, Paranoid Tree, and elsewhere. She lives with her family in Massachusetts. www.sararauch.com
Sara Rauch is working with Chelsea Tokuno-Lynk.
Tara Campbell
Fiction
Tara Campbell is an award-winning writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, fiction coeditor at Barrelhouse, and graduate of American University's MFA in creative writing. She's the author of a novel, two hybrid collections of poetry and prose, and two short story collections from feminist sci-fi publisher Aqueduct Press. She teaches flash fiction and speculative fiction at venues such as American University, Johns Hopkins University, Clarion West, The Writer's Center, Hugo House, and the National Gallery of Art, and can be reached at www.taracampbell.com
Tara Campbell is working with Kiani Laigo.
Amy Gottlieb
Fiction
Amy Gottlieb's debut novel The Beautiful Possible (Harper Perennial, 2016) was finalist for the National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction, finalist for the Harold U. Ribalow Prize for Jewish Fiction, runner-up for the Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and a Target Emerging Authors Pick. Amy is also an award-winning poet. She lives in New York City, where she teaches online fiction workshops and coaches individual writers.
Amy Gottlieb is working with Scott Hoshida.
Aimee Ogden
Fiction
Aimee Ogden is an American werewolf in the Netherlands. Her debut novella, Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters, was a Nebula Award Finalist, and her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Lightspeed, Analog, Clarkesworld, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Her latest novella, Emergent Properties, arrived in July 2023.
Aimee Ogden is working with J.M. O'Malley.
