We are always uplifted by the talented and creative writers who come to Lighthouse. Let’s celebrate just some of the accomplishments of those in our writerly community over the past few months!
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Faculty Wins
- R. Alan Brooks’s debut short film, Always, Most of the Time, has racked up prizes on the film fest circuit, including the Tokyo International Short Film Fest, The Micheaux, and the American Black Film Fest.
- Karen Palmer (She’s Under Here) and Erika Krouse (Save Me, Stranger) both made NPR’s "Books We Love" list for 2025.
- Andrea Rexilius's new hybrid collection, Seance of the Bees (featuring poetry, collage, and lyric essay), is forthcoming from Clash Books in January 2026. Celebrate at the interactive release party after Friday 500 on January 9!
- Jessica Roeder's erasure of Moby-Dick, By Whale, is now available for free as an e-book or PDF.
- Joy Roulier Sawyer’s screenplay was selected as a finalist in the Palm Springs Diversity Screenplay contest, as well as an official selection for the San Diego Film Awards. She was also named an outstanding finalist for the Cantor Prize in Poetry, as well as a Gold Medal winner for her screenplay in the 2025 International Independent Film Awards.
- Jenny Shank has a new piece of short humor on McSweeney's Internet Tendency: "I am the Overtourist and I'm Here to Marry Your Town."
- Cynthia Swanson has been named 2025 Indie Author of the Year by the Indie Author Project, a nonprofit that connects indie-pubbed authors with libraries, librarians, and readers. Cynthia's latest novel, Anyone But Her, won the 2024 Indie Author Project contest in Mystery/Thriller, which made her eligible to be named Indie Author of the Year.
- Book Project mentor Vauhini Vara has an essay out in the New Yorker, "What if Readers Like AI-Generated Fiction?" Read it and weep! She, along with Love Fest visiting author Melissa Febos (The Dry Season), both made Electric Literature's Best Nonfiction fo 2025 list.
- Raksha Vasudevan was one of ten writers selected for this year’s prestigious Whiting Award for nonfiction. She’ll use it to help her finish her book, Empires Between Us, to be published by Graywolf.
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Book Project, Portfolio Year, and Poetry Collective Triumphs
- Late Lighthouse member and Book Project participant Christy Bailey's posthumously published memoir, Headstrong: Embracing Alopecia and Becoming Pañuelo Girl, came out in 2025. Edited by Book Project graduate (and Christy's literary executor) Susanna Donato, it received a starred Kirkus Review, which called it "insightful" and noted, "The story of Bailey’s Peace Corps experience, in particular, is an eye-opening read."
- Book Project member Kyle Davis' short story, "What We Give to our Kids" was published in the June 2025 at Fiction Attic Press.
- Current Portfolio Year member and Poetry Collective alum Enrique Gautier’s book of erasure poetry, Liberty-n-Re(Sol)ution, will be published by Dead Reckoning Collective.
- Book Project alum Frances Jenner’s Sing to Me Billy the Kid comes out soon from Speaking Volumes Press.
- Book Project alum Aakriti "Ari" Pandita Signed with Jennifer Lyons.
- Book Project 2024 graduate Lior Torenberg’s debut novel, Just Watch Me, comes out from Simon & Schuster on January 21. Come celebrate, pick up her book, and listen to her story at the Book Project April intensive or at Lit Fest this summer.
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Member Book , Production & Publication News
- Kirsten Dahl Collin's play about the Navy women who trained pilots in WWII was selected for a staged reading at the Vintage Theatre in Aurora this past fall. The play was first performed publicly in a staged reading at the Lighthouse in 2019.
- Wendy B. Correa’s My Pretty Baby hit #1 Amazon Bestseller for Book, Kindle and audiobook, and #1 in the Hot New Release (alcoholism category).
- Sophie Anne Edwards’s new book, A Mouth of Vowels, is launching this fall through the experimental fiction imprint 1366 Books (Guernica Editions). Previously published as a chapbook with JackPine Press, the book was also long-listed for Omnidawn's 2024 1st/2nd Book Prize. The novel's first pages emerged through a class with Richard Froude at Lighthouse a few years ago.
- Member Amy Frykholm's debut novel, High Hawk, was longlisted for a PEN/Hemingway Award.
- Longtime Lighthouse friend Brian Kiteley has a new novel, Jack & Emily, coming out this month! Order or pre-order now.
- Robert Garner McBrearty's short story “The Briefcase” was read at the Stories on Stage Late Bloomers show at Su Teatro Cultural and the Denver Performing Arts Center.
- Members Amanda McCracken (When Longing Becomes Your Lover) and BK O’Connor (Eve) both have their debut books coming out in February. Come hear their stories–from initial idea to final publication–at Story of a Book after the February Friday 500.
- Maggie Miller’s short personal narrative "A Morning in the Morgue" was published in Two Hawks Quarterly.Scott Schaible recently had an essay published in the "Casting Aspersions Anthology" by Littoral Press. The anthology will be released in early 2026.
- Dale Schellenger's review of David J. Rothman and Susan Delaney Spear's Learning the Secrets of English Verse: The Keys to the Treasure Chest, and his poem, “Eggs With Bacon," were both published in New Verse Review Substack. His manuscript, Grief's First Tongue, was a semifinalist for Word Works open manuscript reading.
- Sydney Solis's haibun Deliverance was accepted for publication in The Haibun Journal's Fall 2025 edition. Sydney is a New Voices Fellow with Lighthouse.
- A short screenplay inspired by true life events of Kat Svaldi was written two years ago in a Lighthouse Screenwriting Workshop run by Jenny Taylor-Whitehorn. That script developed into a short film shot last year in Grand County, Colorado, and now that film has been officially selected by the Woods Hole Festival, Croatian International Film Festival, and Venice Shorts Film Fest.
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Lit Fest Attendee Accomplishments
- Lauren Barbato, the winner of Lit Fest’s Emerging Fiction award, won second place in CRAFT'S 2025 First Chapters Contest for her novel, As the Lord Hangs Around Her Neck, which she workshopped at the 2024 Lit Fest. An excerpt from her novel was published in CRAFT in December.
- Josh Charlson's short story "Neighbors," which he workshopped in Danielle Evans' course at Lit Fest 2024, was published in the Fall 2025 issue of The Hopkins Review.
- Melissa Huff announces the publication of her first full-length collection of poetry, To Speak to Each Day in Its Own Language, published in October 2025 by Kelsay Books. This book of poetry explores the deep conversation between nature and humans, and reflects how nature, body, and spirit intertwine.
- Lit Fest advanced poetry workshopper Laura Passin's second full-length poetry collection, We the Destroyers, was recently published by Riot in Your Throat Press.
- Arabelle Sicardi's debut adult non-fiction book, The House of Beauty: Lessons from the Image Industry, was published in October by W. W. Norton.
Are you a Lighthouse member with good news to share? Please let us know by filling out our Kudos form.
And thanks, everyone, for keeping us inspired!
Yours in Writing,
The Lighthouse Team
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