Matthew Thomas studied with Alice McDermott when he was a Writing Seminars student. When asked about McDermott for Baltimore Magazine's March profile, he sent the following essay about her as an instructor, writer, and mentor.

The convenience of having one's entire office in a machine as slim as a copy of 'The Paris Review' has not made moot the writer's room.

Barth, a National Book Award winner, was a leading figure in the university's Writing Seminars department, and his work is central to 20th-century literary history.