The Writing Seminars > Graduate > Alumni Books

Since 1947, the Writing Seminars has produced an extraordinary number of successful poets, novelists, short story writers, and screenwriters, many of whom have gone on to become luminaries in their fields. Check out some of the recent books published by Writing Seminars alumni:

Tehrangeles by Porochista Khakpour. The cover features a fluffy white cat wearing sunglasses, next to roses, on a gold background.
Porochista Khakpoour – Tehrangeles
THE PALACE OF FORTY PILLARS by Armen Davoudian. Cover features a palace in Iran with columns, reflected in the water of a reflecting pool below it. The photograph has strips torn from its edges.
Armen Davoudian – The Palace of Forty Pillars
La Tercera by Gina Apostol - cover features a woman's face collaged out of maps, a painting of a landscape, and stars.
Gina Apostol – La Tercera
cover of A HUNDRED LOVERS by Richie Hofmann. Depicts a side-view of an ancient marble statue missing its head and limbs, against a black background.
Richie Hofmann – A Hundred Lovers
HOLDING PATTER by Jenny Xie. Cover depicts a watercolor of two women sitting on a park bench, not next to one another, their backs toward the viewer.
Jenny Xie – Holding Pattern
STILL LIFE by Jay Hopler. Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and longlisted for the National Book Award. Cover depicts the plain grey back of a framed artwork, with a tag, and a white wooden frame.
Jay Hopler – Still Life
IN UNIVERSES by Emet North. Cover depicts a glitch-like multicolor spiral.
Emet North – In Unvierses
THINGS I DIDN'T DO WITH THIS BODY by Amanda Gunn. Beige/offwhite cover depicts a woman with her arm raised behind her head, in a gesture like dance.
Amanda Gunn – Things I Didn’t Do with This Body
SHIT CASSANDRA SAW by Gwen Kirby. Cover depicts a surreal face. Background is blue, like underwater, with coral or flames sprouting from the eyes and red lips.
Gwen E. Kirby – Shit Cassandra Saw
POPULAR LONGING by Natalie Shapero. Cover depicts a white button-up short sleeve shirt, home-made looking, with extremely rough black threading along the seams.
Natalie Shapero – Popular Longing
CIRCUS by Wayne Koestenbaum. Cover is text-only, with the word CIRCUS stretched out across the full cover vertically.
Wayne Koestenbaum – Circus
I CAME ALL THIS WAY TO MEET YOU by Jami Attenberg. Cover is blue with orange dots, which make a very subtle skull.
Jami Attenberg – I Came All This Way to Meet You
TWO MINDS by Callie Siskel. Cover depicts a black-and-white photo of a dollhouse that looks extremely realistic, in front of a window that looks out at a real-life house behind it.
Callie Siskel – Two Minds
CINDER by Susan Stewart. Green cover photograph depicts very blurry blades of grass--the image is rotated 90º clockwise.
Susan Stewart – Cinder
STAY ILLUSION by Lucie Brock-Broido. Cover is an antique, gilded painting of a white doe lying on the ground with a gilded collar and chain-leash.
Lucie Brock-Broido – Stay, Illusion
SO FORTH by Rosanna Warren. Cover is an oil painting of a landscape seen through a multicolor chain-link fence.
Rosanna Warren – So Forth
book cover for THRILLVILLE USA by Taylor Koekkoek. Title written in hand-painted yellow and white lettering in the style of a 1900s amusement park.
Taylor Koekkoek – Thrillville, USA
IN OTHER LIFETIMES by Courtney Sender. Turquoise blue cover has a moon and a line-drawing of an orange house.
Courtney Sender – In Other Lifetimes All I’ve Lost Comes Back to Me
OUT OF ORDER by Alexis Sears. Cover features an impressionistic painting of a dancer in a red skirt and red heels, her hand dipped low at her feet mid-dancemove.
Alexis Sears – Out of Order
DRINKING COFFEE ELSEWHERE by ZZ Packer. Cover has eggshell-white text on a plan blue background.
ZZ Packer – Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
THE NIGHT WATCHMAN by Louise Erdrich. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. The cover has hand-painted lettering and stripes of purple, green, and blue.
Louise Erdrich – The Night Watchman
AMERICANAH by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Cover is subtle hues of red, white, and blue, and depicts a watercolor-like gradient of the colors in a pattern that looks like clouds and sky.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Americanah

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