Jiménez-Porter Writers' House Alumni

Kia Braganza (Class of 2013) is the first in her family to graduate from college. After graduating with a B.A. from the University of Maryland - College Park, she set her sights on New York. She graduated from Long Island University-Brooklyn, receiving an MFA in Writing and Producing for Television from the TV Writer’s Studio. While balancing a full course load, Kia has interned at various production companies and television networks such as Skydance Media, TruTV, The Wendy Williams Show, and A+E Networks. She's currently a production assistant with the brand creative team at Nick Jr. In her free time, she loves to catch up on pop culture, write screenplays, and attend concerts.

Marlena Chertock (Class of 2013) has two books of poetry, Crumb-sized: Poems (Unnamed Press) and On that one-way trip to Mars (Bottlecap Press). She uses her skeletal dysplasia as a bridge to scientific poetry. She is queer, disabled, and serves on the Board of Split This Rock, a nonprofit that cultivates poetry that bears witness to injustice and provokes social change. She previously served as Co-Chair of OutWrite, Washington, D.C.'s annual LGBTQ literary festival. Her poetry and prose has appeared in AWP’s The Writer’s Notebook, Breath & Shadow, The Deaf Poets Society, Lambda Literary Review, Little Patuxent Review, Paper Darts, Washington Independent Review of Books, WMN Zine, Wordgathering, and more. 

Website: www.marlenachertock.com, Twitter: @mchertock

Celia Cook (Class of 2022) is a queer writer living outside of Baltimore, Maryland. They self-published two novels: Rise of the Ieta (2018) and Mark of Trusde (2021). She was also the president of Novelist Support Group for two years, and has continued their mission post-graduation. They are currently working on a novel about Greek mythology and Nebraska. She spends her time reading the mountain of books in her room and trolling the internet for jobs. If you’re looking for reading recommendations or recipes, feel free to hit them up. She has a BA in English and Psychology. They will apply for MFAs in the fall for fiction and nonfiction. After that, she’ll take over the world. 

Website: www.thealembooks.com, Instagram: @celia.cook and @the.alem.books

S.C. Giedzinski (Class of 2020) is an engineer who designs solar farms throughout the United States. He is also a sketch comedian, audiobook narrator, part-time goat/chicken farmer, and grapheme-color synesthete. 

Giedzinski's writing ranges from horror to romance and everywhere in between—often including elements of mystery or humor. Two of his short stories won minor awards in 2015 and 2016, and his satires "Marshmallows" and "You're a Winner" were published respectively in the 2019 and 2020 issues of Stylus, the University of Maryland literary journal. Both stories were among those featured in Giedzinski's first collection, "Nine Million Marshmallows and More: Short Stories" in 2020. Giedzinski's debut novel, a summer murder mystery entitled "Island Rain," was published in 2022.

Website: www.giedzinski.com, Instagram: @scgiedzinski

M. K. Hale (Class of 2018) writes steamy romance novels starring dirty-talking heroes and the witty women who leave them tongue-tied. She specializes in romantic comedies and has dabbled in comedy for years, including standup, improv, and sketch comedy. She believes laughter is the best medicine, except for, you know, actual medicine. She obtained her English degree from the University of Maryland.

 

Charlotte M. Johnson (Class of 2014): I studied English Literature and Language at UMD, then went on to earn my MLIS. I am a faculty librarian at the University of Pittsburgh. I enjoy reading and writing horror and dark fantasy. My original fiction has been published in Morpheus Tales. I also write fanfiction on Archive of Our Own and library scholarship in various publications. 

Twitter: @FrozenChazRusse

Meg Eden Kuyatt (Class of 2012) is a 2020 Pitch Wars mentee, and teaches creative writing at Anne Arundel Community College. She is the author of the 2021 Towson Prize for Literature winning poetry collection “Drowning in the Floating World” (Press 53, 2020) and children’s novels, most recently “Good Different” (Scholastic, 2023). 

Website: www.megedenbooks.com, Facebook: Meg Eden Writes Poems, Instagram: @meden_author

Jamie Lee (Class of 2013) is a current director in the fintech space, and former business management consultant; her work focuses on operational improvement, data storytelling, and building inclusive, empowered teams. She is based in Washington, DC with her husband and some houseplants, and she loves to travel, grocery shop, and read -- recent favorites include Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino and The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison. 
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jelee533

Gabriella Melendez (Class of 2020) is a prose/fiction writer who pursued her love of books after graduating from Writers House and now works as an editorial assistant for Great Dog Literary Agency. While at Writers House, Gabriella's writings included excerpts from novels in progress and short stories that spanned science fiction/fantasy to realistic fiction to family sagas with a touch of magical realism. As an editorial assistant at Great Dog Literary, Gabriella is focused on searching for books targeted towards young adults, as she believes YA books can never be outgrown and present the opportunity to reflect the myriad of difficulties or experiences a young person may go through in a palatable and fantastic way. She looks forward to continuing to help underrepresented authors find their voice in the publishing industry. 
Twitter: briella_noelle

Carolina Meurkens (Class of 2018, she/her) is a writer, curator, and marketing specialist, with a passion for centering underrepresented voices and utilizing storytelling techniques to assist organizations looking to develop their online presence and expand their reach. As a multi-hyphenate creative, her artistry is an exploration of her Afro-Brazilian/ German ancestry and what it means to be a queer biracial woman in today’s society. Carolina is the Editor-in-Chief of Mixed Mag, an online multimedia magazine that centers stories by multiethnic/ multicultural creatives. Carolina currently serves as the Multicultural Marketing Manager at Penguin Publishing Group, where she provides on the ground support to marketing teams looking to reach new audiences and develops innovative marketing tools to meet today’s challenges. Carolina is currently completing an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Goucher College. 

Website: www.carolinawrites.com, Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/carolina-meurkens

Alana Pedalino (Class of 2016) has earned recognition from ACES: The Society for Editing, the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center, MDDC Press Association, University of Maryland MFA Program in Creative Writing and Folger Shakespeare Library. She works in publishing and loves to kayak and travel. Her work has appeared in Bon Appétit, Struggle Mag, Chicken Soup for the Soul and The Buffalo News. Follow her @APstyle on Twitter.

Website: www.alanapedalino.com, LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alana-pedalino, Twitter: @APstyle 

Lenaya Stewart (Class of 2015) is a technical editor and earned her B.A. and M.A. in English Language & Literature at the University of Maryland in 2015 and 2017 respectively. She was awarded a distinguished place as one of “12 Terps Who Inspire” in 2015. When not busy unraveling the delightful intricacies of grammar, Lenaya can be found writing poetry and seeking the creative endurance to finish drafting her first science fiction novel.

 

Radhika Tyagi (Class of 2017) is an Ensign in the US Navy and just began her third year of medical school. She was a recipient of the Jimenez-Porter Literary Prize for fiction and the Sebastian Herbstein Memorial Scholarship in Fiction Writing during her time at UMD. Her short stories and essays can be found in Bird's Thumb, NILVX: A Book of Magic, and Augur Magazine. She still reads and writes and dreams of adopting a cat in the near future.

 

Robert Wolle (Class of 2022): I write prose, music, film, comedy, video games, and essays. JPWH helped me find my voice in all these forms: high density, experimental, prose slipping into poetry, narrators at once reasoned and neurotic, nervous emotions at the fore, and existential satire in the worst places. Much of the work I started for my Writers’ House chapbook is the basis of a debut literary novel in a sprawling Anti-Fantasy universe. And somehow I stumbled my way into a physics PhD program at George Mason with an interest in quantum computing. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t understand how the universe worked, and I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t make art. 

Spotify: Praeter, Twitter: @RobWolle.

 

Mia Sylvia Garcia (Class of 2022) graduated with a B.S. Information Science and a creative writing minor. She received the Henrietta Spiegel Award for Fiction during her time in the writers’ house. Mia was the Vice President of External Affairs of UMD’s SHPE chapter where she organized and advocated for STEM-based learning at local elementary schools with a Latinx majority demographic. She is currently based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she is an analyst at a technology consulting company. She is continuing to write fiction and working on a novella under the pen name S.L. Garcia. You can find her chapbook containing magical realism short stories in Sentimental.   LinkedIn