New Students

	Sandy Duchac Sandy Duchac is a US Navy Veteran, sexual assault survivor, and Executive Director of Veteran Sisters, a nonprofit supporting fellow Veterans. Prior to Veteran Sisters, she served as the Public Affairs Officer and spokesperson for Naval Base Coronado, the largest Navy base on the West Coast. Prior to her military service, she worked as a television producer in Hollywood. She holds a BFA in Media Arts from the University of Arizona and an MS in Global Leadership from the University of San Diego. Through the UCR MFA program, Sandy plans to share the lessons of her healing journey and highlight the often-overlooked struggles of women in the military through her memoir. However, she is most excited to work on her passion project—a trashy romance novel series titled Date Like a Dude. Sandy lives on a 2.5-acre farm in San Diego County with her menagerie of rescued animals, including Nigerian dwarf goats and a potbelly pig, chickens, barn cats, two farm dogs, and her ever-loyal service dog, JB.
	Laura K. Duncan Laura K. Duncan is a writer who lives in Las Vegas. She has appeared in The American Bystander, Slackjaw, Reader’s Digest, Points In Case, McSweeney’s, FWIW, a local TV ad for a Greek restaurant, and, in one particularly embarrassing incident, her parents’ laundry chute. Laura began her career as a newspaper reporter on the crime beat covering the Warren Jeffs trial, but she eventually transitioned to copywriting when newspapers proved to be “too smudgy.” Her creative POV was primarily shaped by her work with the Second City and her role as a comedy writer for Woot.com, a daily deal website that sold refurbished Dysons and decent wine. In her spare time, she likes to make her friends yawn by contagiousness and quickly take unflattering photos of their mouths agape. If this writing thing doesn’t pay off, she’s hoping that yawn-bombing will.
	Thomas Ebrahimi Thomas is a San Diego-based journalist and science communicator focused on the intersection of culture, art, and technology. He obtained his bachelor's from the University of California San Diego and works in marketing. When he’s not writing, Thomas can be found exploring museums, taking photographs, or surfing at La Jolla Cove.
	Bill Hairston Bill Hairston is a drama director and teacher in northern California who is thrilled to be diving deep into the art and craft of playwriting at UCR. Specializing in children's theatre, he produces and directs several musicals and plays each year. (last year's productions involved over six hundred kids!) An actor by training and a director by trade, Bill is enthusiastic about blossoming into the next phase of his professional life with the creation of original theatrical work for kids and families. He shares his passion for writing with his supremely talented wife, romance author Emma Scott.
	Rachel Haney A native Philadelphian with a pioneer spirit, Rachel Haney is drawn to grit and glam. She has spent the last ten years in insurance underwriting while pursuing her lifelong hobby of writing fiction on the side. Rachel lives in Denver where she likes to walk her Art Deco neighborhood with her dog, Gonzo. She is fascinated by the impact of media on society and personal identity, a topic which often appears in her writing. She wants to tell stories with captivating plots, surprising characters, and deep feels, in a sometimes twisted way.
	Alex Helmintoller Alex Helmintoller is a Los Angeles-based fiction writer, editor, and collage artist. Through fiction, they examine Post-War American Mythology, exploring themes of nationalism, memorial, complicity, and renewal. They have worked as a bookseller at multiple independent bookstores across Los Angeles and are an assistant editor for the biannual literary magazine “The Nashville Review.” They earned a BA in English from The University of California, Berkeley.
	Lindsey Kennedy Lindsey is an American-Jamaican writer based between Brooklyn and upstate New York, with her mini aussie, Ziggy. Her background is in marketing and branding, for companies like Apple, Tesla and Snapchat. She writes fantasy and poetry, but when she’s not writing, she’s traveling, meditating, taking photographs, or DJing.
	Caitlin Eliza (C.E.) McKenna (she/her) Caitlin Eliza (C.E.) McKenna is a writer, historian, and software engineer from Colorado who is studying fiction at UCR. She has history theses in the libraries of Reed College and Oklahoma State, and her short stories have found awards and publication with Writing by Writers, Desperate Literature, The Offing, Cagibi, Lumina, Quarterly West, Northwest Review, and Shift. Most of Caitlin's work focuses on the American West. Her short fiction and research often deals with the dangers of western environments—particularly wildland fire—while her long-form works combine deep historical research with the paranormal and Gothic. Her first novel, The Primary Source, is about the murderous origins of Stanford University. She lives with her husband and dog in Boulder, Colorado, where she works as a software developer and spends her free time traipsing high country trails by foot and cross-country ski, attempting to avoid moose.
	Atlas Redden (they/them/theirs) Atlas Redden is a writer, educator, and proud parent of three spoiled cats. Holding a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Central Florida, they have taught English to outlandish, inspirational middle schoolers and served in higher education student support roles. They currently reside in Boston, MA. Atlas writes speculative queer fiction that is equal parts fantastical and uncomfortable. Outside of work and writing, they spend their time crafting (poorly but passionately!), making copious Excel spreadsheets, and spinning up a rotating arsenal of tabletop RPG characters.
	Noelle Trost Noelle Trost is a fiction writer based in Riverside, CA. She earned her Bachelor’s in Neuroscience from USC in the spring of 2024 and has been working as a special education paraeducator. Her short stories have been published previously in The Bangalore Review and And Gallons. Noelle lives with her cat, Jonesy, named after the one in Alien so she can feel like Ellen Ripley.
	Angelo Williams Angelo Williams is a father of 5 (Luca, Jessie, Majahdi, Selah, and our 4 year old, Jonthan), married to Jocelyn, brother to Angelique and Dominick, son of Sharon and Arlington, grandson of Wiley and Jessie Mae. Angelo writes (poetry, prose, notes to himself) and has been writing since 13-ish to understand himself and the world around him (but mainly to understand himself). Angelo has worked in a bunch of places (politics, government, philanthropy, higher education), and he teaches classes in ethnic studies and public policy. He's earned some degrees (BA, MA, EdD), but nothing compares to the joy he felt when he received the acceptance letter from the UCR MFA program. A mentor of Angelo's in college, Dr. John O. Stewart, said to him once, "some of us have to write to live." And that just about sums the whole thing up.