The students, alumni, and faculty of the UCR Palm Desert Low-Residency MFA had an absolute powerhouse of a year in 2025. Wrapping up strong and just as exciting as the rest of the year, check out all of our great news from November and December!
CAITLIN MCKENNA - Essay Published
Caitlin McKenna’s essay “Thrilled to Announce” was published in Hippocampus Magazine.
“Let’s dissociate for a sec. There she is: white girl drunk on the dance floor of the Reed student union. It’s all dark, pinewood paneling with an open-air loft. Unmatched, thrifted couches pushed to the sides of the large room, smelling of American Spirits and stale beer. Patchouli. Old weed.”
"Thrilled to Announce" | Author Website
BRIAN ASMAN - Essay Published
Brian Asman’s essay “From Script to Scream: How Filmmaking Informed My Horror Fiction” was published in Writer’s Digest.
“The thing that got me into filmmaking was actually horror fiction. I’d gotten pretty serious about writing prose and had a few small successes, so I applied to grad school at UCR-Palm Desert, hoping to hone my craft. The only problem was, you couldn’t just write fiction. You had to pick a “cross,” sort of like a minor. So I said what the heck, let’s try this screenwriting thing.”
“From Script to Scream: How Filmmaking Informed My Horror Fiction” | Author Website
BRIAN ASMAN - Essay Published
Brian Asman’s essay “Raising the Devil: Parenting, Control, and Horror Fiction’s Obsession with Sinister Children” was published in CrimeReads.
“It’s cliche but true to say horror has timeless appeal because it’s a way of safely engaging with and exploring our fears. Being afraid your child will grow up to be evil, or at least have an affinity for Canadian butt rock bands they must’ve gotten from their other parent, is a legit fear.”
“Raising the Devil: Parenting, Control, and Horror Fiction’s Obsession with Sinister Children” | Author Website
ATLAS REDDEN - Short Story Published
Atlas Redden’s short story “Cowboy Girl” was published in Neon Dystopia.
“The city always joked the desert would return someday to burn us both down. Maybe that shit started with me. Once I killed his least favorite corner by blowing out the windows of its high-rise in feral corporate rage, cybersecurity had my name on their lips within the day. I donned a thick, techless hood and bound my breasts. I stood in a neon-cast sidestreet and asked him what might happen next.”
FELICITY LANDA - Poems Published
Shadow Dog Press published five poems by Felicity Landa in “The SDL Review- Fall 2025.”
-Executive Order Protecting the American People from Invasion, Section 9
-When Serena Comes to Town
-Baby Teeth
-My Daughters are Playing Orphans Again
-Watching Bluey on a Saturday Night
"My father bought us a bag of pan dulce when my cousin came to stay the night, cut them into pieces on a tray so we could taste every kind. The moment is captured in a photo of our crooked tooth smiles, limbs pinned to our sides, scrunched eyes, heads tilted and bodies melting into the counter-top."
“The SDL Review- Fall 2025” | Author Website
CAMBRIA MATLOW - Film Featured in Top 25 List
Cambria Matlow’s film “Why Dig When You Can Pluck” made the top 25 Oregon-made movies of the last 25 years by Willamette Week.
Dramatizing the psychological tug-of-war inside artists raising kids, Why Dig When You Can Pluck is a bracing look at a family vacation sliding gradually off the rails. Portland indie filmmaker Cambria Matlow (Woodsrider) lays the trap of expectations, as Spring (a filmmaker played by Sol Marina Crespo) hopes to explore her muse on this trip alongside a child and a partner with other ideas. What ensues is an ever-shifting balance of attention, concern and familial power. Sure, inspiration can be plucked from even the most compromised experiences. But, oh, the cost.
Top 25 Oregon-made Movies | Author Website
TOD GOLDBERG & IVY POCHODA - Collection Featured in Wall Street Journal
“The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2025” featuring Tod Goldberg and Ivy Pochoda was included in the Wall Street Journal’s “Guide to Holiday Gift Books.”
“While a single sentence can turn a novel, a single word can turn a short story,” writes guest editor Don Winslow. The pieces featured in this collection hinge on those small, exacting moments that shock, spook, delight, and change a story entirely.
“Guide to Holiday Gift Books” | “The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2025” | Tod Goldberg Website | Ivy Pochoda Website
PERRIN PRING - Cover Reveal
The cover for Perrin Pring’s debut novel, “Cash and Gravity,” was released.
A thrilling sci-fi western and the first in a genre- and mind-bending series bearing shades of Old Man’s War, The Murderbot Diaries, and The Monkey Wrench Gang. A high-stakes chase across the American West. A device that could change the world. Three unlikely allies thrown together by fate.
"Cash and Gravity" | Author Website
WENDY MAXON - Short Story Featured
Wendy Maxon’s short story “The Wet Nurse” was featured in Matt Henshaw's Get Out of Jail Free Radio Hour podcast.
“In the dank basement of Hallie’s rented hovel in SeaTac, the baby octopus on her lap frothed and groped its tentacles toward her face, its saline stench so strong that she—torn between comforting and smothering it—could feel fumes boring into her brain.
Podcast Episode | “The Wet Nurse”
IVY POCHODA - Two-Book Deal
Ivy Pochoda’s upcoming novel, “Hart’s Park,” was sold in a two-book deal to Putnam.
LA Times Book Prize-winning author of ECSTASY Ivy Pochoda's HART'S PARK, about a wealthy, powerful family and the cycle of vengeance and retribution that has cursed it for generations, pitched as Succession meets Shirley Jackson, to Daphne Durham at Putnam, in a two-book deal, by Kim Witherspoon at Inkwell Management (world English).
JENNY HAYES - Reviews Published
Literary Hub published reviews by Jenny Hayes for the "100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025."
“Our guiding principles were “read a lot, recommend a few” and “seek out a diverse array of authors and publishers.” We were especially interested in BIPOC and LGBTQ authors and publishers, who have an even steeper climb to mainstream recognition.”
"100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025" | Author Website
CYNTHIA ALESSANDRA BRIANO - Appointed to Board of Trustees
Cynthia Alessandra Briano joined the Board of Trustees at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center.
Beyond Baroque is one of the United States' leading independent Literary | Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public's knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California.
Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center | Author Instagram
ATLAS REDDEN - Interviewed on Podcast
Atlas Redden was interviewed on the L0WL1F3 podcast to talk about to talk about their work and writing queer fiction in the current world state.
This ep, Scum, Dan, and CoinOps welcome the inimitable Atlas Redden to talk about writing, teaching, westerns, and turkeys in Boston.
LIA LANGWORTHY - Fellowship to Writing Residency
Lia Langworthy received a fellowship to the Anaphora Writing Residency.
Anaphora Writing Residency is a ten-day program designed exclusively for writers of color. The residency offers workshops, readings, craft talks, and discussions with professionals from the literary and publishing industry. The goal of the program is to nurture emerging and established writers of color, to create opportunities for publication, and establish a wide network of support for writers of different backgrounds.
Anaphora Writing Residency | Author Substack
MARION RUYBALID - Essay Published
Marion Ruybalid’s essay "I rejoined the workforce to fund my son's dream--and found my own" was published in Business Insider.
“I watched my 7-year-old son observing his younger sister taking her first dance class. She skipped across the floor, jumping over a taped marking. His eyes were glued to each move. "Mom, can I take this class?" he asked. We'd spent the last week discussing swimming lessons, but dance could fill its place, so he joined.”
"I rejoined the workforce to fund my son's dream--and found my own" | Author Website
MICHELE LOMBARDO - Short Story Published
Michelle Lombardo’s short story “Naturism” was published in the New Ohio Review.
"My fourteen-year-old daughter lounges atop the Queen-sized bed wearing pink nylon hiking shorts, woolen socks, and nothing else. Torso, out. Boobs, out. I’d been in the bathroom for three minutes and now, somehow, this. Arms folded behind her head, she smiles, a sly tilt in her expression that signals danger. My husband faces the wall of the cramped hotel room, his back to her, like she ordered him to stand in the corner. Whatever this is, he’s losing. Lately, we’re all losing."
MEGAN ECCLES - Novel Previewed in People
Megan Eccles’s debut novel, “Sing the Night,” was previewed in People.
“When TikTok publishing imprint 8th Note Press shuttered abruptly, that could have been the end of the line for Megan Jauregui Eccles. But the book the author calls "a love letter to artists" found a new home with Grand Central Publishing and now Sing the Night is set to hit shelves in March.”
HEATHER SCOTT PARTINGTON - Essay Published
Heather Scott Partington’s essay “Walking with Lisa See” was published in Alta.
Retracing the footsteps of an author’s ancestors in what was once Sacramento’s Chinatown, a critic reflects on how redevelopment buried essential stories of Chinese American history.
“Walking with Lisa See” | Author Website
ROBERT J. BINNEY - Short Story Published
Robert J. Binney had a short story published in “The Best Private Eye Stories of the Year 2025.”
Guest Editor Matt Coyle and Series Editor Michael Bracken read hundreds of private eye stories, ultimately selecting the twenty stories included here as The Best Private Eye Stories of the Year. The included stories represent the work of long-establish private-eye writers as well as those just beginning their publishing journey, and they were found in genre publications such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, anthologies such as Private Dicks and Disco Balls, and in unexpected publications such as Jerry Jazz Musician—proving that the private eye genre is alive and well in short form.
“The Best Private Eye Stories of the Year 2025” | Author Website
TOPH WHITMORE - Best Stage Play
Toph Whitmore’s play "Banana Palm" awarded Best Stage Play at the Cannes Script Festival.
Cannes Scripts was established with a clear purpose: to provide a standout platform that uplifts screenwriters by giving them special opportunities to showcase their work and connect with important industry figures. We believe in the power of stories and their ability to touch people worldwide.
Cannes Script Festival | "Banana Palm" | Author Website
TOD GOLDBERG - Novel in Top Ten List
Tod Goldberg’s novel “Only Way Out” was included in Alta Journal’s Ten Best Books of 2025.
Tod Goldberg trades his usual haunt of the desert for the Oregon coast in this hilarious, violent noir about a disgraced cop, a vanished van full of illicit safe-deposit boxes, a brilliant enforcer fresh out of prison, and a long con decades in the making. With biting satire—especially of true-crime culture and small-town gentrification—the novel showcases Goldberg’s sharp comic edge and mastery of the genre.
Ten Best Books of 2025 | “Only Way Out” | Author Website
Are you a student or alum with amazing news we should be shouting about? Email heather.scheeler@ucr.edu with all of your new awards, publications, articles, and anything else incredible that deserves a shout out!