What Does a Goddard Thesis Look Like?
Take a peek at this selection of some of the beautiful books and production posters that started off as Goddard theses. Then follow our alumni as they continue creating new work as writers in the world. Click the links for alumni and student news for more publishing news and achievements as it happens. Poems, productions, short stories, essays: we have it all!

The Seep
Starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist and Library Journal.
A blend of searing social commentary and speculative fiction, Chana Porter’s fresh, pointed debut is perfect for fans of Jeff VanderMeer and Carmen Maria Machado.

The Pink Institution
Finalist for the Believer Book Award, 2004
Beautiful and violent, spare and ominous, Saterstrom’s wholly original novel explodes mythologies of southern femininity.

Up High in the Trees
Selected by Book Sense, Borders Original Voices and Barnes & Noble Discover
Chicago Tribune Favorite Books of 2007
In spare and fierce prose buoyed by the life force of its small, fearless narrator, Up High in the Trees introduces an astonishingly fresh and powerful literary voice.

Work By Bloodlight
Winner of the 2018 Maine Literary Award
Winner of the 2015 Cider Press Review Book Award
It’s strange how so much beauty can come out of this often painful, always unflinching work. In poems that range through the physical world—the weasel in the henhouse, the calligrapher at his table—Bouwsma’s language is at once muscular and lyrical, her voice both passionate and honest. —Linda Pastan

The Length of This Gap
Entropy: Best Poetry Books and Poetry Collections of 2018
Death is not always tragedy, but then again, neither is love – its encounter, its ennui, its wound. Kristen Nelson’s the length of this gap revels in passionate ambivalence, gliding between emotions without netted hearts to catch her fall. These poems persuade my addiction. —Lily Hoang

Leaf Is All
Winner of the 2014 Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize
Meticulously inventive as it considers varieties of replication—benign and malign—and the intersections, the politics, of our communal narratives of family and science.
DON’T FORGET, THIS LIST IS JUST A TASTE! FOR MORE ALUMNI AND STUDENT PUBLICATIONS, CHECK OUT STUDENT AND ALUMNI NEWS FOR UPDATES.

So Much Pretty
Best Suspense Novel of 2011 by the New York Times Book Review
A haunting suspense novel about a murder mystery based on a real-life missing-persons case. — Entertainment Weekly, #3 on “The Must List”

Small Apartments
Grand Prize of the 23rd Annual International 3-Day Novel Writing Contest
Now a major motion picture from Sony Entertainment directed by Grammy Award winner Jonas Akerlund and starring the most refreshingly offbeat cast ever assembled for a dark indie comedy.

The Shame of Losing
2019 Washington State Book Awards Finalist
A moving, heartfelt and honest memoir about the choices we make. Cannon takes us through sudden tragedy and a rite of passage she never imagined.

An Unquenchable Thirst
Named one of the best books of the year by KIRKUS REVIEWS
An inspiration that transcends any particular religious belief . . . An Unquenchable Thirst is a journey that captivates, but its resonance lies in the life examined.—The Denver Post

Setting the Wire
Visiting Writer, Port Townsend 2020
“Taut, lyrical, wise writing.” – Claire Dederer
A lyric exploration of motherhood, mental illness, and familial ties, Sarah Townsend’s debut work weaves together personal anecdote, film, music, visual art, and psychology.

Makara
2013 Lambda Literary Finalist in Debut Fiction
In gorgeous, briny prose, Kristen Ringman’s novel grabbed my heart and didn’t let it go until the last page. Fionnuala is a delightful character who glides easily between the worlds of the sea and land, the deaf and the hearing, grief and joy. Both magical and raw, this story made me happy to be alive. — Lucy Jane Bledsoe