8 Books You Should Read by Alumni, According to Creative Writing Faculty
Looking for your next great read? Members of the University’s in the College of Arts and Sciences have a few suggestions for titles that deserve a spot on your shelf. These eight books, all written by alumni and either released in the last decade or forthcoming in 2026, span poetry, short stories and novels.
Whether you’re looking to read more this year, or add to your already long “to be read” list, they say these titles by graduates of the Syracuse creative writing master’s program are not to be missed.
Below, the recommended reads and why the faculty members recommend them:
by Bridget Lowe G’09 (February 2020)
Professor suggests picking up this second, aptly titled poetry collection from Lowe, in which she makes meaning from the perversity of suffering. “Bridget Lowe interrogates the profound disquietude of the world, and that world is both miraculous and haunted; it’s both a world we recognize—work, Missouri—and a world she sees transformed by her vision into the numinous,” Smith says.
by Peter Mishler G’07, G’08 (May 2024)
Smith also recommends this collection, which received the Iowa Poetry Prize, and is set in distinctly American landscapes. “Peter Mishler poems are most sensitive to rumbles of culture and the intimacies that find their most acute analogy in the lives of children,” Smith says. “They astonish in their range and unnerving truth.”
by Max Delsohn G’24 (October 2025)
Young transmasculine characters navigate life in 2010s Seattle in this recently published collection of short stories, which professor recommends. “Max Delsohn is a brilliant new voice, as funny, wild and original as they come,” she says. “He writes with bracing honesty and complexity from an insider’s perspective. His work can be sharply ironic and wonderfully entertaining while also exploring deeper questions about connection, about dignity, about identity.”
by Aaron Fagan G’06 (October 2025)
Faculty member G’88 recommends reading this collection of sonnets that delve into existence and impermanence. “The poems in Aaron Fagan’s ‘Atom and Void’ are lyrical and witty philosophical treatises on the human condition in the chaotic world of the 21st century,” says Kennedy, whose own debut novel “Stealing Marquee Moon,” in May 2026.
by Sydney Rende G’21 (January 2026)
This debut collection of short stories, which capture the obsession with how we are perceived, the desire to be adored, big ambitions and the fascination of fame, is not to be missed, according to , professor and director of the creative writing program. He says it is a “a hilarious, savvy, tender-hearted short story collection about life in the age of social media and reality TV: how to be seen, how to be liked and how to be careful what you wish for.”
by JR Fenn G’22 (February 2026)
, associate professor emeritus, recommends this collection of 17 pieces of flash fiction, that travels backwards and forwards in time, focused on what it means to be human. “Jess Fenn’s tiny collection of tiny tales is a masterpiece of flash fiction in which every word is a full grown story, a consummate work of art,” Flowers says.
by River Selby ’15, G’18 (May 2026)
Flowers also recommends this debut memoir that captures the author’s experiences as a female wildland firefighter from 2000 to 2010. “River Selby’s account of a young woman’s journey as a wildland firefighter brings literary intensity and narrative grace to a tale of personal, gender and environmental struggle,” Flowers says.
by Leila Renee G’22 (August 2026)
This debut novel, an off-kilter coming-of-age-novel that follows a recent college graduate after she runs away from home, is one to keep on your list, according to professor G’88. “It’s a wry, funny, beautifully written story of a fraught but intense friendship, by a writer with real heart,” says Saunders, whose latest novel released in January.
