Nancie Atwell just released the third edition of In the Middle: A lifetime of Learning About Writing, Reading, and Adolescents (Heinemann).

Adam Banks, Bread Loaf faculty (’14) and professor in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies recently received the 2014 Rhetorician of the Year at The Young Rhetoricians Conference. A national leader in social and digital media, Banks is also a national expert on African-American rhetoric and technology, focusing on social media. His blog, The Talking Book, explores social media and race in America. Some of Banks’ accomplishments include his award-winning book Race, Rhetoric and Technology: Searching for Higher Ground that challenges teachers and scholars in writing and technology fields to explore black traditions more thoroughly while calling on African Americans to focus on technology.

Lorena German at left, NCTE 2014

Lorena German (MA ’14) was awarded the NCTE Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Award at the 2014 National Council of Teachers of English annual meeting. See this link for  a list of BLTN teachers and faculty who presented at NCTE.

David Kirkland, Bread Loaf faculty (’13), and associate professor of English and urban education at NYU, received NCTE’s Russell Award for his book A Search Past Silence: The Literacy of Young Black Men, “a passionate call for educators to listen to the silenced voices of Black youth and to re-imagine the concept of being literate in a multicultural democratic society.”

Josephine de la Torre (92 yrs old),Lupe Jordan (90 yrs old),Celia Salazar (92 yrs old), Mary Sosa (93 years old)

Ceci Lewis (MA ’96) organized “Leaving a Legacy: Celebrating the Lives and Contributions of Women of Mexican Descent in Douglas, Arizona, 1920s-1940s,” a traveling museum display and part of her doctoral work in the Mexican American Studies Program at the University of Arizona. The exhibit, which is traveling across southern Arizona, will have its final showing at the University of Arizona in March 2015. It features 15 women of Mexican heritage who were business, political, and social leaders and innovators.

Alfredo Lujan (MA ’87) was among seven New Mexico teachers to receive the “Golden Apple Award for Educational Excellence.” Since 1996, the award has been given to 123 New Mexico teachers to recognize their work in improving the academic achievement of students.

Christopher McCurry (MA candidate), is one of 21 Kentucky teachers selected for the  The Fund for Transforming Education’s Innovative Teacher Leader Cohort. Additionally, McCurry’s poem, “Word Problems and the Order of Operations,” from his recently published chapbook, Splayed, has received an ELJ Publications Pushcart nomination.

Richie Meyers (MA ’04) has been selected by the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers to play a key role in a U.S. Navy project “a compendium of case studies related to American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian sacred sites.” Read more here.

Renee Moore (MA ’97) was featured in NPR’s November, 2014 “Five Great Teachers on What Makes a Great Teacher.”

Lillian Reeves (MA ’07) earned her PhD from the University of South Carolina Columbia with a dissertation entitled “Towards a Theory of Safe Passage: Women Writers Who Teach.”  Lillian is currently Assistant Professor of English at Allen University in Columbia, SC.

Elissa Salas, Andover Bread Loaf Writing Leader, is featured in Starved Magazine, an online magazine dedicated to rising artists.

Doug Wood (MA ’97) has become the Ford Foundation’s Acting Director of  Higher Education for Social Justice Initiative within the foundation’s Educational Opportunity and Scholarship Unit.