The world will always need storytellers

M.F.A. in Nonfiction alumnae/i achieve success across mediums.
By Lillian Snortland
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Goucher’s M.F.A. in Nonfiction Program, a haven for writers pursuing their passions in a multitude of ways since 1997, was built on a foundation of flexibility and close-knit mentorship. This low-residency program plants the seeds of many ideas that grow into rich projects, but the impact of its alumnae/i goes beyond the page.
Jesse J. Holland, M.F.A. ’12, was appointed the new associate director of the School of Media & Public Affairs at George Washington University in July 2024. In that role, he supports the next generation coming up in journalism, public relations, and communications. “Working with future journalists and helping mold the minds of those who will be bringing us the news in future decades is a way I ensure that values and morals that were taught to me continue to thrive in journalism in the future,” he said. “The world will always need storytellers, men and women who are dedicated to telling the truth about life and writing the first draft of history.”
Holland doesn’t limit his interests; he hosts the Saturday edition of C-SPAN’s Washington Journal in addition to his work as an award-winning journalist and nonfiction author, earning the 2017 silver medal in U.S. History in the Independent Publisher Book Awards with his book The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African American Slavery in the White House. Holland is also bringing the stories of Black science fiction to life as the author of Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Finn’s Story and the first novel featuring the Black Panther.
Neda Toloui-Semnani, M.F.A. ’15, crosses storytelling mediums with ease. “I like writing scenes in prose; writing for television taught me about incorporating mise-en-scène, economy of language, and dialogue, and writing audio taught me the importance of specificity and detail but also the musicality of language,” she said. “Also, working in audio and visual media has been an unbelievable help to me with my longform print work, while working in spot news helped me craft breaking news television scripts.”
With seven Emmys under her belt for her work with VICE News and VICE News Tonight, Toloui-Semnani is no stranger to keeping an audience’s attention, the perfect skill for her current role as an assistant teaching professor of journalism for the Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State University. Toloui-Semnani is currently story-editing a narrative podcast for Bloomberg News that will be available soon. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, VICE News, New York magazine, The Baffler, and Roll Call. Her memoir, They Said They Wanted Revolution: A Memoir of My Parents, was published in 2021 by Little A. She was formerly part of the core faculty for Goucher College’s M.F.A. in Nonfiction Program, bringing dynamic and creative mentoring.
Susette Brooks, M.F.A. ’19, is a multimedia communications strategist whose storytelling spans a career ranging from leading a team of soldier-journalists with the New Jersey Army National Guard, to further education, to nonprofit and for-profit industry. She credits Leslie Rubinkowski, the Goucher M.F.A program’s director, with creating a nurturing environment that supports students on their unique paths. “When I applied to the M.F.A. in Nonfiction, I did so because I wanted to be a writer, and I wanted to learn how to write a book,” she said. “However, I always intended to maintain a day job, too. I just had no idea my day job would be as a rising executive in the largest book publisher in the world!” As the current director of inclusive marketing at Penguin Random House, she directs strategy around expanding market reach by finding, building, and maintaining relationships with multicultural readers. She applied for the position on the recommendation of Goucher M.F.A. program mentor and Penguin Random House executive Porscha Burke.
Most recently, Brooks was invited to cohost this year’s annual ANA Multicultural Marketing and Diversity Conference. After growing up with little diversity in literature assignments in school and in a culture that often made the experiences of multicultural writers “invisible, unusual, and irregular,” she discovered the Black literary canon, which changed her life and perspective. She now emphasizes the importance of storytelling, saying, “I believe if you can tell stories, you can do anything. My time in the M.F.A. in Nonfiction Program helped me understand that writing—which fuels marketing and communications—is fundamental to living. We need to produce stories that reflect multicultural experiences, and we need to learn—fast—how to market those stories to a changing nation.”
Melani Martinez, M.F.A. ’05, published a hybrid memoir last September called The Molino, about the tortilla factory her family operated in Tucson for nearly 70 years. The book began as her M.F.A. manuscript at Goucher. “Faith, family, and processing through periods of loss will always be with me,” she said. “Nearly all of my work as a writer and teacher weaves in and around these ideas, especially as they connect to home. My home is Tucson and the Sonoran Desert, and I guess I have always been trying to tell the story of the Borderlands.” Martinez is a senior lecturer in English at the University of Arizona, and her work has appeared in Fourth Genre, Bacopa Literary Review, Borderlore, Bearings Online, Telling Tongues: A Latin@ Anthology on Language Experience, and Contemporary Chicanx Writers Anthology. Mentorship had a great impact on the shaping of her project. “My mentors were wonderful. They made me feel like a valid writer and storyteller,” she said. “I didn’t understand how to join or belong to a writing community, but they modeled it for me, and with patience.” On the creative horizon, Martinez intends to tell creative stories in other ways: “Before I was a writer, I was a flamenco dancer. I’m dreaming of ways flamenco can still be in my body and in my voice.”
(Photo at top): Jesse J. Holland, M.F.A. ’12; Neda Toloui-Semnani, M.F.A. ’15; Susette Brooks, M.F.A. ’19; and Melani Martinez, M.F.A. ’05
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