Writers in the Schools

Albert Abonado, poetry
Albert Abonado is the author of the poetry collection JAW (Sundress Publications 2020) and Field Guide for Accidents (Beacon Press 2024), selected by Mahogany Browne for the National Poetry Series. He has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. His writing has appeared in the Bennington Review, Colorado Review, Poetry Northwest, Zone 3, and others. He lives in Rochester, NY and teaches at SUNY Oswego.

Anderson Allen, poetry and spoken word
Anderson “Poetically Undefined” Allen is an award winning actor, poet, mentor, artist healer, and theater technician based in Rochester, NY. He is a dynamic creator that blends elements of jazz, hip-hop, song, and theatre to synthesize poetry and movement in riveting ways to convey storytelling in three dimensions. He is the author of Hello, My Name Is and has co-written several spoken word productions featured in local theater festivals around the city. Anderson’s work is witty, raw and honest and often challenges audiences to sit with heavy topics. To learn more about Anderson, visit www.poeticallyundefined.com

Sarah Cedeño, creative nonfiction
Sarah Cedeño’s debut story collection, The Grand Scheme of Things, was published by Harbor Editions in summer 2025, about which author John McManus has written “To read these stories is to be gripped by an uncanny sense of recognition. Cedeño is a beautiful writer.” Not Something We Discuss Often, her chapbook of essays, was published by Harbor Editions in November 2022. Sarah’s essay “The Visible Woman” was selected by Vivian Gornick as a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2023. Her work has appeared in Brevity, Salamander, The Journal, The Pinch, The Baltimore Review, Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. Sarah holds an MFA from Goddard College. She lives in Brockport, NY with her husband, two sons, some old ghosts, and two German shepherds. She teaches writing at her alma mater, SUNY Brockport.

Sarah Freligh, fiction and poetry
Sarah Freligh is the author of seven books, including Sad Math, winner of the 2014 Moon City Press Poetry Prize; Hereafter, winner of the 2024 Bath Novella-in-Flash Contest; Other Emergencies; and A Brief Natural History of Women (Harbor Editions, 2018), described by author Myna Chang as “exquisitely crafted, with an eye to the poetic and one foot firmly planted on fractured ground.” Sarah’s work has appeared in many literary journals and anthologized in New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction (Norton 2018), and Best Microfiction (2019–22). Among her awards are poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Saltonstall Foundation.

Francesca Padilla, fiction
Francesca Padilla is a queer Dominican-American fiction writer born and raised in New York City and living in Rochester, NY. She holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the State University of New York at Purchase College and is a past recipient of a Walter Dean Myers Grant from We Need Diverse Books. Her debut novel What’s Coming to Me (Soho Teen, 2022) has been recognized as a Junior Library Guild selection and a Best Teen/YA Book of 2022 by Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal. By day, she also works in health and human services. For more information and updates, visit www.frannypadilla.com.

Michael Solis, fiction
Michael Solis is the author of the YA sci-fi novel Deficient, winner of a Reviewers’ Choice Award from YADudeBooks and nominee for the Pushcart Prize, the Stonewall Book Award, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. For two decades, he worked across Africa, Asia, and Latin America in human rights and humanitarian response. Those experiences, together with his queer identity, shape stories that explore power, belonging, and transformation. He now serves as Executive Director of Writers & Books, a literary arts nonprofit in Rochester, NY, and co-chairs the Middle Grade/Young Adult Committee of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association.

Angelique Stevens, creative nonfiction
Angelique Stevens’ nonfiction can be found in The Best American Essays 2023, edited by Vivian Gornick, and The Best American Essays 2022, edited by Alexander Chee. She has also been published in Granta, LitHub, The New England Review, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Bennington College and an MA from SUNY Brockport in Literature. She has received fellowships from Bread Loaf, Tin House, Kenyon Review, Sewanee, Lighthouse Book Project, Periplus, and Hedgebrook. Currently working on a collection of essays about poverty and the myth of the American Dream, forthcoming from Simon & Schuster, Angelique teaches creative writing, literature of genocide, and race literatures at Monroe Community College.