Writing Fellowship Expands to a Full Academic Year
During his time as the Jennifer Jahrling Forese Writer-in-Residence, Zach Peckham will help students revive a Colby literary magazine
For the first time since its inception in 2021, the Jennifer Jahrling Forese Writer-in-Residence in Creative Writing fellowship is expanding to a full academic year from a single semester.
This year’s fellow is editor and writer Zach Peckham, who will teach one course each semester. In a fall survey course, students are exploring the structures and practices of contemporary book and journal publishing. In the spring practicum, they will reimagine Colby’s longstanding literary magazine, which was established in 1968 as The Pequod and most recently published during the 2023-24 academic year. It will be renamed The Colby Review.
“I’m excited to be here and grateful for the opportunity to work with Colby students and the Waterville community,” said Peckham, managing editor of Cleveland State University Poetry Center and the editor-at-large of the Cleveland Review of Books.
Peckham, who grew up in Massachusetts, has taught creative writing, composition, and literary editing and publishing at Cleveland State University and the Cleveland Institute of Art. His poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in national journals, including jubilat, Annulet, Territory, Poetry Northwest, American Book Review, and many others. He is the author of the chapbook cycle hum, and Mundo Press will publish his first full-length poetry collection, As If And, in 2026. Peckham also runs a small press called Community Mausoleum and a journal called Coma.
As part of his public engagement activities during his fellowship, Peckham will host a panel discussion about the state of the publishing industry at 5 p.m. Nov. 12 at Greene Block + Studios in Waterville.
In addition, he will host a reading with Associate Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing Arisa White and the writers Hilary Plum, Alicia Wright, and Rennie Ament at 7 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Chace Community Forum, and a craft talk on editing with Plum and Wright at 2 p.m. Nov. 14 in Room 209, Grossman Hall. He will also participate in the Elm City Small Press fest from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 15 at the Greene Block + Studios.
Looking ahead to spring, on March 17, he will host a reading and launch event for his poetry book in Studio 1 and the Olentine Forum at the Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts.
White said she was pleased that Colby is offering courses “that broaden our students’ knowledge of literary publishing and editing while also equipping them with the skills to improve their own writing and, if they choose, secure editorial jobs in the future. We are developing an editorial and publishing track that prepares Colby students to become competitive writers and critical readers who help shape the local and national literary landscape with writing that sparks our imaginations.”
A full year of coursework
The fall course, Literary Editing and Publishing, covers a range of topics, including both print and online publishing from the “Big Five” publishers to independents, small presses, micro/DIY publication projects, and self-publication. Students are studying the editorial process and author-editor relationships; the history, tradition, and forms of the book; copyright and intellectual property concerns; and the roles of multinational corporations, big tech, AI, and social media in shaping the reading public.
In the spring course, Literary Magazine & Publishing Lab, Peckham will lead students on an exploration of the possibilities of the literary journal as an influential force in global letters and intellectual culture. Topics will include digital and physical print production, project management workflows, design, copyediting and proofing, editing and curation, all with the goal of producing The Colby Review.
“A student-run literary magazine is such an incredible project and such a great opportunity for students who are interested in or curious about publishing. That kind of early-career exposure to real-world editorial work is so hard to come by,” Peckham said.
‘We are developing an editorial and publishing track that prepares Colby students to become competitive writers and critical readers who help shape the local and national literary landscape with writing that sparks our imaginations.’
Arisa White, Associate Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing
The journal was established to highlight the creative work of Colby’s artists and writers. As students reimagine the publication as The Colby Review, Peckham is encouraging them to envision a magazine that represents the Colby community and also looks outward into the wider world.
His idea: “Let’s start a new magazine that is student run with faculty support, that publishes some student work but also is open to national submissions. It gives it more credibility, and it creates real-world editing opportunities for students.”
Working with writers and building professional relationships are significant opportunities, he added.
“Editing is a really weird field because there is no formal educational track,” Peckham said. “You have to learn by doing, on the job. So the learning opportunity that we are trying to create is pretty immense. We can say to the student editors, ‘This isn’t theoretical. This is real work, and you’re being trusted to do something meaningful with it.’”
What the students say
Charley DiAdamo ’27 writes for the Colby Echo student newspaper and hopes to make a career in writing and publishing after graduating. In a perfect world, DiAdamo would work as an entertainment journalist, and she signed up for the course in hopes that the skills she learns and the experiences she gains will help her reach her goal.
“I want real-world experience, and I want to learn how the world of publishing works,” she said, expressing keen interest in helping to edit The Colby Review. “I am very intrigued by the idea of editing or being involved in that experience in some way. Editing is a useful skill to have, and I am just really looking forward to seeing how I can contribute.”
An English major with a focus on creative writing, Zixiao “Max” Wang ’26 enrolled in the fall course to improve his editing skills and gain experience in the world of publishing. “It can train writers to revise, whether their own work or others’, through an editor’s lens, and give them a more concrete, lucid understanding of the field they may one day enter,” he wrote in an email. “I also collect books, signed copies, first editions, and the like, and through collecting, I’ve noticed that although publishing in Europe and the U.S. has increasingly tended toward oligopoly in recent decades, independent and small presses still play an essential role. Literary magazines, moreover, are often the first place where poets and short-story writers publish. For me, the chance to study editing and the workings of the industry feels genuinely fortunate.”
He looks forward to working with Peckham in an editing role on the new publication. “The best contribution I can make is to apply the editorial training I learn with Zach, read as many submissions as possible, and offer professional, reasonably impartial judgments,” said Wang, who hopes to enter an M.F.A. program after graduating from Colby.
A writer’s journey
Peckham’s love of language led him to major in English at the University of Massachusetts, where he found his greatest comfort in the intellectual space of the English department. From there, he juggled jobs and careers, working in the service industry, as a freelance copy editor, and in a variety of roles during a decade-long stint working for advertising agencies. All the while, he wrote original music while playing in bands.
He was good at his job, but he didn’t love the work.
“I just reached a point in this advertising career where I needed to make a change. I was making good money, but I just remember I was almost 30, and I had the thought, ‘I don’t want to get promoted. You couldn’t pay me double to keep doing this job.’”
He followed his dream of becoming a published poet and teacher and enrolled in the M.F.A. program at Cleveland State University, earning his degree in 2021. Since then, he has supported himself as a writer, editor, and teacher.
History of the residency
The Jennifer Jahrling Forese Writer-in-Residence in Creative Writing Fellowship was created through a contribution from Trustee Emeritus Jamie Forese and Jennifer Forese, parents of Colby graduates.
Peckham is the sixth writer selected for the fellowship. Acclaimed novelist Nicholson Baker was the first in 2021, followed by award-winning poet Marianne Boruch, screenwriter Mark Jude Poirier, graphic memoirist Nicole Georges, and non-fiction writer Anne Elizabeth Moore. This year, 105 writers applied for the residency.
The fellowship accentuates Colby’s strengths in the literary arts and humanities—areas of study critical to the education of an engaged citizenry and to the success of students—as well as the College’s long tradition of graduating celebrated writers across genres. The fellowship also provides opportunities for students, faculty, and members of the community to benefit from sustained engagement with visiting writers, now over the course of a full academic year.
