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51�������� alumni are publishing novels, memoirs, non-fiction, poetry, and photography books. Check out the round up below to learn who is publishing, winning awards, and appearing in paperback this fall. 

Local indie-folk-rock musical artist Carling Berkhout '19 spoke to The Brattleboro Reformer about her latest album, Omens.

On the warm perfectly cloudless evening of September 12, about thirty local Bennington alumni gathered at the President’s residence, the Brick House, in Shaftsbury to catch up with College news and each other. They graduated between 1962 and 2024. What they have in common is a love of the creative and interdisciplinary environment Bennington provided and their willingness to stay in or return to the area.

Exhibition reveals the personal collections of 51�������� community members September 17–November 23. 

Saving Democracy Together, an innovative non-partisan online and in-person course open to students, alumni, and the public, attracted more than 250 online registrants and 100 in-person participants in its first of seven sessions on Thursday, September 5.

51�������� is pleased to announce Shay Totten ’91 as its new Director of Alumni and Constituent Engagement. Shay Totten starts at the College on Monday, September 9, and reports to Vice President for Institutional Advancement Allison Gomes.

 was one of Bennington's first MFA students and the only one in photography when he came to Bennington, graduating in 1983. He studied with Neil Rappaport, a documentary photographer who taught at Bennington for 27 years. 

This summer brings some great opportunities to see Bennington alumni and faculty making music across the country. Follow the links below for tickets, info, and good vibes.

Six Questions with Alexey Tarasov ’24

By Craig Morgan Teicher

Anna Gazmarian (MFA, ’20, Nonfiction) began work on what would become her debut, Devout: A Memoir of Doubt (Simone & Schuster, 2024), while she was a nonfiction student in the Bennington Writing Seminars. The book chronicles her struggles with bipolar disorder as a member of the Evangelical community, where prayer was posited as the only solution to mental health distress. I talked to Anna on the heels of her book tour.  Among other things, we discuss writing, publishing, and going to church at the gym.

Poet and Memoirist Safiya Sinclair ’10, author of the memoir  a National Book Critics Circle Award Winner and one of the most notable books of the year according to the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, TIME Magazine, and many others, will address the 89th graduating class at the conferring of degrees on Saturday, June 1. We connected with her to learn more about her time at Bennington and how it influenced her career.

By Mollie Hawkins MFA '23

By Walter Greene '23

Winston Foundation Grant funds 2024 Ben Belitt Colloquium on Arts and Literary Culture

Ryan Chigogo ’23, energy analyst at Charles River Associates, reflects on his time at 51��������. 

Article by Gaurav Aung '24

By Gaurav Aung ’24

51�������� was Florence Gill ’22’s destination long before they knew it existed. Born and raised in Doncaster, England, they had no idea attending college in the United States was an option. After finishing their General Certificate of Secondary Education (roughly the British equivalent of an American high school diploma), they were on a path that would lead them to a strict education at a university in the United Kingdom, yet they found themself at a crossroads: they wanted the depth of a specialized undergraduate degree but also the breadth of study that couldn’t be found in the UK.

Ahmad Yassir ’20 stayed in the town of Bennington after graduation and works as a digital advertising and marketing specialist for the . He had an amazing 2023.

Recent graduate trustee Alisha Bade Shrestha ’23 discusses her experience studying Performing and Visual Arts at 51�������� and the "small nestled miracles" she found on campus.

During the last few days of the fall term, Jupiter Kalinowski ’23, who studied protein biochemistry and biological research methods at Bennington, was busy in the lab. They were running the final experiment of their senior work.

Stefanos Zogopoulos ’23 credits Bennington for helping him find his true passion. 

Bennington alum and notable abstract painter Cora Cohen ’64 donated a large painting to 51�������� before her death in June. The painting was given in honor of Pat Adams, a faculty member teaching during Cohen’s time at Bennington.

Xiao (Smile) Ma ’23 discusses her experience exploring Visual Arts at Bennington.

Jeff Taylor '84 toured with music icon Van Morrison's band for his 2023/2024 US tour.

The latest additions to Bennington’s rich literary history have hit bookstore shelves. Their authors join Bennington notables, including Donna Tartt '86, Kiran Desai '93, Michael Pollan '76, ​Ann Goldstein '71, Anaïs Duplan '14, Anne Waldman '66, Cynthia Sweeney MFA '13, Jamie Quatro MFA '09, Amy Gerstler '01, Morgan Jerkins MFA '16, and Charles Bock '97.

Eve Vishnick ’23 has always been torn between studying visual arts and more science-related fields. She was attracted to Bennington for two reasons, she said. “Great financial aid and the ability to combine two separate fields without having to double major. I could make it into one thing. That was a big draw for me.”

51�������� congratulates Bruna Dantas Lobato ’15 who won the National Book Award for her translation of Stênio Gardel’s The Words That Remain in a ceremony on the evening of Wednesday, November 15.

Eratosthenes of Cyrene was the first person to prove that the earth was a sphere and to calculate its circumference. Swagatta Datta ’23, who studied theoretical mathematical physics at Bennington, is following in ​​his footsteps. Only Datta is interested in the universe.

By Craig Morgan Teicher

Hugh Ryan graduated from the Bennington Writing Seminars in 2009 and went on to publish two acclaimed books of nonfiction, When Brooklyn Was Queer (2019) and The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison, which won the Stonewall Book Award/Israel Fishman Award for Nonfiction and the Warren Johansson Award. He has taught nonfiction at the Writing Seminars since 2022, and just sold his next book, Becoming History, a memoir in essays. He talked with me about turning research into writing and falling back in love with the essay.

Dancer, choreographer, and activist Souleymane Badolo MFA ’13 has been named the 2023 recipient of 51��������’s Dr. Elizabeth Coleman Visionary Leadership Award. This annual award recognizes an engaged Bennington alumni who has successfully demonstrated leadership and confident willingness to step forward and take risks in order to solve problems and achieve results in the areas of education, government, the arts and sciences, or industry.

51�������� celebrates the extraordinary life of actor and friend of 51�������� Alan Arkin ’55. Arkin’s family announced his passing on Friday.