Watershed Lit: Center for Literary Engagement and Publishing Practice
College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Julija Pivo, 2020 graduate from Mason’s BFA program, has won a prestigious Fulbright English Teaching Fellowship to Lithuania, starting in Summer 2022. The award not only caps an impressive career at Mason, but also brings a family journey full circle: Pivo’s late father was a Fulbright scholar from Lithuania to America from 2000 - 2001.

Phil Goldstein hid his trauma for almost twenty years. A survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of his older brother, Phil did what most male victims do -- he locked his past away from the world. Today, Phil can celebrate the end of that long-held silence through the release of his debut volume of poetry, How to Bury a Boy at Sea published by Stillhouse Press in April of 2022. This arresting collection renders the complexities unique to male survivors of sexual abuse with clarity and bravery, a critical and too-often ignored storyline.

Chelsea Lebron, a first-year MFA student in Creative Writing, has been named the recipient of this year’s Robert Raymond Scholarship, encouraging students who contribute to the MFA program’s diversity.