Meet Our Alumni

Andres Cordoba ’19

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 16:20:11 -0400

Andres Cordoba is a Massachusetts-born writer.

Cordoba was one of five aspiring writers named a 2025 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow, part of the Poetry Foundation's mission to showcase and celebrate exceptional young poets and recognize their contributions to the literary field.

One of the most substantial awards offered to emerging poets in the United States, the $27,000 prize is intended to support the development of their craft.

At Purchase, Cordoba received two SUNY honors for graduating students, the Thayer Fellowship and Patricia Kerr Ross Award. He also excelled as an athlete competing in Cross Country.

In 2019, was named a Breakout 8 Writer by Epiphany Literary Journal and was a finalist for Black Warrior Review 's 2020 Poetry Contest.

He has received support from Brooklyn Poets and was a Periplus Mentorship Fellow and his work can be found in The Harvard Review, The Gandy Dancer, and Epiphany.

Cordoba earned and MFA in poetry from Brown University, where he won the 2024 John Hawkes Prize, 2024 Edwin Honig Memorial Award, and 2025 Keith & Rosmarie Waldrop Prize.

He lives in New York, where he is the co-poetry editor for Big Score Lit and an MFA candidate in fiction at New York University.

Excerpted from poetryfoundation.org

Jamie Kenney ’05

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 12:28:49 -0400

Jamie Kenney is a senior staff writer at Scary Mommy and Romper, where she writes about a wide range of topics pertaining to motherhood, including politics, health, news, web culture, celebrity parents, and family entertainment. She also writes essays that run the gamut from silly to serious in an effort to capture the full spectrum of what it is to be a parent today.

Prior to joining Romper in 2015, she was a part-time web culture editor at Bustle. Within months, however, she was asked to join the team at Romper to help launch the site. In November 2022, she came on as a full-time staff member. She joined the Scary Mommy team in 2024.

Kenney has also been writing for Proof, the new iteration of the Purchase alumni magazine.

Her previous work has also appeared in Parents, Playboy, McSweeny's Internet Tendency, Jezebel,and The Takeout.

While a student here, she won the Barbara Schoen Memorial Prize in Fiction.

Jamie lives in Connecticut with her husband and two children and enjoys hiking, embroidery, reading, and other activities mainly enjoyed by septuagenarian retirees. As such, she strives to embody the spirits of all four of the Golden Girls at once. You can find her on Bluesky and LinkedIn.

—Excerpted from romper.com

Trisha Murphy ’19

Thu, 25 May 2023 11:14:18 -0400

Trisha Murphy '19 came to Purchase to be a writer, even though she was unsure what that would mean for her job prospects once she graduated.

Murphy enrolled in the Creative Writing program for its workshop environment.

"My creative writing classes taught me how to give and receive criticism, a skill I was able to take with me into post-grad and my first job."

And she discovered her passion for the Literature program along the way, which helped her become a better writer.

"I wanted so badly to become a better writer, and while I believe that I did, I owe so much of my growth to becoming a better reader. The literature classes I took at Purchase taught me how to read critically, and in doing so, how to analyze my writing in a way I hadn't before."

But it was in Assistant Professor Mehdi Okasi 's Editing and Production class that she discovered a path she continues on today: production.

"I learned about how to begin with nothing, and end with a perfect-bound magazine that gave students the opportunity to see their work in print for the first time," she explains. "I learned about how literary magazines worked, how publishing houses worked, about book sales, and literary agents, and what my life could be like."

Currently, she is the Editorial Assistant at The Princeton Review, where she proofreads eBooks, responds to customer inquiries, and supports the Editorial Team.

"I am beyond grateful I had the chance to work on Italics Mine. Editing and Production showed me the life that I could have if I worked hard enough. Professor Okasi not only introduced me to a world were I felt like I belonged, but excelled in."

Marissa LaRocca ’09

Thu, 25 May 2023 10:07:43 -0400

Marissa LaRocca is an award-winning writer, coach, and the author of two #1 Amazon bestsellers, Starving in Search of Me: A Coming-of-Age Story of Overcoming an Eating Disorder and Finding Self-Acceptance (Mango, 2018), and Everyone Is a Freak: Anonymous Confessions About Sex, Sexuality, and Desire (2019).

Additionally, Marissa is the CEO and Founder of Pilot Press, an innovative publishing company that works with new authors and influencers to write, edit, design, publish, and market books aimed to enlighten, empower, and transform our generation.

Marissa has been featured in Go Magazine, Self Magazine, Glam, Elite Daily, Well+Good, Topic, Pretty Progressive, The Chrysalis Reader, and the Chill Times. Marissa is also a contributing educator for The Institute for Integrative Nutrition's Emotional Eating Course.

—From marissalarocca.com