MFAW News
![Katy Simpson Smith](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Katy-Simpson-Smith300x225_0.jpg?itok=J04ss4eE)
Bennington Writing Seminars alum Katy Simpson Smith MFA '13 has been appointed Eudora Welty Chair for Southern Literature at Millsaps College.
![Writing Seminars logo and images of the three recipients](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Emerging-Voices-Fellows_300x225.jpg?itok=SWKVNi9L)
The Bennington Writing Seminars, in partnership with PEN Center USA, has announced that during the September 2018 admissions period, it will once again be offering a scholarship of $10,000 to an alumni of PEN's Emerging Voices Fellowship program.
![Lisa Cockrel](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Lisa-Cockrel_300x225.jpg?itok=aloQcRmi)
Lisa Ann Cockrel, a third-term MFA candidate in nonfiction, has been selected as the first Residential Teaching Fellow at the Bennington Writing Seminars.
![Donald Hall and President Barack Obama](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/Donald-Hall300x225_0.jpg?itok=9eioNkzM)
Thanks to a generous and sustaining gift from an anonymous donor, the Bennington Writing Seminars is pleased to announce it will begin offering the Donald Hall Scholarship for Poets.
![Sarai Walker's Dietland](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/WalkerSarai_Dietland_EntertainmentWeekly_1200x750px.jpg?itok=Ow4ykVwq)
Dietland, a novel by Sarai Walker MFA '03, premiered in June as a TV series on AMC.