October 23, 2019

The fellowship, currently held by Fellow Jeanie Riess, is the first of its kind in the country to offer full-time undergraduate teaching experience in a low-residency MFA format. Benefits include full tuition remission for one term, housing and board, and enrollment in an on-campus class.

Applications to the Bennington Writing Seminars are due by March 1, 2020 for admission to the June residency or September 1, 2020 for admission to the January residency.

Ghosh will assist Bennington faculty member Phillip B. Williams in his course, The Devil. Her responsibilities will include grading, advising, assisting in the development of course materials, guest lecturing, and research. Ghosh will also gain experience in arts administration while assisting Bennington faculty member Michael Dumanis with duties at The Bennington Review, along with continuing her regular MFA coursework.

“We conceived this Fellowship to give Bennington Writing Seminars students a unique opportunity to have full-time teaching experience and also to work closely with our literary partners,” said Mark Wunderlich, Director of the Bennington Writing Seminars. “We’re thrilled to have Puloma here as the fourth Residential Teaching Fellow and excited to see the collaboration she’ll bring to The Bennington Review, given her experience in arts administration.” 

This competitive fellowship is open to Bennington MFA students rising into their second, third, or fourth term. Students are mentored one-on-one with the on-campus faculty member with whom they are working as a teacher, as well as by the faculty mentor with whom they have been assigned to work on their manuscript. Ghosh studied with Bennington faculty member and novelist Stuart Nadler this past term.

Previously, Ghosh served as a Research Assistant for a classroom-based project with the Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, where she helped facilitate critical thinking activities with diverse students. She worked in arts administration for nearly two years as the Assistant Director of the Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, and she wrote for and interned at Artscope Magazine. Her work has been recognized with an honorable mention by Ploughshares Emerging Writers (2018), shortlisted for the Meridian Editor’s Prize (2018), and she was a finalist for the Grubstreet Emerging Writers Fellowship (2017). In 2014, she won the Morse Hamilton Fiction Prize from Tufts University. 

“I’m so excited for this opportunity to gain teaching experience within the low-residency format and to be more involved in the rich literary life on Bennington’s campus during my final term,” said Ghosh.