Meet 5 GS Alumni Authors Making a Splash in the Literary World

From established nonfiction writers to debut novelists, from memoirs to cookbooks: Columbia GS alumni authors are making their mark on the literary scene. Meet five such writers—and discover your next great read!

Carla Stockton ‘73GS, ‘16SOA

As a child growing up in the Adirondacks, Carla Stockton walked to school each day rain or shine, uphill both ways, which, as she puts it, “forced her to dedicate herself to the art of perseverance.” As an adult, Stockton has worked as a teacher, theater director, and prolific freelance writer. She graduated from GS with a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature in 1973, and decades later, earned a MFA in creative nonfiction from the Columbia University School of the Arts. 

This October saw the publication of “Too Much of Nothing: Notes on Feminism, Identity, and Womanhood,” Stockton’s memoir. As publisher Ash Mountain Press wrote, “Stockton, a first-generation American boomer, recounts her life as a series of vignettes that begin with her mother’s escape from Europe before WWII and end with her own escape from a stifling marriage. Stockton's story is a meditation on the meaning of survival, the importance of family, and the power of self-discovery. With humor and heart, she explores the challenges and triumphs of a life lived in the shadow of history.”

Genevieve Guenther ‘94GS

After graduating summa cum laude from GS in 1994, Genevieve Guenther became a celebrated Renaissance scholar, teaching at the University of California, Berkeley (where she also earned a PhD in English Renaissance literature), the University of Rochester, and the New School. Her first book, “Magical Imaginations: Instrumental Aesthetics in the English Renaissance,” insightfully explored the connections between poetry, magic, and rhetoric in early English literature. 

In the mid-2010’s however, moved by the urgency of the climate crisis, Guenther made the bold decision to upend her scholarly focus. She is now one of the foremost experts in climate communication, working to, as she puts it, “transform the ways we think and talk about the climate emergency.” 

Guenther is the founder of the volunteer organization End Climate Silence and an affiliate faculty member at the New School where she sits on the board of the Tishman Environment and Design Center. Her most recent book, “The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It,” has received widespread praise as a revelatory contribution to the conversation around environmental advocacy.

Daniel Magariel '08GS

In his senior year at GS, Daniel Magariel decided to explore a long dormant interest in writing by frequenting a little cafe you may have heard of: the Hungarian Pastry Shop. “While there, attempting to put down the first few words of fiction I’d written since a story about dragons in the first grade, I came to learn that this cafe was a workplace for the likes of Nathan Englander, Rivka Galchen, and Julie Otsuka,” he recalled. “I started looking for them daily, studying their routines…I learned something so critical by watching brilliant writers do the modest work of sitting and working.”

Following his Columbia graduation, Magariel found his way to an MFA Program at Syracuse University, studying under one of the most influential figures in the contemporary literary world, George Saunders. Saunders was Magariel’s thesis advisor for a project that would eventually evolve into his much-celebrated debut novel “One of the Boys,” an resonant portrait of two young boys grappling with the consequences of their father’s addiction. In 2024, Magariel, who has taught advanced writing courses at Columbia, returns with his sophomore effort “Walk the Darkness Down.” As publisher Bloomsbury described it, the novel provides “an unflinching portrayal of love in the margins of twenty-first century America.”

Soraya Beheshti ‘19GS

“I had graduated from high school a little early. When I finished, I didn’t feel ready to join university as I had not yet figured out what direction I wanted to start my life in,” recalled Soraya Beheshti of her path to GS. In her gap, she interned at the Hermitage museum, was a volunteer teacher in Vietnam, au paired for a family in Italy, and had an internship in Dubai, all while saving money for college and studying for the SATs. She also discovered Columbia GS. 

“Coming from an international city as an Iranian/Kiwi student, I felt that New York would be the city where I could most feel at home,” she shared. “I admired the proximity of the UN and global leadership; the legacy of professors such as Edward Said, whom I looked up to, or Rashid Khalidi, whose books I had read in high school; the fact that Queens is the most linguistically diversified place in the world. I have not regretted it for a single second.”

After graduating from Columbia, Beheshti has gone on to work in education consulting and is the CEO and founder of the global nonprofit Karavan, supporting refugee communities.  She is also the author of the cookbook “Karavan Kitchen,” produced in support of the Karavan organization. The cookbook features Middle Eastern and African vegan recipes, accompanied by personal stories from people Beheshti has encountered in her advocacy, and anecdotes that enrich each recipe with cultural context. As Lantern Publishing and Media puts it, Beheshti “demonstrates how food is often the central connection many refugees have to their native countries and a means of creating community even when forced to live in difficult conditions many miles from home.”

Kristin Vuković '06GS, '09SOA

Kristin Vuković, an accomplished travel writer and proud Croatian American, draws from her heritage in her much-anticipated debut novel “The Cheesemaker’s Daughter,” which was released in August 2024. The book follows the Croatian homecoming of a Yugoslav refugee and New Yorker who finds herself confronting personal, cultural, and historical legacies and turning points. 

“I hope that anyone who has ever felt displaced—whether physically or emotionally—will relate to this novel,” shared Vuković. “I hope that this novel inspires people to find new ways of reconciliation, both within and without.”