Meet Our Instructors
At Westport Writers’ Workshop, you’ll find a group of supportive, highly talented, and accomplished instructors, all with an MFA in writing and/or published novels. Take a moment to meet our team and view their accomplishments.
Alana Sanko is an award-winning writer, producer, and director whose credits include Nickelodeon’s Just for Kicks (WGA Award), MTV’s Spy Groove (Annie nomination), Disney’s Get a Clue, and Murphy Brown. She directs the Athena Film Festival Episodic Lab and teaches at NYU, Purchase, and Sundance Collab.
Amanda Parrish Morgan is the author of STROLLER (Bloomsbury, 2022), praised by The New Yorker for its inventive scope. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, LitHub, Guernica, The Millions, n+1, The Washington Post, and more.
Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and other novels, with Dear Edna Sloane (2024) and Animal Instinct (2025) forthcoming. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, and Poets & Writers. She lives in Brooklyn with her two children.
Chris Belden is the author of several novels, including The Vote, The Private Dick, and Shriver (adapted into the film A Little White Lie). His story collections are Who Am I to Judge? and The Floating Lady of Lake Tawaba. He also edited Closer to Freedom, a collection of poetry and prose produced in the weekly prison writing workshop he ran for...
Elise Hart Kipness, USA Today bestselling author of the Kate Green thriller series, is a former national TV sports reporter. Her novels, including Lights Out and Dangerous Play, have earned global recognition and a Universal Television option.
Jessica Noyes McEntee cut her teeth as an editor at John Wiley & Sons and has provided ghostwriting and independent editorial services for clients in New York and Connecticut. A magna cum laude graduate of Amherst College, she's the author of four novels. Her debut poetry chapbook was published by Finishing Line Press in 2019, and she was...
Kathy Satterfield, an Amherst Writers & Artists affiliate with an MFA from Bennington, has written for TIME for Kids and react. Published in Mom Egg Review, she is currently working on a memoir about raising a son with a rare chromosome abnormality.
Libby Waterford, author of 20+ self-published novels and anthologies, offers one-on-one guidance in every stage of self-publishing—from finding editors and cover designers to distributing your finished book.
Rahla Xenopoulos is the author of A Memoir of Love and Madness and several novels, including The Season of Glass (Sunday Times Literary Award finalist). A Royal Society of Arts fellow, she teaches writing internationally and lives in New York with her husband and teenage triplets.
Sam’s fiction has been recognized by Narrative, American Short Fiction, and the Bridport Prize. Winner of the 2024 Anthony Grooms’ Prize, she holds an MFA from Fairfield University. Her debut novel, The Light Remains, will be published in South Africa and the US in April 2026.