Susan Straight, RCC Alumnus of the Year
By My Nguyen, Student Intern of CHASS College Computing
Susan Straight, Professor of Creative Writing, became the 50th person honored as Alumnus of the Year in the 92-year history of the Riverside Community College District.
In selecting Straight as Alumnus of the Year, the committee referenced her literary and nonfiction works, as well as recognitions that include the California Book Award, the Milkweed National Fiction Award, the Pushcart Prize, an O. Henry Award, the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Straight, along with six other individuals, was honored at the RCC Annual Awards Recognition event on April 3 at the historic Mission Inn.
Straight, whose work has appeared in numerous major U.S. magazines and who has won the National Book Award and the Gold Medal from the San Francisco-based Commonwealth Club for her fiction, attended Riverside City College while still a student at North High School. It was at RCC that she took her first creative writing class.