Negesti Kaudo
Graduation Year: 2011
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Type of Creative: Essayist and Author
What They Do: Negesti is a Midwestern essayist and author, known for her poignant reflections on race, gender, and identity. She has also worked as a copywriter, commerce writer, and adjunct writing instructor.
Their Journey: After graduating from Wellington in 2011, Negesti attended Elon University, where she double-majored in English–Creative Writing and Psychology. At Elon, she was accepted into the International English honor society Sigma Tau Delta and eventually led as president of her college chapter in her senior year. In 2015, she graduated and became the youngest winner of the Ohioana Library Association's Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant at 22. She then pursued an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Columbia College Chicago, where she honed her craft as an essayist and critic, publishing in various literary journals and local Chicago magazines.
During graduate school, Negesti immersed herself in the literary community, participating in conferences, teaching college students, and even installing a 30-day hybrid art project in a large gallery on campus. After graduate school, she returned to Columbus and taught as a part-time lecturer at Columbus College of Art and Design while working as a copywriter. She participated in various literary events, including reading at Two Dollar Radio for Paging Columbus and being featured in the 2018 Harlem Renaissance Reading at CCAD. In 2022, she published her debut collection of essays, "Ripe: Essays," with Mad Creek Books, an imprint of The Ohio State University Press. Since then, she has continued teaching and reading for different institutions, including Literary Cleveland, The Kenyon Review, Vermont College of Fine Arts, and StoryStudio Chicago.
The Wellington Impact: Negesti credits Wellington for providing an environment that nurtured her creative talents and encouraged her to explore her identity through writing. "When I started at Wellington in 1998, I was one of four Kindergartners who had permission to walk to the library by themselves and check out books. Over my 13 years at Wellington, probably a third of my time, if not half, was spent in the library selecting books and reading," she recalls.
Wellington was full of teachers who encouraged her creativity and writing from a young age. "Mrs. Johnson, Ms. Kight, Mr. Winslow, Ms. Zavotka, Mrs. Cook-Dubin, Mrs. Abbott, Mrs. Dison, and, of course, the late, great Dr. Allen were all teachers who were excited about my writing and reading, and helped me hone my skills inside and outside of the classroom," she explains. They introduced her to ways that writing could exist off the page, which helped her understand creative writing as an artist while pursuing her MFA at Columbia College Chicago.
"There were a lot of opportunities at Wellington for me to grow as an artist and writer in my classes over the years. We were also challenged to see and do things that got us out of our comfort zone—speech classes, performing at Kafe Kerouac, presentations, poetry contests, literary magazines, collaboration across classes and grades—all of which helped prepare me for reading, writing, and creating at different levels, and eventually teaching writing at different levels," Negesti reflects.