Fletcher Blog

Imagine being a dedicated high school writing teacher by day and an aspiring author by night, determined to finish your first novel. Then, after years of honing your craft, imagine receiving not one–but three–prestigious awards recognizing your talents as both a writer and an educator. We’re delighted that Cyd Apellido, Fletcher’s Upper School English I and Composition I Teacher, no longer has to imagine because this is her reality.

Cyd received her M.F.A. in fiction from the University of Miami and has taught since 2006. She has been working on her first novel for several years. Among many influences, Cyd's writing is informed by her experience growing up in the Philippines and the United States.

Cyd describes her first novel, tentatively titled In Breath and Blood, “It's set in the Philippines in the 1990s and follows the story of Kassandra, whose best friend, Vivian, is killed suddenly. But the story is really about Kassandra’s life after Vivian’s death and coming to terms with the tragedy.”  

Last year, more determined than ever to finish In Breath and Blood, Cyd applied for a MacDowell Fellowship, competing with 4,000 artists worldwide. Only approximately 300 artists in seven disciplines are awarded MacDowell Fellowships each year, and Cyd joined their ranks in 2023 as a McDowell Literature Fellow for a two-week residency in Peterborough, New Hampshire. “When I was there, I spent a lot of time revising the first half of my novel and adding layers to the plot. I also researched the culture of Manila in the 1990s.”  

When we asked what it was like to be among MacDowell’s community of artists, Cyd shared, “It helped me see that it didn’t matter whether an artist was working on literature, architecture, or music, I would say everyone was equally worried about their process, even if they had been working for a long time. I love how the artists were incredibly humble and understanding that the work is so much bigger than they are--like having to accept that maybe they're going in the wrong direction and having to backtrack.”

Having made excellent progress on In Breath and Blood after her MacDowell residency, ideas for a second novel began creeping into Cyd’s brain. “This one takes place in Miami, and there's a tentative title, Beneath Her Shadow. The novel will be written by alternating points of view between a male character and a female character. The two of them first meet when the man helps the woman who is in distress, but he doesn’t know the reason why, and then they go their separate ways. The premise is that they meet ten years later, and unexpected events begin to unfold when he falls in love with her, but there's something secretive about who she is.”

Armed with a writing sample from In Breath and Blood and a description of ideas for Beneath Her Shadow, Cyd applied to the New Literacy Project for a Jack Hazard Fellowship. The award aims to free up full-time teachers to write during their summers. This March, Cyd was named a member of the 2024 Class of Jack Hazard Fellows–one of only ten selected from an extensive national pool of distinguished candidates. She will receive a cash award to support her writing this summer and various promotional and educational opportunities. 

And, as the saying goes, good things come in threes. In April, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) notified Cyd that she was selected as one of only 25 teacher-scholar participants in their residential Institute, Friendship and Identity in Literature, Film, and Adolescence, to be held at Boston University this July. The NEH website explains, “During this innovative, residential institute, teachers examine how friendship is understood, portrayed, and experienced from literary, social, cultural, theoretical, and pedagogical perspectives. Teachers develop curricular materials to help their students become more nuanced readers of friendship in literature and in their own lives.”

Despite the excitement surrounding her accolades, Cyd remains focused on her students’ journeys in her classroom and her revisions to In Breath and Blood. When we asked about the work ahead, she said, “I think you have to be able to sit with difficulty. And I think I'm just one of those people. I'm not willing to give up. Even if there are rejections along the way, I’m just going to continue.”