We’re pleased to announce Natalie Hodges as the winner of the 2026 Beacon Award for Excellence in Teaching!
Born and raised in a Korean-American family in Denver, Natalie Hodges trained as a classical violinist for twenty years before pivoting to writing. Her fiction and nonfiction explore performance anxiety, time perception, quantum physics, Korean Christianity, immigration, and gentrification in contemporary Colorado, among other subjects. Her work experience spans concert halls, open-air malls, libraries, classrooms, and kitchens professional and private. Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time, her memoir-in-essays, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection and was longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award.
Natalie teaches and mentors at Lighthouse Writers Workshop and lives in Denver with her rescue dog and the dog’s two cats. She is currently at work on a novel.
The Beacon Award was established over fifteen years ago by writers in our community to honor a Lighthouse faculty member for teaching excellence, commitment to students, and dedication to the craft of writing. This annual celebration is made all the more special by the fact that this is a community-driven award—the nominations, deliberations, and ultimate decisions are made by the community, not Lighthouse staff.
We’ll be officially celebrating Natalie at our Holiday Party on December 11, but in the meantime, we’ve solicited a few testimonials from her fans below. Congratulations, Natalie!
Testimonials
Though I'm about 20 years her elder, I've no problem calling Natalie my "professor." I learned how to write (again, for the umpteenth time in life) alongside her wonderful mind. She helped me learn how to produce vibrant prose, which is both a logical and mysterious process. At the level of the sentence, Natalie is a tender technician who teaches by showing you the different ways a sentence can be reworded to spark different kinds of meaning. She also has a knack for seeing and hearing the "whole" and helping you compose with integrity. That last word—integrity—is the first word I would use to describe her. And now the last word here: Natalie is also my friend.
—Manuel Espinoza (8-Week: Hybrid Essay Forms—The Critic and the Lyricist)
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Natalie is kind and encouraging yet simultaneously committed to providing each student with actionable criticism. Her theoretical lessons seamlessly resurface in weekly discussions, providing a platform for student growth.
I’m new to this genre of writing — coming from an academic setting. The abridged essays I was able to workshop in class are stronger because of Natalie’s insight. But additionally, she guided the class to generate ideas for improvement in a manner that would be well received and helpful. I’m a better writer and reader from participating in Natalie’s course.
—Wendy Fish (8-Week: Hybrid Essay Forms—The Critic and the Lyricist)
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Natalie’s warmth and exuberance make any class with her a delight! She loves to join us in unraveling knotty structural problems in class readings and in our own writing. Her deep knowledge of both fiction and nonfiction is invaluable. I leave her classes, inspired and confident.
—Alcinda Cundiff (8-Week: Memoir Beyond the Personal, 8-Week: Hybrid Essay Forms—The Critic and the Lyricist, Structure and Alchemy: Writing Climactic Transformations, 4-Week: Structure as Alchemy)
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Natalie Hodges taught the first class I took at Lighthouse, in January-March of 2024. She welcomed all of us with a detailed syllabus, class readings, session notes, and a joy that outshone the Zoom screen. All of her classes are a wealth of technical information presented through a breadth of examples. Her energy, passion for language, and careful tending of the essence of each of her students creates not merely a safe environment, but also a cozy one. I am a fan of her teaching and her writing, and the way she helps me to improve my craft while encouraging my spirit to hum.
—Meg Lineham (8-Week: Memoir Beyond the Personal, 8-Week: Advanced Personal Essay Workshop, 8-Week: Hybrid Essay Forms—The Critic and the Lyricist)
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Natalie is an amazing teacher and it was an honor to have her as my mentor for the Portfolio Year in 2025-2026. I knew from our very first Zoom meeting that this was the chance to pour myself into my dream of writing a book. I had given up on this dream, my career in TV and life became a distraction. On that Zoom call, Natalie said why not dedicate a year to creativity, joy, and resistance? So I said hell yeah and I made the leap off the cliff and I'm so glad I had Natalie by my side every step of the way.
I took Natalie's The Critic & The Lyricist class in 2025, one of my first experiences of sharing longer work and studying craft. The craft essays that she had us read were always aligned to what we were learning in class, seeing different styles, showing us there's no one right way to be a writer. As my mentor, I've shared pieces with Natalie that range from abuse to addiction, super heavy and not fun topics, but Natalie's words of encouragement, kindness, and support made me feel safe to go there and to go deeper.
I also sent Natalie a million panicked emails all hours of the night and workshopped so many pieces of my memoir puzzle with her. Natalie was able to jump in and get her hands dirty in the chaotic jungle that is my mind. For that, Natalie is a delight and a half and there's no one that deserves this more than her!
—Bri Worthy (The Laundry Line, 8-Week: Hybrid Essay Forms—The Critic and the Lyricist)
