Alumni Listings

Our graduates, both BA and MFA, embark in various careers, from law to publishing to the business world. Below is an incomplete list of alumni to give you a flavor. If you are an alumni and wish to offer a testimonial or be listed (or to improve your listing below), please let us know by writing to Brian Ascalon Roley at creativewriting@miamioh.edu.

You can find our Alumni testimonials here.

Find more alumni publications, fellowships, visits & prizes on our Twitter, Facebook & Instagram pages.

Recent grad job placements

  • Adefemi Fagite (MFA Poetry, 2024). Accepted to PhD program at University of South Dakota.
  • Leah Christianson (MFA Fiction, 2019), Research Consultant at Russell Reynolds Associates and Teaching Artist at The Loft Literary Center.
  • Xavier Prince (MFA Poetry, 2024), on way to University of Denver PhD program.
  • Hannah Rodabaugh (MFA Poetry) “Friends, I am excited to announce that my first full-length poetry collection will be published by Cornerstone Press/University of Wisconsin in 2025. All it took was seven years, four grants, five artist residencies in three states, and one Pushcart nomination.” https://www.facebook.com/hannah.rodabaugh
  • Freda Epum (MFA Nonfiction & Poetry, 2019), Program Manager at Public Allies Cincinnati. Nigerian-American writer. Author of 2 chapbooks , Input/Output (Tanline Printing) with Amanda Beekhiuzen-Williams and Entryways into Memories that Might Assemble Me (Iron Horse Literary Review Chapbook Prize). www.fredaepum.com. [note: just came back to visit campus to read in Fall 2022]. She is the cocreator of the Black American Tree Project, an interactive workshop about the legacies of slavery in American society. Epum’s work has been published in The Rumpus, Electric Literature, Vol 1. Brooklyn, Entropy, Bending Genres, and others. Her work has been supported by Lambda Literary, the Tin House Writers Workshop, VONA, the Ragdale Foundation, the Anderson Center at Tower View Residency, and the Jordan-Goodman Prize. Originally from Tucson, she now lives in Cincinnati. www.fredaepum.com. [note: just came back to visit campus to read in Fall 2022]. The Gloomy Girl Variety Show: A Memoir of Ailments, Apartments, and African (American) Womanhood is forthcoming from Feminist Press, 2025.
  • Heba Hayek (MFA, 2019). Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies (Hajar Press, 2021), was shortlisted for the 2022 Palestine Book Awards and chosen as a 2021 Book of the Year by The White Review, Middle East Eye and The New Arab. Their writing has been featured in Mondoweiss, Feminism in India, Full Stop, Salvage, Wasafiri, Shubbak Festival and more. www.hebahayek.org/
  • Rachel Levy (MA) Writer, professor, 2018 National Endowment of the Arts Literature Fellow.
  • Kyle Flemings (MFA Fiction, 2019), Creative Writing Teacher, Dayton Early College Academy (OH)
  • John Fuentes (MFA Fiction, 2019), Freelance writer/content creator
  • Carrie Bindschadler (MFA Fiction, 2018), Youth Writing Teacher – Writing Adventures, Las Vegas
  • Jess Marshall (MFA Fiction, 2018), Script writer at Genius, Inc. (IN)
  • Tammy Atha (MFA Poetry, 2017), Instructor, Southeast Community College (NE)
  • Kinsey Cantrell (BA/MA Poetry, 2017), Content/Medical Writer, Flywheel Partners (NY)
  • Erin Jamieson (MFA Fiction, 2017), Senior Lecturer in English at Ohio State University; Social Media Marketing Specialist at Growth Foundry. Published chapbooks and a full length collection, Clotheslines, in 2023.
  • Andrew Bergman (MA Fiction, 2016), English teacher at Casey County High School (KY)
  • Amanda Siefert (BA/MA Fiction, 2016), Children’s Librarian at Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County (OH) 
  • Emily Corwin (MA Poetry, 2015), English Faculty (Detroit Country Day School), Assistant Director of Young Authors Camp, Cranbrook Schools (MI)
  • Alice Ladrick (MA Poetry, 2012), Department Manager, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Special Collections
  • Sofia Voet (MFA nonfiction 2022), Doctoral program in creative writing, University of Albany
  • Dalanie Beach (MFA Fiction 2022), Doctoral program in creative writing, Ohio University
  • Abubaker Zahoor (MFA Fiction 2021), Doctoral program in creative writing, University of Southern Mississippi
  • Trevor Root (MFA Poetry, 2020), Doctoral program in English literature, Duquesne University (PA)
  • Madeline Lewis (MFA Poetry, 2019), Master of Theological Studies program, Boston College (MA)
  • Savannah Trent (MFA Poetry, 2019), Doctoral program in creative writing, Florida State University
  • Paul Vogel (MFA Poetry, 2019), Doctoral program in literary studies / poetics, SUNY Buffalo 
  • Isaac Pickell (MFA Poetry, 2018). Book coming out, It’s not over once you figure it out, from Black Ocean Previous chapbook won a Black Lawrence prize. In a doctoral program.
  • Carly Plank (MFA Fiction, 2018), Instructor, Grand Rapids Community College
  • Elizabeth Weeks (MFA Fiction, 2018), Doctoral program in creative writing, University of Southern Mississippi 
  • Erin Jamieson (BA and MFA 2017), poet and Senior Lecturer in creative writing at Ohio State. Full length collection Clotheslines just came out.
  • Kim Jacobs-Beck. (MFA)  @kimjacobsbeck has a poetry chapbook, TORCH, out from Wolfson Press.
  • Justin Chandler (MFA Fiction, 2017), Doctoral program in literature, Miami University
  • Chris Maggio (MA Fiction, 2016), Doctoral program in composition/rhetoric, Miami University
  • Courtney Kalmbach (MA Poetry, 2015), MFA program, University of Alabama.
  • Ariel Clark-Semyck. “A version of my thesis collection decorative & fatal was accepted for publication by Bullshit Lit Press and is set to come out in November!”
  • Matt Young (MA Fiction, 2015), Associate Professor, Centralia College (WA).

More Alumni

  • Bret Anthony Johnston. After directing the creative writing program at Harvard University for over a decade, he is now the Director of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. Internationally bestselling author of the novels We Burn Daylight and Remember Me Like This, and the multi-award-winning collection Corpus Christi: Stories. He also edited Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer and wrote the documentary film Waiting for Lightning, released around the world by Samuel Goldwyn Films. Among his many honors are a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, the Glasgow Prize, and the Sunday Times Short Story Award, “the world’s richest and most prestigious prize for a single short story.” His work has been widely translated and appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, The Paris Review, The New York Times Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere.
  • After directing the creative writing program at Harvard University for over a decade, he is now the Director of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin.Dave Kajganich, screenwriter. Produced and wrote the screenplay for the new movie filmed in Cincy starring Timothée Chalamet, “Bones and All” — premieres at Esquire Nov 13. We brought him in most recently for the Marianne D. McComb Seminar in Creative Writing.
  • Dave Kajganich, screenwriter. Produced and wrote the screenplay for the new movie filmed in Cincy starring Timothée Chalamet, “Bones and All” — premieres at Esquire Nov 13. We brought him in most recently for the Marianne D. McComb Seminar in Creative Writing.
  • Bret Anthony Johnston. After directing the creative writing program at Harvard University for over a decade, he is now the Director of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. Internationally bestselling author of the novels We Burn Daylight and Remember Me Like This, and the multi-award-winning collection Corpus Christi: Stories. He also edited Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer and wrote the documentary film Waiting for Lightning, released around the world by Samuel Goldwyn Films. Among his many honors are a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, the Glasgow Prize, and the Sunday Times Short Story Award, “the world’s richest and most prestigious prize for a single short story.” His work has been widely translated and appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, The Paris Review, The New York Times Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere.
  • Rajiv Joseph BA & MA, playwright. Numerous plays and awards. Finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. Won an Obie Award for Best New American Play for Describe the Night.
  • Amy Ratto Parks, BA 1998. Poet, Academic, Director of Writing Center at University of Montana.
  • Madison Hoehn (English Literature, Creative Writing minor, 2012). Editor, Viident Co. Publishing.
  • Amy Jones (Interdisciplinary Studies, English minor, 2007). Editor-in-Chief, Writer’s Digest.
  • Tony Jones (Creative Writing 2003). Poet & Co-Founder, Creative AI, and Instructor of AI Design, Pratt Institute
  • Kelly McGinnis, BA, 1990. Chief communications officer at Levi Strauss.
  • Ashley Colley, BA. Assistant Professor at Rhodes College. Her poems have appeared or forthcoming in Orion, Colorado Review, Prelude, jubilat, Black Warrior Review, Southern Indiana Review, and elsewhere. Author of chapbook, In the Garden (dancing girl press, 2022). Has an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers Workshop and PhD from University of Denver.
  • Justin Katko, BA & MA. Also did a digital program at Brown and is now working on on PhD from U of Cambridge. Co-editor of Edward Dorn’s Collected Poems (2012), and Derelict Air (2015). Runs small press Critical Documents and has authored several books of poetry, including The Death of Pringle (2011) and Basic Middle Finger (2015).
  • Jeff Sirkin, MA. Associate Professor at University of Texas, El Paso. Also has a PhD from Buffalo. Author of the poetry book, travelers Aid Society (Velix Books, 2016), among others.
  • Dan Remoto. The Heart of Summer: Stories and Tales, has just been published by Penguin Random House Asia, Oct 2, 2023.
  • Kelly Dulaney, BA, co-editor of The Cupboard (Magazine). Interview.
  • Todd Seabrook, BA, co-editor of The Cupboard. Interview. He came to our Annual Publishing Symposium April, 15, 2024.
  • Ted Brengle, MA, playwright. Won regional and national awards for both playwriting and criticism from The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Fellowships to attend the National Critics Institute, where he received a Certificate of Merit, and the National Playwrights Conference, where also a semi-finalist. He has worked with several Chicago theatre companies and has taught playwriting at the Steppenwolf Theatre. “Of Apocalypse and Cappuccino” was adapted into an independent short film.
  • Tammy Atha BA, then went on to get her masters in CW here.
  • Alice Ladrick, BA, who is on the list was an undergrad here. 
  • Ashley Colley, BA, who’s published some and was an undergrad here before doing MFA Iowa and PhD Denver. 
  • Joy Sullivan, MA. New book of poems, Instructions for Traveling West, just came out with The Dial Press (Penguin Random House) in 2024. It’s doing very well — a “National Bestseller” –and is featured on Oprah Daily: https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/books/a60413499/joy-sullivan-best-poems-instructions-for-traveling-west-excerpt/,
  • Alice Ladrick, works in special collections at UW-Milwaukee and edits a small press with fellow alum Jonny Lohr.
  • Alla Vilnyanskaya, book, Void, out in ’21
  • Chelsey Tadeyeske, chapbooks with some good small presses (including If You Bend It Backward Nothing Really Happens. Also edits an active micropress with fellow alum Edwin Perry.
  • Edwin Perry. Edits Pity Milk Press with fellow alum Chelsey Tadeyeske.
  • Katarina Morris (local), new chapbook out. Poet, educator, creative innovator. Teaches at Miami. 
  • Dave Essinger, Running Out (Novel), Main Street Rag Publishing. www.dave-essinger.com
  • Brendan Kiely, NYT bestselling author of All American Boys, Tradition, and The Gospel of Winter. www.brendankiely.com
  • Hannah Rodabaugh, several chapbooks out
  • Delany Beach, MFA, now at Ohio University PhD program. 
  • Kelsey Timmerman, MFA, published three NY Times bestselling books, one more forthcoming from Patagonia Books on regenerative agriculture.
  • August Clarke (née Hannah), BA. Published author of several books has come to read at Miami twice.
  • Delaney Heisterkamp, BA 2020, has had a number of publishing internships while a student and after graduation and is now Children’s Marketing Assistant for HarperCollins Publishers. 
  • Nathan Schaad. Went to Washington U in St Louis Law School. “Claims Counsel at Fidelity National Financial.”
  • Eric Rubio – BA, Dean’s Scholar, USS, Language Arts and Math high school teacher in Alaska; then got an MFA at NYU.
  • Celia Monroe, BA, Marketing Associate at Bloomsbury USA.
  • Sarah Vito, BA, Sr. Associate Private Client Advisor, Charles Schwab.
  • Allison Beacham, Director of Marketing — North America at SES-imagotag.
  • Angela Love. Video Account Manager, Agency at Google.
  • Katie Baldwin, BA, Human Resources Specialist, Wright Patterson Air Force.
  • Patrick Howard, BA, subsequently an MFA student at University of Alabama.
  • James Earl Cox III.  BA. Writer / Producer / Gaming designer  /Forbes 30 best under 30 /  designer / co-founder and director of Seemingly Pointless (a media studio).(Forbes 30 Under 30)https://www.miamioh.edu/cas/careers/spotlight/james-cox/index.html    https://www.miamioh.edu/cas/careers/spotlight/index.html. 
  • Briana Johnson-Sims (BA 2011), Operations manager, Centric Consulting (Microsoft Consulting Services).
  • Timothy Thomas (BA CW), Publicist, Verso Books.
  • Kinsey Cantrell, BA, MA in CW 2018, Senior Copywriter at Harrison and Star (previously at Norton). Also a poet: Noemi Press Book Award 2023 Winner for cells, fully differentiated  www.kinseycantrell.com
  • Rich Housh, Owner, BottomLine Resource Tachinologies.
  • Jacob Harksen (MA CW) is a lawyer. https://mobile.twitter.com/harksendtweet
  • Carly Berndt, BA 2017. 
  • Roberta Fritz-Klaus. BA. Went on to MS program in Endocrinology and Reproductive Physiology at U of Wisconsin. 
  • Ying Liang. BA 2017. Senior XU Consultant. Designer and content creator with experience in business, media, and tech.
  • Anne Whitfield.
  • Meaghan Gibbons, BA 2010, Senior Editor, Sourcebooks. 
  • Caitlin Hix, BA Creative Writing, copywriter, Caitlin Hix LLC.
  • Evan Doran, BA, was a Dean’s Scholar, also a Summer Scholar with BR, during which time he worked on the first novel in a series.  He’s now an Assistant Editor at Modern Machine Shop. 
  • Alejandra Bello Thomas, BA, was the McComb Conference apprentice in 2019-2020. She’s now a graduate student at Sarah Lawrence studying fiction writing. 
  • Janelle Hart (BA 2021) Dean’s Scholar, publishing internship; is now assistant editor for Urology Times at MJH Life Sciences.
  • Sam Edmonds, BA, now working on Phd at U of Missouri, also has a MFA from U of Tennessee.
  • Harold Rogers, (BA 2019?) Dean’s Scholar, went on to earn an MFA in fiction from Columbia University.
  • Lindsay Crist-Lawson, BA, Bookbuyer, Joseph-Beth Booksellers.
  • Rachel Peterson, BA Creative Writing, Senior Director of Marketing, Analytic Partners. VP of Marketing, Fountain.
  • Mariah Mercer (BA 2003) State Department, Unit Chief of International Office of Religious Freedom.
  • Claire Keys Pytlik (she was Claire Keys BA 2008): Creative Director at LPK (LPK is a “LPK IS a global brand design and innovation agency. As specialists in innovation, branding, and customer experience, we create brands that resonate in current culture and stand the test of time.” lol  https://www.lpk.com)
  • Beth Stebner (BA 2008): works at the New Yorker Magazine.
  • Beth Weeks (MFA): Beth Weeks is now making a living as a writing mentor, and she’s started a lit mag called OFIC Magazine 
  • Marcus Whalbring, MFA. How to Draw Fire. Poems. Finishing Line Press, 2020.
  • Steven Paul Lansky (MA) has a new book out. Launch of Stephen Paul Lansky’s new novel, And Then the Cow was Drownded—by Paul Thanos, on April 6 in Cincinnati. Find out more: https://stevenpaullansky.com/events/. Lansky is also author of The Break, a memoir about schizophrenia, from Arbitrary Press, Life is a Fountain from Dos Madres, and the audio memoir Jack Acid, among other works.
  • Rachel Peterson, Senior Director, Marketing and Communications, Urbint.

Involved in creative writing community:

  • Olivia Kerrigan, Development Executive at Paramount; Author rep’d by Dystel, Goderich, & Bourret.
  • Taylor McBroom, Senior Marketing Associate, Clarion Books.
  • Alex Rice, Agent, Creative Arts Agency. Has come to campus for our Annual Publishing Symposium.
  • Maggie Ark, Contract Coordinator, HarperCollins.
  • Alison Block, Marketing Coordinator, Oxford University Press.
  • Nick Mafi, (BA 2009?) Senior Features Editor, Architectural Digest / Condé Nast. Used to work for Oxford U Press. www.nickrmafi.com/

Some Alumni Books (list in progress: there’s many more)

  • Keith Banner (MA, 1993). Next to Nothing. Lethe Press, 2014. The Smallest People Alive. Carnegie Mellon UP, 2004. The Life I Lead. Knopf, 1999.
  • David Bell (MA, 2000) Professor of English, Western Kentucky University. Kill All Your Darlings. Berkley, 2021. The Request. Berkley, 2020. Layover. Berkley, 2019.
  • Ted Brengle, MA, playwright. “Of Apocalypse and Cappuccino” was adapted into an independent short film. Won regional and national awards for both playwriting and criticism from The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Fellowships to attend the National Critics Institute, where he received a Certificate of Merit, and the National Playwrights Conference, were also a semi-finalist. He has worked with several Chicago theatre companies and has taught playwriting at the Steppenwolf Theatre.
  • August Clarke (BA). The Feast Makers is the third book in their indie-bestselling series, The Scapegracers, where they write as H. A. Clarke
  • Christopher Coake (MA, 1998) Associate Professor, University of Nevada-Reno. You Came Back (Grand Central Publishing, 2012). We’re in Trouble: Stories. Harcourt, 2005.
  • Emily Corwin (MA, 2015). Tenderling: Poems. Stalking Horse Press, 2018. Second book coming out with U Akron
  • Rita Dove (BA 1973)
  • Poetry Collections:
    • The yellow house on the corner. Pittsburgh: Carnegie-Mellon University Press. 1980.
  • Museum (Carnegie Mellon, 1983)
  • Thomas and Beulah (Carnegie Mellon Press, 1986), ISBN 978-0-88748-021-8
  • Grace Notes (New York: W. W. Norton, 1989), ISBN 978-0-393-02719-8
  • Selected Poems (Pantheon/Vintage, 1993), ISBN 978-0-679-75080-2
  • Mother Love (New York: W. W. Norton, 1995), ISBN 978-0-393-31444-1
  • On the Bus with Rosa Parks (New York: Norton, 1999), ISBN 978-0-393-04722-6
  • American Smooth (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004), ISBN 978-0-393-05987-8
  • Sonata Mulattica (New York: W. W. Norton, 2009), ISBN 978-0-393-07008-8
  • Collected Poems 1974-2004 (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 2016), ISBN 978-0-393-28594-9
  • Playlist for the Apocalypse (New York: W. W. Norton, 2021), ISBN 978-0-393-86777-0
  • Anthologies (edited):
  • The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry (New York: Penguin Books, 2011), ISBN 978-0-14-310643-2
  • The Best American Poetry 2000 (New York: Scribner, 2000), ISBN 978-0-7432-0033-2
  • Novels:
  • Through the Ivory Gate (Pantheon Books, 1992), ISBN 978-0-679-41604-3
  • Short fiction
  • Fifth Sunday (University of Kentucky, Callaloo Fiction Series, 1985), ISBN 978-0-912759-06-7
  • Drama:
  • The Darker Face of the Earth: A Verse Play in Fourteen Scenes (Story Line Press, 1994; revised edition: 1996)
  • Essays:
  • The Poet’s World (Washington, DC: The Library of Congress, 1995)
  • Freda Epum. (MFA) The Gloomy Girl Variety Show: A Memoir of Ailments, Apartments, and African (American) Womanhood is forthcoming from Feminist Press, 2025.
  • Dave Essinger, Running Out (Novel), Main Street Rag Publishing. www.dave-essinger.com
  • Megan Giddings (MA). Lakewood. Amistad, 2020). The Women Could Fly. Amistad, 2022
  • Eugene Gloria (MA, 1990) John Rabb Emison Professor of Creative and Performing Arts and Professor of English at DePauw University. Sightseer in This Killing City. Penguin Random House, 2019. My Favorite Warlord. Penguin, 2012. Hoodlum Birds. Penguin, 2006. Drivers at the Short-Time Motel. Penguin, 2000.
  • Heba Hayek (MFA, 2019). Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies. Hajar Press, 2021.
  • Kim Jacobs-Beck. (MFA)  @kimjacobsbeck has a poetry chapbook, TORCH, out from Wolfson Press.
  • Erin Jamieson (BA and MFA 2017), Thaw: Poems. Origami Poems Project. April 2018. My America: Poems. Mount Analogue, October 2017. Full length collection Clotheslines just came out, and a novel, Sky of Ashes, Land of Dreams. She is a poet and Senior Lecturer in creative writing at Ohio State.
  • Bret Anthony Johnston, (MA). Former Director of Creative Writing at Harvard University for over a decade, now the Director of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. Internationally bestselling author of the novels We Burn Daylight and Remember Me Like This, and the multi-award-winning collection Corpus Christi: Stories. He also edited Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer and wrote the documentary film Waiting for Lightning, released around the world by Samuel Goldwyn Films
  • Rajiv Joseph (BA). Playwright. He was named a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play won a Whiting Award among many other honors. His many plays include: Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Describe the Night, Obie Award for Best New American Play.
  • Justin Katko (BA & MA). PhD candidate from U of Cambridge. Co-editor of Edward Dorn’s Collected Poems (2012), and Derelict Air (2015). Runs small press Critical Documents and has authored several books of poetry, including The Death of Pringle (2011) and Basic Middle Finger (2015).
  • Brendan Kiely, NYT bestselling author of All American Boys, Tradition, and The Gospel of Winter. www.brendankiely.com
  • Alice Ladrick (MA, 2012). Don’t Read This If You Already Want to Die. Adjunct Press, 2016.
  • Steven Paul Lansky (MA). Has a new novel out, And Then the Cow was Drownded—by Paul Thanos. https://stevenpaullansky.com/events/. Lansky is also author of The Break, a memoir about schizophrenia, from Arbitrary Press, Life is a Fountain from Dos Madres, and the audio memoir Jack Acid, among other works. https://stevenpaullansky.com/events/
  • Molly McCaffrey (MA, 2000). Stuck in the Middle. Main Street Rag, 2016. You Belong to Us. Main Street Rag, 2015. How to Survive Graduate School & Other Disasters. Main Street Rag, 2011.
  • Bethany Pierce (BFA, MA). Feeling for Bones, which was named one of Publisher Weekly’s best books of 2007. Also a novel in 2010, Amy Inspired. https://www.bethanypierce.com/the-studio
  • As a visual artist, Pierce has exhibited throughout the Midwest and Southeast.
  • Hannah Rodabaugh (MA). Hannah is a poet, essayist, and writing teacher who lives in Boise, Idaho. She is the author of With Words: Verse in Concordance (dancing girl press), We Traced The Shape Of Our Loss To See Your Face (Angel House Press), and We Don’t Bury Our Dead When Our Dead Are Animals (Another New Calligraphy), a collection of Pushcart-nominated ecological elegies.
  • Sammons, Jen. (MFA). For Those in Peril on the Sea. Mad Creek Books. (Forthcoming in 2024). Currently Visiting Assistant Professor at Miami.
    Joy Sullivan. (MA). New book of poems Instructions for Traveling West (The Dial Press – Penguin Random House, 2024).
  • Chelsey Tadeyeske, If You Bend It Backward Nothing Really Happens & several chapbooks with some good small presses. Also edits an active micropress with fellow alum Edwin Perry.
  • Kelsey Timmerman, MFA, published three NY Times bestselling books, one more forthcoming from Patagonia Books on regenerative agriculture.
  • Alla Vilnyanskaya, Void, book out in ’21
  • Marcus Whalbring, (MFA). How to Draw Fire. Poems. Finishing Line Press, 2020.
  • Matt Young (MA, 2015) Assistant Professor, Centralia College (WA). Eat the Apple. Bloomsbury, 2018.

Some Recent MFA Short Publications

2020-21

(Incomplete)

  • Leah Christianson (MFA Fiction 2019), “Is That What You Think?” Dunes Review; “Hard & Smooth & Seemingly Unattached,” Split Lip Magazine
  • Laura Gaddis (MFA CNF 2021), “Mosaic” (three essays: “I Knew,” “Hoosier,” “Journey”), The Avalon Literary Review; “You Are My Sunshine,” Adelaide Magazine 48; “A Class in Gratitude,” Kitchen Sink Magazine 5 (in collaboration with ENG 226 students at Miami); “Well-Meaning People,” Ligeia Magazine; “Cry and MTF On,” The Dillydoun Review
  • Nate Hoil (MFA Poetry 2021), “Return to Planet Clown,” X-R-A-Y; “I Place My Healing Hand on Your Icicle Brain,” Misery Tourism; “Photogenic mouth goblins ingest the walls,” Witch Craft Magazine; “More Bad News to Share,” “Boohoo You Were Born in a Cult,” Rejection Letters; “Venom Stained Band-Aid,” Back Patio Press; “Building builder,” Cool Rock Repository; “Big budget poetry,” The Daily Drunk; “Dracula is usually at last call,” “Unlucky boy lives forever,” Sledgehammer Literary Journal; “Nothing bad occurs ever again,” Free Flash Fiction; three poems, Rabid Oak; “Groups Simply Trying,” Sonic Boom 20; three poems, Bear Creek Gazette; two poems, Poetica Review 11
  • Jimmy Hollenbeck (MFA Fiction candidate) Short story, “Please, Please, Please, Give Your Mother My Love,” Chaotic Merge Magazine 1; poem, “Requiem for a Falling Star with a Case of Beer,” The Daily Drunk; short story, “A Wing, a Tree, a Spider’s Web,” Wretched Creations Magazine 1.4; poem, “Elegy for a Field of Pumpkins, November 3rd,” No Contact Magazine 12; poem, “From Here We Hum Together,” Dunes Review 24.1 (print only, as Jimmy Hollenbeck)

2019-20

(Incomplete)

  • Carrie Bindschadler (MFA Fiction 2018) “Dead Bird,” hobart 2019; “The Child,” Puerto del Sol 2019.
  • Leah Christianson (MFA Fiction 2019), “Show Your Work,” The Evansville Review 30; “Jasmine,” River Teeth; “Zombie Boyfriend,” Flash Fiction Magazine; “Cinnamon,” America’s Emerging Writers; “Banding Together: Capturing Female Friendship in Fiction,” Fiction Southeast; “Strawberry Jackknife,” Bending Genres.
  • Dylan Ecker (MFA Poetry 2020), “Bite,” HOOT; “Bike Ride to Union County, Indiana,” The Penn Review; “A Few Changes to the Coastline,” Saw Palm; “Freestyle,” RHINO; “Millie, the Halfmoon Betta,” Indiana Review.
  • Freda Epum (MFA Nonfiction & Poetry 2019), “I am sorry to inform you about the banana peel thrown at the black girl: A One Woman Show,” Third Coast; “Liquid Stories: Writing and Teaching the Personal in White Literary Spaces,” Vol 1. Brooklyn; “Blackcackle: Dayo Dying,” Entropy Mag; “Too many love stories,” Atticus Review; “MEEK BLACK WOMAN,” Bending Genres 
  • Nate Hoil (MFA Poetry 2021), “Lonely county” and “Sleepy cowboy,” Deluge 13; five poems, Word for/Word 35
  • Madison Krob (MFA Nonfiction 2021), “The Front Page of Digital Hill,” Gone Lawn 38
  • Robin Littell (MFA Fiction 2018), “Nebraska” and “Gravitate,” Fiction Southeast; “Paper House,” New Flash Fiction Review; “Knowing When to Give Up,” Midway Journal 14.
  • Casey McConahay (MFA Fiction 2018), “Pachyderm,” Lake Effect; “Hideous Creatures,” West Trade; “Scary Stories We Told at Church Camp,” Jokes Review; “Habitats,” Southern Humanities; “Pleasure Horses,” Essay Daily; “Touch My Cheek Before You Leave Me Baby,” Stonecoast Review; “A Place Beyond Prayer,” Raleigh Review; “Dance, Then, Wherever You May Be,” December 31; “Candids,” Slippery Elm Literary Journal.
  • Louisa Pavlik (MFA Nonfiction 2020), “radical enough,” The Rumpus; “Orchard for the Trees,” About Place Journal 5.
  • Isaac Pickell (MFA Poetry 2018), “You Only Trust Safe Senders,” Black Warrior Review; “Uncommissioned elegy for the children of children,” Sixth Finch; “The stories (that) aren’t told,” Fence 36; “We are more than mere endurance” Crazyhorse 97.
  • Lincoln Reed (MFA Fiction 2019) “The Epicenter of Existence,” The Guardians of Time: A Zimbell House Anthology; “Slumpbuster Bunny,” Havok Publishing; “The Iron Knight,” The Dead Game: A Zimbell House Anthology; “Deadline,” Havok Publishing; “The Spark of Flame,” Explorer One: A Zimbell House Anthology; “Pocho,” Flash Fiction Magazine; “Last Rite,” The Marshal: A Zimbell House Anthology. 
  • Trevor Root (MFA Poetry 2020) “the red fake trolley bus and its discontents” and “dromological translation of the last shanty,” SPAM Zine 10

2018-19

(incomplete)

  • Amy Bailey (MFA Nonfiction 2019), “The Cleanest Hands” (video essay), Aquifer: The Florida Review Online; producer/editor/host of podcast, “Girls Who Became Writers: A Podcast on Craft.” 
  • Carrie Bindschadler (MFA Fiction 2018), “Permission to Hope,” The Lit Pub; “Tortoise,” Swamp Ape Review; “Liar,” Cosmonauts Avenue.
  • Matt Boyarsky (MFA Fiction 2019), “Vultures,” Swamp Ape Review. 
  • Leah Christianson (MFA Fiction 2019), “Wives,” California’s Emerging Writers 2018: An Anthology of Fiction; “Likeness” (video essay), Triquarterly. 
  • Dylan Ecker (MFA Poetry 2019), “Diagnosis,” Hobart Pulp. 
  • Freda Epum (MFA Nonfiction 2019), “MARKED MANIFESTO” and “Segment on the inner workings of a first-generation girl,” Nat. Brut; “The African Dream,” Rogue Agent; “Race Day,” Heavy Feather Review : #NO MORE PRESIDENTS, July 2018;  “White Boyfriend,” “Verb: To Systematize,” “entryways…” Cosmonauts Avenue.
  • Brian Frazier (MFA Fiction 2018) “Insured and Gambling,” Chiron Review 112/113; “One Call,” Dead Mule.
  • Jordan King (MFA Fiction 2020) “Lost Time,” Adelaide Literary Magazine 21.
  • Madeline Lewis (MFA Poetry 2019) ““What Mary Oliver Knows About Death and Beauty,” Church Life Journal; “Millefleur Dinner Party,” America’s Best Emerging Poets 2018: Midwest Region Anthology.
  • Robin Littell (MFA Fiction 2018), “Perspective,” Tin House Flash Fridays; “In Utero” and “Deep Plum Nail Polish,” Literary Mama; “The Man in the Tree,” Mud Season Review ; “Woman to Woman,” Adanna Literary Journal; “Fox Summer,” “Aquarius,” and “Bird’s Mill,” Two Hawks Quarterly; “Homecoming” and “Tulip and Boxie,” Peatsmoke.
  • Casey McConahay (MFA Poetry 2018), “Windmill,” New Limestone Review; “You Can See Where He Fought,” Profane; “Emma Watson Is More Beautiful Than Anyone,” Little Patuxent Review; “Drowning,” Barely South.
  • Alex McIntosh (MFA Poetry 2019), Three poems in Raw Art Review; “10,000 Things,” Broad River Review 50th Anniversary Issue.
  • Andrew Miller (MFA 2019), “Someone Else’s Story,” Helen Literary Magazine; “Chicken Shit,” Newfound ; “It’s Time to Get Fucking Weird,” Little Death Lit ; “Kant Skateboard,” The Write Launch ; interview, “Victoria Lomasko: Other Russias,” The Nasiona; “6:54,” X-R-A-Y; with Chrisanne Gordon, Turn the Lights On! (Corpus Callosum Creations).
  • Trevor Root (MFA Poetry 2020), three poems, Mannequin Haus .
  • Jen Sammons, (MFA Nonfiction 2019), “Visitation,” Tahoma Literary Review.
  • Jessica Smith (MFA Poetry 2019), review of Futureless Languages by Cynthia Arrieu-Smith, Constant Critic; “New Orleans,” 8.
  • Savannah Trent (MFA Poetry 2019), poems in Rat’s Ass Review and Caustic Frolic.
  • Paul Vogel (MFA Poetry 2018), “The Cathedral.” Dispatches Poetry Wars.
  • Elizabeth Weeks (MFA Fiction 2018), “Lien,” Quarter After Eight; “An Informed Purchase,” Midwestern Gothic; “The Ashtray,” Rivet Journal (.
  • Marcus Whalbring (MFA Poetry 2019), poem published in High Shelf, Underwood Press, and forthcoming from The Oakland Review; essay in Spry.

IV. Some Recent MFA Grad Student Fellowships, Awards, etc.

(incomplete list)

2019-2020

  • Dylan Ecker (MFA Poetry Expected 2020) Jordan-Goodman Prize (Poetry) & Jordan-Goodman Prize (Fiction)
  • Freda Epum (MFA Nonfiction & Poetry 2019) Tin House Writers Workshop, Iron Horse Literary Review Chapbook Prize selected by Lacy M. Johnson (2020)
  • Robin Littell (MFA Fiction 2018) Shortlisted (Top 50 out of 1238) for the 2020 Fish Publishing Flash Fiction Prize; Semi-finalist in the 2020 American Shorter(er) Fiction Contest.
  • Jack Nachmanovitch (MFA Poetry 2021) Betty James Abraham Memorial Poetry Prize
  • Jen Sammons (MFA Nonfiction 2020) College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Teaching Award

2018-2019

  • Amy Bailey (MFA Nonfiction 2019) Honorable Mention, Atticus Review’s Videopoem Contest; Jordan Goodman Award for Nonfiction
  • Carrie Bindschadler (MFA Fiction 2018) Outstanding Graduate Award in Fiction (2018)
  • Leah Christianson (MFA Fiction 2019) Jordan-Goodman Prize in Fiction (2019); Outstanding Graduate Student in Fiction (2019); Sun Yat-sen University Creative Writing Internship (2019)
  • Amy Couple (MFA Poetry 2018) Outstanding Graduate Award in Poetry (2018)
  • Dylan Ecker (MFA Poetry Jordan-Goodman Prize in Poetry (2019)
  • Freda Epum (MFA Nonfiction 2019) Residency at Anderson Center (2019); Honorable Mention, Jordan-Goodman Prize in Nonfiction (2018); Jordan-Goodman Prize in Nonfiction (2019)
  • Madeline Lewis (MFA Poetry 2019) “Academy of American Poets Betty Jane Abrahams Poetry Prize (Honorable Mention)
  • Robin Littell (MFA Fiction 2018) Winner of the 2018 Vella Chapbook Contest; Selected as Writer in Residence @ Spark Box Studio
  • Andrew Miller (MFA 2019) Summer Literary Series, Top 30 Competitive Fellowship (2019)
  • Katarina Morris (MFA Nonfiction 2018) “Outstanding Graduate Student Award in Creative Nonfiction (2018)
  • Louisa Pavlik (MFA Creative Writing 2019) Miami Graduate Thesis and Dissertation Support Award (2019)
  • Recarlo Richardson (MFA Poetry 2018) Jordan-Goodman Prize in Poetry (2018)
  • Jen Sammons MFA Nonfiction 2020) 2018 Gertrude Press Chapbook Prize in Creative Nonfiction; 2019 Intro Journals Project Award for Nonfiction, Association of Writers and Writing Programs
  • Dameion Wagner (MFA Poetry 2019) Academy of American Poets (2018)
  • Elizabeth Weeks (MFA Fiction 2018) Jordan-Goodman Prize in Fiction (2018); Outstanding Graduate Student Prize in Fiction (2018); PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers (nominated, 2019)

2017-2018

Creative Writing

  • Carrie Bindschadler (MFA Fiction 2018) Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards First Place contest winner in fiction category.
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