MFA Alumni News

This Just In....

Most recent alumni news:  Danielle Deulen and Nancy K. Pearson both won the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize. The Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Fund offers a poetry contest to award prizes to young poets with unusual promise.  We are so proud of Danielle and Nancy.

MFA Alumni News

Updates....

Carrie Addington (2007, Poetry) is the owner of Addington Writers (www.addingtonwriters.com) where she works with various clients, including the American Poetry Museum providing writing and communications services. She also works as National Advertising Director for AutoExec magazine. Her poetry has been published by Triplopia and she was the recipient of the 2006 Virginia Downs poetry award. She is the 2007 winner of the American Literary Review's Poetry Prize and a 2007 Pushcart nominee. Her poems are forthcoming in American Literary Review and Margie, where she was a 2007 Editor's Choice finalist.

Betsy Andrews ( ) is the author of the poetry collections She-Devil, In Trouble, and New Jersey, winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry.

Nolde Alexius (1999, fiction) teaches composition, literature, and creative writing at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She also serves as coordinator of the English Department's literary reading series, Readers & Writers.  Her fiction has been published in Country Roads Magazine, The Southern Review, So To Speak, and Phoebe; and is the recipient of two artist support grants from the Louisiana Division of the Arts. She is the winner of the 2002 Poets & Writers, Inc. Writers Exchange Competition in Louisiana for fiction.

Brian Barker ( ) is the author of The Animal Gospels and winner of the 2004 Tupelo Press Editors Prize. His poems have appeared in Poetry, The Indiana Review, Sou'wester, Pleiades, and River Styx. He is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize and currently works as the Assistant Director of The Center for the Literary Arts at the University of Missouri and as managing editor of the journal Center.

Brian Brodeur (2005, Poetry) has published recent work in Gettysburg Review, Pleiades, New Orleans Review, Crab Orchard Review, Meridian, and the anthology Best New Poets 2005/.  He has received fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Vermont Studio Center.  His book-length manuscript was a finalist for the 2006 New Issues Poetry Prize and his poems have been translated into Spanish and Bosnian. Other Latitudes has just won the Akron Award and will be published in October of 2008. About Brian Brodeur's poetry Stephen Dunn writes: "Brodeur's world is a world of layers and shadings. His diction is limpid and precise, his ear a fine-tuned instrument for registering nuance. . . . I'm pleased to have found such poems, and such a talent."

Juanita Brunk (1985, poetry) has published several poems in many literary journals, including The American Poetry Review and Passages North. She won the Brittingham Prize from the University of Wisconsin and The Great Lakes Poetry Award for her first collection of poems, Brief Landing on the Earth's Surface. She was the first recipient of the Creative Writing Fellowship at the Institute of Creative Writing at Wisconsin.

Liam Callanan (2001) His first novel, The Cloud Atlas, was nominated for an Edgar, the annual awards given by the Mystery Writers of America, in the Best First Novel by an American author category. His second novel, All Saints, appeared in March, 2007.

Allison Cobb (1997, poetry), Jennifer Coleman (1997, poetry), Ethan Fugate (1998, poetry), and Susan Landers (1999, poetry) all live in Brooklyn, NY, and edit Pom2, a journal of poetic polylogue. Information about Pom2 and available issues may be found at www.pompompress.com.

Danny Duncan Collum (Fiction, 1995) is an assistant professor of English and Journalism at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, KY . His first book, African Americans in the Spanish Civil War, was published by Macmillan in 1992.
In 1996 his nonfiction book, Black and White Together: The Search for Common Ground, was published by Orbis Books. He won the Washington Review Fiction Award for his story "Platinum Heart" that same year. A novel excerpt, "Telephone Road," was published in 1997 in Forays, a journal published by the Liberal Arts Division of the Maryland Institute College of Art. His third nonfiction book, Black and Catholic in the Jim Crow South, was published by Paulist Press in 2006.

Mark Craver (1984, poetry) published his poems in over a dozen literary journals as well as produced three books of poems: The Problem of Grace, Seven Crowns for the White Lady of the Other World and Blood Poems, and They Come for What You Love which was nominated for the Virginia's library's Center for the Book Award in 1998. His last book was published posthumously.

Danielle Cadena Deulen (2005, poetry) has published poems in Sou'wester, The Cream City Review, West Branch and The Louisville Review.  She is the recipient of a 2007-2008 Jay C. and Ruth Halls Poetry fellowship from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, a Virginia Center for Creative Arts Residency Fellowship, and winner of a 2006 Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize.

Jean Donnelly Her first major work of poetry, Anthem, was chosen by Charles Bernstein as the winner of the National Poetry Series in 2000.

Rebecca Dunham, won the 2006 T.S. Eliot prize from Truman State University Press, which published her first book of poems, The Miniature Room.  She now teaches in the University of Northern Iowa creative writing program.

Ryan Effgen (2006, fiction) has a short story published in Best New American Voices 2007. He also won Third Prize in the 2005 Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Contest, and a fellowship from the Virginia Commission for the Arts in 2006.

Perry W. Epes (1993, poetry) is chair of the English Department at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA. His poems have appeared in George Washington University Forum, Negative Capability and Phoebe. He is writing a book based on William Meade's Old Churches and Family of Virginia (1857).

Barbara Esstman (1987, fiction) has published two novels, The Other Anna, which was made into a Hallmark Entertainment movie, "Secrets." Her second novel, Night Ride Home, is now a Hallmark Hall of Fame Special of the same name. She has published stories in Lear's Confrontation and Cottonwood. Esstman has received the Redbook fiction award and individual artist grants from the NEA and Virginia Commission for the Arts. She also co-edited an anthology, A More Perfect Union (St. Martin's Press).

Graham Foust (1996, poetry) published two books of poems, in 2003: As in Every Deafness (Flood Editions) and Leave The Room to Itself (Ahsahta Press), which won the 2003 Sawtooth Prize. His latest book, Necessary Stranger, was published in 2007 (Chicago: Flood Editions). For the past year he has been teaching at St. Mary's College of California.

Heather Fuller (1996, poetry) is working on a degree in medicine. She is the author of Perhaps This is a Rescue Fantasy (Edge Books, 1997) and Dovecote (Edge Books, forthcoming Jan. 2001). Her fourth book, Startle Response, will be published soon.

Cindy Goff,and fellow alum, Jeffrey McDaniel (both 1993, poetry) are featured in the Winter 1989-99 issue of Ploughshares, edited by Thomas Lux. Jeff's poem is titled "The Wounded Chandelier." Cindy's poem, "Meeting Mr. Right at the Rest Stop," is featured on the Ploughshares website at www.emerson.edu/ploughshares.

Tony (Anthony) Grooms (1984, fiction) is a Professor of Creative Writing at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. His first book, a collection of short stories, Trouble No More, was published in 1995 and republished in 2006.  It was selected by the Georgia Center for the Book as the 2006 Book All Georgia Reads. His novel, Bombingham, published in 2001, was named a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year.  It, too, has been selected for common book programs.  Both books were awarded the Lillian Smith Prize for Fiction and Bombingham was a finalist for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award.

Karen Guzman (1993, fiction) is a feature writer at the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has published short stories in Eureka Literary Magazine, Spout and most recently in LitRag. She won honorable mention in Bananafish magazine's short fiction contest 2000, and a story of hers is included in the Literature of Spirituality issue published by Many Mountains Moving Press in the summer of 2001. She is also working on a short story collection.

Vance Philip Hedderd (1992, poetry) has published poems in Cape Rock, Chelsea, Folio and in various other literary journals. His essay "Sibling Rivalry" in Mourning Becomes Electra and The Little Foxes was published in Eugene O'Neill Review, and his essay "Going the Distance: Using Technologies to Promote the Writing Center on Campus in the Community" appeared in SWCA Selected Papers 1992. Vance received an Individual Artist Project Grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts.

Dallas Hudgens (1992) His first novel, Drive Like Hell was chosen as a Spring 2005 selection for Barnes and Noble's Discover Great New Writer series and was chosen as a Booksense March 2005 pick.  His second novel, The Season of Gene, appears in September 2007.

Wendi Kaufman (1997, fiction) had her first published appearance, a story, "Helen on Eighty-Sixth Street" in The New Yorker. She also sold production rights to her story to Century Center in New York City for the stage. Her stories also have appeared in Literal Latte and Fiction magazines. She founded and maintains the blog, the HappyBooker.

Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda (1995, Ph.D.) is poet laureate for Virginia. She has had poems published recently in the Blackwater Review and Virginia Writing. She also had an essay on women poets published in Laurels: Eight Women Poets. She co-edited with Alice Tarnowski an anthology of poems, In a Certain Place, released in January 2000. Three poems on George O'Keeffe were featured in The Montserrat Review. Her books include Contrary Visions (published under Carolyn Kreiter-Kurylo), l988, Gathering Light, l993.

Michael Langan (MFA, 1995) is a career law clerk to a federal judge in Syracuse, NY, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.  His mystery novel Dark Horse was purchased by Five Star Publishing (an imprint of Thompson Gale), and is scheduled for publication in late 2007.

Jeff Landon (MFA, 1989) has published stories in Crazyhorse, 64, Other Voices, Appalachee Quarterly, New Virginia Review and Another Chicago Magazine, Phoebe , and other places.

Kirsten Lopresti (Fiction,2000) has published short stories in The Laurel Review, New Delta Review, So To Speak, Licking River Review and Italian Americana.  She is currently working on a novel. 

Adrian Lurssen ( ) is the editor and founder of Practice: New Writing + Art.

Jeffrey McDaniel (MFA, 1993) , is a 2002 recipient of the National Endowments for the Arts award for poets which he received on the heels of the release of his third book, Splinter Factory, from Manic D Press. His previous books, also from Manic D Press, andAlibi School and Forgiveness Parade. Jeff is currently a visiting professor at Sarah Lawrence College. Jeff's fourth book, The Endarkenment, will be published in 2008 by the UNivesity of Pittsburg Press.

Liz Murawski (1991, poetry) is the author of of Moon and Mercury and a chapbook Troubled by an Angel. Publications include The New Republic, Antioch Review, Yale Review, Field, Virginia Quarterly Review, Ontario Review, Fulcrum, et al. Poem "Abu Ghraib Suggests the Isenheim Altarpiece" won the 2006 Ann Stanford Poetry Prize. She was awarded a residency to Boll Cottage by the Heinrich Boll Foundation in 2006. She is recently retired from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Nadine Sabra Meyer (2002, poetry) is author of The Anatomy Theater, winner of the 2005 National Poetry Series, selected by John Koethe.  Her poems have won the New Letter Poetry Prize and  Pushcart Prize, and have appeared in many journals including Chelsea, Quarterly West, Pliedies, Notre Dame Review, and the North American Review.  She is completing her Ph.D. at the University of Missouri-Columbia and is teaching at Seton Hall University.

Danika Myers (2006, poetry) was a finalist for the 2005 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship, and won the Meridian Editor's Prize for Poetry, 2004.

Nicole Louise Reid (2001, fiction) published her first novel, In the Breeze of Passing Things, in 2003 (MacAdam/Cage Publishing).

Jane Schapiro (Poetry, 2004) has published a volume of poetry, Tapping This Stone (Washington Writers' Publishing House, 1995) and a work of nonfiction, Inside a Class Action:The Holocaust and the Swiss Banks (University of Wisconsin Press, 2005). Her work has appeared in Prairie Schooner,The American Scholar,The Southern Review, The Women's Review of Books and Yankee.

Laura Scott (1993, fiction) has published fiction in Ploughshares, Hayden's Ferry Review, and Mississippi Review. She was nominated for e2ink-2: The Best of the Online Journals, 2003 fiction anthology.  She had her story, "Folk Hero", recognized at a Notable Story of 2004 by StorySouth which annually honors an promotes the best fiction published in online magazines and journals.  Her story was published online by Plots With Guns (plotswithguns.com). 

Rod Smith ( ) is the founder & editor of Aerial/Edge (Aerial magazine & Edge Books , as well as host of the poetry reading series at Bridge Street Books in Georgetown. His tenth book is just out - Deed, (Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 2007) He is also editing, with Peter Baker and Kaplan Harris, The Selected Letters of Robert Creeley for the University of California Press.

Deborah S. Snyder (1989, poetry) has had her poems published in Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust, Union Street Review, Black Buzzard Review, The Poet's Domain, and in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. She has read in E.E. Wolensky's New Poets of Washington Series.

Peter Streckfus (2000, poetry) had his manuscript, The Cuckoo, chosen by Louise Glück as the winner of the 2004 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition.  Peter's poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, Matrix, Natural Bridge, Pleiades, and Slope. Peter is now teaching in the MFA program at the University of Alabama.

Art Taylor(2006, fiction) is now a term assistant professor of English at George Mason and continues to help coordinate programming and marketing for the Fall for the Book festival. He is a book columnist for Metro Magazine, in Raleigh, N.C., and also contributes book reviews to both The Washington Post's "Book World" and to Mystery Scene Magazine.

Naomi Thiers (1990, poetry) published her first book of poems, Only the Raw Hands Are Heaven, in 1992, and her individual poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Antietam Review, Poet Lore, Pacific Review, Sojourners and Virginia Quarterly Review. She is an adjunct professor of English at American University and also teaches at the Writers' Center in Bethesda.

Melissa Tuckey (2005 poetry) is recipient of an Ohio Arts Council award and a residency at Blue Mountain Center.  Her poems have been published in Beloit Poetry Journal, Cincinnati Poetry Review, Painted Bride Quarterly,Southeast Review, and others.  She's the Events Coordinator for DC Poets Against the War and teaches writing courses at George Mason University.  Her chapbook "Rope as Witness" is forthcoming with Pudding House Publications.

Ginger Walker (Fiction, 2004) has published fiction in Five Points, poetry in Phoebe, and nonfiction in Bird Watcher's Digest.  She lives in Richmond, Virginia and teaches in an interdisciplinary, learner-centered writing program for first-year students at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Elizabeth Weiss (2002, poetry) is the owner of Weiss Words (www.weisswords.com) and works as a freelance writer, editor, and proofreader. Her poetry, editorials, and over 80 feature articles have been published in local and national magazines, journals, newspapers, and online. Features are forthcoming in Northern Virginia Magazine and on MSN.

Lynna Williams (1990, fiction) teaches at Emory University and has had her stories "Afghanistan" and "Sole Custody" published in the Atlantic and "Personal Testimony" published in Lear's. She has published two books, Things Not Seen and Other Stories, and The Province of Love.

James Wilson (1987, fiction) received a 1994 grant from the Ohio Arts Council, and his poem, "Head Heart Health Hands" was a finalist for the 2003 Indiana Review Poetry Prize.  He is a stay-at-home dad in Washington, DC.

Mark Winegardner is a the Burroway Professor of English and director of the creative writing program at Florida State University. His work has appeared in such magazines as GQ, Playboy, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, DoubleTake, American Short Fiction and The New York Times Magazine. His story "Keegan's Load" appears in New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, 2003. He's published several books, including the novels The Veracruz Blues and Crooked River Burning and, most recently, the story collection That's True of Everybody. After an international competition, Random House chose him to write the sequel to Mario Puzo's The Godfather Returns and a sequel The Godfathers Revenge.

Andrew Wingfield (1999, fiction) published his first novel, Hear Him Roar, in 2005.  His short stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in The Antioch Review, Potomac Review, Pleiades, Resurgence, and numerous other magazines.  He has received fellowships from Canada's
Banff Centre and the Vermont Studio Center for writing residencies.  He teaches at Mason

Karenne Wood (Poetry, 2002) is a doctoral candidate in linguistic anthropology at the University of Virginia.  She recently completed a three-year gubernatorial appointment as the Chair of the Virginia Council on Indians.  Her first book of poems, Markings on Earth, won the Diane Decorah Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas and was published by University of Arizona Press in 2001.  She lives in Charles City, Virginia and is working on a second book.