Student and Alumni Achievements

The short story "When Henry Bit Shelby" by Izzy Beach MFA '24 was a finalist in the 2025 Saints and Sinners fiction writing contest and published in the 2025 Saints and Sinners anthology. They also published a short story, "The Shrinking," in Nocturne Magazine. 
 
Rishona Michael MFA ’24 was named by Poets.org the 2025-2026 Poetry Coalition Fellow for Kundiman.

Melissa Febos MFA '08 was a recent guest on the Memoir Nation podcast, discussing her latest book, The Dry Season. The episode explores solitude as a creatively regenerative space. The podcast, originally launched as Write-minded in 2018, focuses on memoir and personal writing, as well as industry trends and tips and resources for writers and authors. 
 
The fourth collection of poetry by Eric Tyler Benick MFA ’19 titled Terracotta Fragments will be published by Antiphony in January 2026 and is currently available for preorder. 
 
Adam Chandler MFA '10 published his second book of nonfiction, 99% Perspiration, with Penguin Random House. 
 
Abigail Oswald MFA '18 is now the editor of Split/Lip Press' Lost/Found imprint, which gives out-of-print books a new home. 
 
Kyla Marshell MFA '12 had a poem "Somewhere Swimming" featured in the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day series on July 16, 2025. 
 
Jessica Lynne MFA '24 was a winner of the 2025 Rabkin Prize. This award celebrates the creative and intellectual contributions of today’s art critics and journalists. 
 
KT Herr MFA '20 was awarded a PM Lilac Foundation Environmental and Social Justice Fellowship to attend a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in May 2025. Their poem "Leitmotif with norovirus and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" was also named a finalist for Best of the Net 2025. 
 
Erica Cardwell's (MFA '16) memoir Wrong Is Not My Name: Notes on (Black) Art was named a finalist for the Lambda Literary award for Lesbian Memoir/Biography. 
 
Heather Aimee O'Neill's (MFA '04) debut novel The Irish Goodbye was published by Henry Holt in September and was named a Read with Jenna’s October book pick. 
 
Mahreen Sohail's (MFA ’13) debut story collection Small Scale Sinners was published by A Public Space in September and received a starred review with Publisher's Weekly. 

The second novel by Vanessa Lawrence MFA ’23 titled Sheer will be published by Dutton in January 2026 and is currently available for preorder.

Traci Brimhall MFA ’08 was named the 2025 Guggenheim Writer-in-Residence.

Cynthia Cruz MFA ’99 was named a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow in Poetry.

Abigail Oswald MFA ’18 published a new essay in Bright Wall/Dark Room and in the forthcoming anthology IF I CAN BE HONEST.

Abigail Oswald MFA ‘18 published a new essay about finding meaning in movies for Bright Wall/Dark Room's Winter issue: "13 Ways of Looking at The Mothman Prophecies"

Carolyn Silveira MFA ‘14 launched a podcast called Extra+Ordinary: The Fight for Reproductive Justice

Kathy Curto MFA ‘12 was a contributor to the award-winning anthology There Were Red Geraniums Everywhere: Women’s Voices of the Italian Diaspora in North America

Adeline Wong MFA ‘23 published a short story, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackened Husk of a Planet", in Strange Horizons

Maya Bernstein MFA ‘24 published a poem “The Primordial Catastrophe in the Process of Creation” in Viva Poetica.

Tangie Mitchell MFA ‘23 was named a 2024-2025 Emerge-Surface-Be Fellow through the Poetry Project.

 Maria Santa Poggi MFA ‘24 interviewed U.S. Poet Laureate, Ada Limón, on her nature poetry anthology You Are Here for Electric Literature.

Miciah Hussey MFA ‘24 published an essay “Autumnal” in the Fall/Winter 2024 issue of the Bellevue Literary Review.

Abigail Oswald MFA ‘18 published an essay about genre, grief, and The Night House in Bright Wall/Dark Room

“Solitaire” by AJ Tierney MFA ‘08 was published in the “Solar Flare” issue of Same Faces Collective Art & Literary Journal

A flash fiction piece “This Time of Death” by Wendy Holmes MFA was accepted by Fractured Lit for their 2024 Anthology.

Melissa Faliveno MFA ‘11 announced a book deal for her debut novel HEMLOCK which will be published by Little, Brown.

Anya Johnson MFA ‘23 published a new poem in Anti-Heroin Chic.

Melissa Gelula MFA ‘24 was interviewed by Maria Santa Poggi MFA ‘24 for the Creative Independent.

Current MFA student Bee Hyland published their debut collection of stories Ethical Necromancy  (Winding Road, 2024).

Current MFA student Maeve Barry published a new story “Girabella” in The Sewanee Review Spring 2024 issue.

Abigail Oswald MFA ‘18 published an essay “The Descent (2005): ASearch History” in Bright Wall/Dark Room's "Obsession" issue.

Ash Pattison-Scott MFA ‘24 published an essay “The Speck” in The Audacity.

Current MFA student Beth Holly published a new prose piece in Green Hills Literary Lantern.

Katiy Heath MFA ‘20 published an essay “What is Special About Dusk” in LIT Magazine.

Sarah Levine MFA ‘11 published her debut collection of poems Each Knuckle with Sugar with Driftwood Press.

Current MFA student Hayley Shucker was a finalist for the 2024 Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition.

Tangie Mitchell MFA ‘23 published new poems in KGB Lit, West Trade Review, and Berlin Lit.

Zachariah Claypole White MFA ‘23 published new poems in Sequestrum, The Rumpus, Pigeon Pages, and Bourbon Penn.

Arriel Vinson MFA ‘19 was named a Renee Watson Scholarship recipient through the Highlights Foundation.

Current MFA student David Marino published a story “Salemo” in Lightspeed.

Sreshtha Sen MFA ‘17 was named a 2024 Margins Fellow through the Asian American Writers’ Workshop.

Current MFA student Maeve Barry published two stories  and Fran Matos MFA ‘23 published a new poem in Columbia Journal.

Colter Jackson MFA ‘19 wrote and illustrated the children’s book Everyday Brave, which was published in 2024 by Beaming Books.

Abigail Oswald MFA ‘18 published an essay "Searching for Heather Donahue" in Bright Wall/Dark Room.

Traci Brimhall MFA ‘08 was named the Poet Laureate of Kansas from 2023-2026.

The poem “Today, while reading the definition of OCD” by Zachariah Claypole White MFA ‘23 was a finalist in the 2023 Frontier OPEN.

Current MFA student Maeve Barry’s story “The Ballet” won the 2023 Pigeon Pages fiction contest and her story “Parrot” won the 2023 Phoebe Spring Fiction Contest.

Ashley Lopez MFA ‘18 published a new story “Well and Good” in Gasher’s Spring 2023 issue.

Hera Naguib MFA ‘14 published a poem titled “At the Punjab Dhaba, Hampshire Street, Boston” in TriQuarterly, July 2023.

Christine Barker’s (MFA ‘05) memoir The Third Girl From the Left was featured in the New York Times “10 New Books We Recommend This Week.”

Apoorva Bradshaw Mittal MFA ‘19 published their story The Dollmaker in The Rumpus in September 2023.

Alexandra Lehmann MFA ‘03 published an article “Giving and Receiving the Sacraments in Prison -A Conversation with Mary Jo Kriz, DM, co-chair of the American Association Prison Ministry Committee”.

Melissa Joplin Higley’s (MFA ‘19) debut poetry chapbook FIRST FATHER was a finalist in the Lefty Blondie Press Inaugural Chapbook Contest (2023) and was published by Bottlecap Press (2023).

Abigail Oswald MFA ‘18 published a short story in The Rumpus “A Note to Say Hello, I’m Here” and an essay "Can't Remember to Forget You: Memento in Twenty Fragments” in Bright Wall/Dark Room.

Kaveh Bassiri MFA ‘07 had poems published in Somewhere We Are Human (2022), A Poetry Pedagogy for Teachers (2022), and Without a Doubt (2023).

Sreshtha Sen MFA ‘17 published two poems in Kenyon Review and two poems in Massachusetts Review in Fall 2023.