Compiled by Jefferson Beavers and Nou Her
Republished from We Grow Writers
Kudos to #FresnoWriters is a monthly series on the Fresno State MFA blog, celebrating the professional accomplishments of students, alumni, and faculty in the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English at Fresno State.
If you have a special announcement, a professional or creative success, or an inspiring story that you’d like us to share, please submit this short form.
William Arcé (English faculty) — Won a National Consortium of Environmental Rhetoric & Writing fellowship, which includes a writing retreat, participation in a NCERW summer institute, and a panel spot at the Rhetoric Society of Americaconference in 2020.
Rodolfo Avelar (English undergrad student) — Published the poem “La Diva de la Banda is Dead” in The Acentos Review.
Venita Blackburn (English faculty) — Published the story “Bear Bear Harvest” in the Virginia Quarterly Review. Published the story “Easter Egg Surprise” in SmokeLong Quarterly.
Sara Borjas (BA English alumni) — Interviewed by Will Freeney in The Normal Schoolmagazine about her debut poetry collection, “Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff,” published by Noemi Press.
Phyllis Brotherton (MFA Creative Writing alumni) — Published the essay “Textual Healing, Notes from the Mom Whose Pages Kept Changing” on the Brevity blog.
Joseph Cassara (English faculty) — Won a summer fellowship and writing residency from the MacDowell Colony. Awarded a grant from Cal Humanities for public readings and conversation with fiction authors Tommy Orange, Jamel Brinkley, and R.O. Kwon, starting fall 2019.
Kenneth R. Chacón (MFA Creative Writing alumni) — Published the poem “Advising the Stars; or, How I Became a Princess” in the Colorado Review. Published the poem “Psalm 151: Psalm of the Penitent Smoker” in The Windhover journal.
Anthony Cody (Creative Writing grad student) — Announced the publication of his debut book, the poetry collection “Borderland Apocrypha,” forthcoming in spring 2020 from Omnidawn Publishing. The manuscript won the Omnidawn Open Poetry Book Prize, as selected by the poet Mei-mei Berssenbrugge. Also published the poem “Bracero(s) & The Ice Car, a Mexican Lynching” in the journal Puerto del Sol.
Jennifer M. Dean (MFA Creative Writing alumni) — Hired as a new English instructor at Fresno City College starting in fall 2019.
Ronald Dzerigian (MFA Creative Writing alumni) — Interviewed for the April 2019 issue of Visalia Lifestyle magazine.
Kathy Fagan (BA English alumni) — Interviewed for the Sundress Publications blogon the poetry of Brenda Hillman and writing about grief.
Florina Fernandez (English Education undergrad student) — Interviewed by Angel Langridge for a Fresno State News graduation feature.
Will Freeney (Creative Writing grad student) — Interviewed the author Sara Borjas for The Normal School magazine.
Emily Froese (MA English alumni) — Hired as a new English instructor at College of the Sequoias in Visalia starting in fall 2019.
Angel Garduno (English grad student) — Won Fresno State’s College of Arts and Humanities Outstanding Thesis Award for his thesis manuscript, “Open-ended Existences in the Narratives of Robert Bolaño’s ‘The Savage Detectives’ and Ralph Ellison’s ‘Invisible Man.’ ”
Angel Gonzales (Creative Writing grad student) — Interviewed the author Patricia Smith for The Normal School magazine.
Patrick D. Hogan (English undergrad student) — Published the story “Optimist” in Rumble Fish Quarterly journal.
Cody Hoover (MA English alumni) — Hired as a new English instructor at Clovis Community College starting in fall 2019.
Yia Lee (Creative Writing grad student) — Interviewed the author Pos L. Moua for The Normal School magazine.
Kirk Alvaro Lua (Creative Writing grad student) — Interviewed the author Tina Mozelle Braziel for The Normal School magazine.
Primavera Leal Martinez (English undergrad student) — Named this year’s President’s Medalist by Fresno State President Joseph I. Castro at the university’s 108th Commencement.
Kristen Norton (MFA Creative Writing alumni) — Hired as a new English instructor at Fresno City College starting in fall 2019.
Monique Quintana (MFA Creative Writing alumni) — Hired as a new English instructor at Fresno City College starting in fall 2019. Interviewed by Jefferson Beavers for the We Grow Writers blog about her debut novella, “Cenote City,” from CLASH Books.
Lupe Remigio Ortega (MA English alumni) — Named a scholar in the CSU Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program, which makes her eligible for future loan forgiveness, travel grants for conference presentations and dissertation research, and further support.
Ernesto Reyes (English undergrad student) — Won the Tutor of the Semester Award for spring 2019 from the Fresno State Learning Center.
Leo Rowland (MFA Creative Writing alumni) — Interviewed by Jefferson Beavers for the We Grow Writers blog about his work in international study abroad programs in Italy, Argentina, and the U.S.
Iris D. Ruiz (MA English alumni) — Announced she will be the keynote speaker at the UC Merced Teaching Symposium on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in October. She is the author of the book “Reclaiming Composition for Chicano/as and Other Ethnic Minorities: A Critical History and Pedagogy.”
Brynn Saito (English faculty) — Awarded a grant from the Denshō Artists Initiative to share the story of Japanese American incarceration during World War II and inspire action for equity. Awarded a “Truth & Reconciliation” residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute.
Emily Jo Scalzo (MFA Creative Writing alumni) — Published the poems “When the Leaves Turn & the Map is Drawn” and “Having Pulled Over to the Side of the Road to Answer a Phone Call / from My Grandmother Who Has Accidentally Dialed My Number” in Sandpiper Magazine. Published the poem “Reprieve” in The New Verse News journal.
Hector Tapia (English undergrad student) — Won an Outstanding Oral Presentation in Social Sciences award at the Central California Research Symposium, for his essay and presentation, “An Unquenchable Desire for the ‘Forbidden Fruit’: Exploring the Inversions of Gender and Sexuality in Euripides’ Bacchae.”
Brian Turner (BA English alumni) — Interviewed by LouAnn Shepard Muhm for The Normal School magazine about the poet Ilyse Kusnetz’s posthumous collection, “Angel Bones.”
Lisa Weston (English faculty) — Published the essay “A Vicarious Voyage in Queer Time: Hygeburg’s Hodoeporicon” in the anthology “Travel, Time, and Space in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time: Explorations of World Perceptions and Processes of Identity Formation,” published by De Gruyter.
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