Compiled by Jefferson Beavers. Originally published on the Fresno State MFA blog.
Kudos to #FresnoWriters is a regular 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.
Paul Aloojian (BA English alum) — Published his debut poetry collection, “Pomegranate Wine,” from Isitas Press. [Listen to excerpts on YouTube.]
Megan Anderson Bohigian (MFA Creative Writing alum) — Published the poem “Oh, Roots” in the Atticus Review Annual, originally published online in November 2019 as part of the magazine’s Fresno Poetry issue.
J.J. Anselmi (MFA Creative Writing alum) — Interviewed the musician Sam McPheeters of the band Born Against for the Rare Bird Radio podcast.
Daniel E. Arias-Gómez (MFA Creative Writing alum) — Published the poem “Monologue While Watching the Rain Fall” in Michigan Quarterly Review.
Marisol Baca (BA English alum) — Published the poem “The Origin of Certain Place Names” in the Atticus Review Annual, originally published online in November 2019 as part of the magazine’s Fresno Poetry issue.
Jefferson Beavers (MFA Creative Writing alum and English staff) — Recognized by Fresno State’s Richter Center with a 2019 President’s Faculty and Staff Service Award for community volunteering. Also, performed the Luis Omar Salinas Poem “I Am an Aztec Angel” for the #FresnoWriters at Home series on the Fresno State MFA YouTube channel.
Venita Blackburn (English faculty) — Published the essay “American Refugee” in the Paris Review. Also published the crossword story “In the Counselor’s Waiting Room with No Wi-fi” in the journal Diagram.
Sara Borjas (BA English alum) — Published the poem “To the Woman Who Said She Could Hear My Accent” in Alta Journal. Also, interviewed by Heather Scott Partington on the City of Fresno, Latinx heritage, and decolonizing your life for Alta Journal, and was featured in their Alta Asks Live series.
Mariah Bosch (Creative Writing grad student) — Delivered an invited lecture on “Personal Poetics” for the Laguna Collective speaker series “Unveiling the Roots” on Instagram. Also, won second place in this year’s Fresno Country Public Library poetry contest, adult division, for the poem “The short distance of a name,” as selected by the poet David Campos.
Michelle Brittan Rosado (MFA Creative Writing alum) — Interviewed by Genevieve Kaplan for the Prism Review’s Contemporary Poetry interview series.
Phyllis Brotherton (MFA Creative Writing and MA English alum) — With co-author Armen Bacon, published the essay “Un—” in Entropy magazine. The piece is excerpted from their collaborative writing project in progress, “The Words Between Us, A Pandemic Abecedarius,” which was profiled by Donald Munro for The Munro Review.
Kenneth Robert Chacón (MFA Creative Writing alum) — Performed the William Saroyan story “70,000 Assyrians” for the Valley Public Radio program “The Time of Our Life,” hosted by Mark Arax and David Aus.
Ethan Chatagnier (BA English alum) — Interviewed the author Mary South about her debut story collection, “You Will Never Be Forgotten,” for TriQuarterly magazine. Also interviewed the author Joe Sacksteder about his debut story collection, “Make/Shift,” for Craft Literary.
Jack Chavoor (MFA Creative Writing alum) — Interviewed by Barlow der Mugrdechian about his MFA thesis manuscript, “Ghosts of Genocide,” for the All Things Armenian program on Radio Multicultural, KGST Fresno.
Steven Church (English faculty) — Published the essay “Memory Yards” for the web magazine How We Are. Also, his previously published essay “Lag Time” will be included in the forthcoming anthology, “The Best of Brevity: Twenty Groundbreaking Years of Flash Nonfiction,” from Rose Metal Press.
Anthony Cody (MFA Creative Writing alum) — Published the poem “El Arpa, a Mexican Lynching, No. 53” on Poets.org, for the Academy of American Poets. Also, published a review of the new poetry collections by authors Amalia L. Ortíz and Bryan Thao Worra for the Kenyon Review’s “Poets on Poets: Celebrating New Collections” series.
Mike Cole (BA English alum) — Performed the poem “Therefore, Sing” for the #FresnoWriters at Home series on the Fresno State MFA YouTube channel.
Ronald Dzerigian (MFA Creative Writing alum) — Published the poem “Sourcing a Memory of My Brother While My Family and I Clear Brush Before the Rupture of the Oroville Dam” in Mayday Magazine. Also, performed a version of the same poem for the #FresnoWriters at Home series on the Fresno State MFA YouTube channel.
Lillian Faderman (English faculty emerita) — Her nonfiction book “The Gay Revolution” was named by Fortune magazine as one of “10 Books on American History that Actually Reflect the United States.”
Kathy Fagan (BA English alum) — Announced the publication acceptance of her sixth poetry collection, “Bad Hobby” due in 2022 from Milkweed Books. Published the poem “Dedicated” in the magazine Pleiades. Also, performed the poem “Ode to Julia Morgan” for the #FresnoWriters at Home series on the Fresno State MFA YouTube channel.
Ana Garza G’z (MFA Creative Writing alum) — Published the poems “Deconstruction” and “Input/Output” in Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature.
Juan Luis Guzmán (MFA Creative Writing alum) — Published a review of the Marcelo Hernandez Castillo memoir “Children of the Land” in The Rumpus.
Howard V. Hendrix (English lecturer) — Published the essay “Apprehensions, Comprehensions, SARS-CoV-2: Conspiracy Theory vs. Scientific Method in a World Gone Viral” in the magazine Academe, from the American Association of University Professors.
Melanie Hernandez (English faculty) — Earned tenure and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor at Fresno State, as announced by the university provost’s office.
Patrick D. Hogan (BA English alum) — Accepted an offer to enroll in the MFA program in creative writing at CalArts in Valencia in the fall.
Kimberly Horg (MFA Creative Writing alum) — Was awarded a Diversity Fellowship to attend the Investigative Reporters & Editors 2020 journalism conference. Also, published the essay “Cursed” in the summer “Resistance” themed issue of DoveTales: An International Online Journal of the Arts.
Gabriel Ibarra (MFA Creative Writing alum and English lecturer) — Performed the poem “When the World Ends” for the #FresnoWriters at Home series on the Fresno State MFA YouTube channel.
Wenmimareba Klobah Collins (Creative Writing grad student) — Won second runner-up honors for the 2020 Dell Magazines Award competition for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing, for their story “Journey from Middle to Nowhere.”
Suzanne Lummis (MA English alum) — Published the poems “The Horrible Hand” and “Flour, Eggs, Milk, Baking Powder, Salt and God” in One Hand Clapping magazine. Also published the poem “Wonder Woman, P.I.” in the latest NoirCon “Noir Riot” anthology.
Lena Mahmoud (MA English alum) — Published the story “The Beloved Tunjura” in the journal Corvid Queen.
Alison Mandaville (English faculty) — Recognized by Fresno State’s Campus Advisors Network with a 2019-20 Outstanding Advisor Award, for her work advising English Education undergraduates and Single Subject Teaching Credential in English post-bac students.
Mary Paul (MA English alum and English lecturer) — Will publish the paper “Engaging the Control-Value Theory: A New Era of Student Response Systems and Formative Assessment to Improve Student Achievement” in the peer-reviewed journal Research in Learning Technology, from the Association for Learning Technology.
Monique Quintana (MFA Creative Writing alum) — Published the story “the sailor girl” in PANK Magazine, as part of their Latinx Lit Celebration series. Also published the story “Primo” in Madcap Review. Interviewed the poet Octavio Quintanilla on visual poetry, “frontera y texto,” for Luna Luna Magazine.
Charles L. Radke (MA English alum) — Announced the publication acceptance of his debut memoir, “Stuccoville,” due this fall from the E.L. Marker imprint of WiDō Publishing.
Feroz Rather (MFA Creative Writing alum) — Published the essay “Reflections on an Ordinary Grief” in Carve Magazine.
Yinka Rose Reed-Nolan (MFA Creative Writing alum) — Earned a Master of Arts degree in Mental Health and Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Arizona. Accepted a new job as a Crisis Interventionist at an acute care inpatient crisis/detox facility, with Community Bridges, Inc. of Mesa, Arizona.
Ernesto Reyes (Creative Writing grad student) — Interviewed by William Hardaway for the Fresno State Learning Center’s Dog-In Podcast, about his teaching work in English 10.
Iris D. Ruiz (MA English alum) — Announced the debut of her new Creating Coalitional Gestures podcast, a program by and for Black, brown and indigenous women of color in the field of Writing Studies. Also, interviewed by the Pedagogue Podcast about her new podcasting work.
Brynn Saito (English faculty) — Published the poem “Ordinary Animal” in the Atticus Review Annual, originally published online in November 2019 as part of the magazine’s Fresno Poetry issue. Also, interviewed for the “Process Profile” series in the Lantern Review, about her previously published poem “Dinuba, 1959.”
Graciela Sierra-Moreno (English grad student) — Founded the community-based book loan program Dos Palos Book Loan, in her west Fresno County hometown. [Contact Graciela to make book donations.]
Tim Skeen (English faculty) — Published the poem “Lifting Weights at 60” in the Atticus Review Annual, originally published online in November 2019 as part of the magazine’s Fresno Poetry issue.
Jenny Toste (MA English alum) — Published the article “At This Time of Social Awareness, Let Us Also Help Fresno’s Homeless Youth” in her Common Ground column in The Fresno Bee.
Lejla Tricic (MFA Creative Writing alum, MA English alum, and English lecturer) — Interviewed by William Hardaway for the Fresno State Learning Center’s Dog-In Podcast, about her teaching work in English 5A.
Jessica Turney (MFA Creative Writing alum) — Performed the Luis Omar Salinas poem “I Am America” for the #FresnoWriters at Home series on the Fresno State MFA YouTube channel.
Mai Der Vang (English faculty) — Published the essay “To Hmong Americans, on Racial Justice and Patriarchy” in the magazine The Margins, for the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Also published the poem “In the Year of Permutations” on Poets.org, for the Academy of American Poets.
The College of Arts and Humanities at Fresno State 