Compiled by Jefferson Beavers. Republished from We Grow Writers.
Photo: New Fresno State alumna Mialise Carney, left, and alumna Kathy Fagan both won significant awards for their creative writing this spring.
Kudos to #FresnoWriters is an ongoing series on the Fresno State MFA blog, celebrating the professional accomplishments of students, alumni, and faculty in Fresno State’s Department of English and Creative Writing Program. This compilation includes news between January and May 2023.
Alexander Abraham (B.A. student) — Presented the paper “Promoting Social Media in High School Curricula: Advocacy and Curriculum Evaluation” at the annual College of Arts and Humanities Honors Symposium. His mentor was Dr. Earl Aguilera, Department of Curriculum and Instruction.
Erin L. Álvarez (alumni) — Accepted a new job as Writing Center director at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
J.J. Anselmi (alumni) — Published the essay “Finding a Place in Oral History” for The Millions.
James A. Ardaiz (alumni) — Recognized as a 2023 Outstanding Alumni by Fresno State’s College of Arts and Humanities at the university’s annual Top Dog Alumni Awards.
Roda Avelar (alumni) — Published the poems “Jotxland Epic” and “Memoir V” in Poetry Magazine.
Stacey Balkun (alumni) — Published the essay “Roadmaps for Docupoetics: ‘The Book of Red’ and ‘The Book of the Dead’” for the University of Arizona Poetry Center. Her poetry collection “Sweetbitter” was reviewed by C.T. Salazar for RHINO Poetry.
Rosie Bates (MFA student) — Her thesis manuscript “A Climber’s Guide to Letting Go” was nominated by the MFA Creative Writing faculty for the College of Arts and Humanities Outstanding Thesis award.
Jefferson Beavers (staff, alumni) — For the fourth year in a row, recognized by Fresno State’s Richter Center with a President’s Faculty and Staff Service Award for community volunteering.
Jenni Berrett (B.A. student) — Presented the paper “What Grows Ungoverned: Anarchist Speculative Ecologies in Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ and Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind’” at the annual College of Arts and Humanities Honors Symposium. Her mentors were Dr. Samina Najmi and Dr. Steve Adisasmito-Smith, Department of English.
Venita Blackburn (faculty) — Received a $5,000 grant from California Humanities to support a Fresno County youth writing workshop series in fall 2023. Published the serialized story “Memoirs of a Poltergeist” in the Gagosian Quarterly. Interviewed by Elijah Sparman on sincerity and absurdity for Split/Lip Press; and for the Hingston and Olsen feature “Not a Donut.” Announced her debut novel, “Dead in Long Beach, California,” will be published by MCD Books and Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2024.
Megan Bohigian (alumni) — Published the poem “The Verge” in the journal SALT.
Sara Borjas (alumni) — Published the poems “The Oppressed Artists” and “Artist Residency Poem” in Huizache Magazine; “Decolonial-ish, or ‘Forgiveness is when you stop wishing for a different past’,” “All-White Panel on Race,” and “The Morning after I Tell My Husband I Think I Am Gay” in the Gettysburg Review; and “Pocha Cafe” and “Study Of a Part-Time Pocha” in Poem of the Week.
David Borofka (retired faculty) — His story collection “A Longing for Impossible Things” won an American Fiction Award for the Short Story, from the American Book Fest. One of the stories in the collection, “Attachments for the Platonically Inclined,” was included in the Coolest American Stories 2023 anthology. Announced a new novel, “The End of Good Intentions,” will be published by Fomite Press in fall 2023; and a new story collection, “The Bliss of Your Attention,” will be published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2024.
Mariah Bosch (alumni) — Awarded a Sundress Academy for the Arts writing residency in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Caitlin J. Brady (B.A. student) — Published the poems “Forbidden Portal” in the magazine Zaum; and “Taser Poem” in the journal Folio.
Phyllis Brotherton (alumni) — Published the essays “Writing Lessons from a Glorious Glutes Class” in Brevity; and “Snow Panic” in the magazine Persimmon Tree.
Audra Burwell (B.A. student) — Published the poems “Forging a Kingdom” and “Through the Looking Glass” in the journal Quirk; “Autopsy” in the magazine Last Leaves; “Lavender Dreams” in North Dakota Quarterly; and “Residing in Your Veins” in the journal Teach. Write. Named a finalist in Fresno State’s annual Art Song Festival poetry competition.
Caleigh Camara (MFA student) — Interviewed the author Maya Pindyck for The Normal School.
Mialise Carney (MFA student) — Named the College of Arts and Humanities 2023 Graduate Dean’s Medalist. Named the English Department’s 2023 MFA Student of Distinction. Named winner of the graduate Fresno Creative Nonfiction Prize for the essay “On Muteness,” as selected by author Brenna Womer; and winner of the graduate Fresno Fiction Prize for the story “Go Live,” as selected by author Dionne Irving. Published the stories “We are Not What Divides Us” in the journal ANMLY; “The Rage Room” in the journal Booth; “Our Intemperate Flesh” in Swamp Pink; “What Girls Do Online” in the Yalobusha Review; and “Skin Hungry” in Variant Lit. Interviewed the author Allegra Hyde for The Normal School.
Daniel Chacón (alumni) — Published the story “The Last Philosopher in Texas” in the magazine New Letters.
Ethan Chatagnier (alumni) — His novel “Singer Distance” won a 2023 CALIBA Golden Poppy prize and the Octavia E. Butler Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy, from the California Independent Booksellers Alliance. The book was also reviewed by the Las Vegas Review of Books, and by Colleen Mondor in Locus Magazine; and it was included in Locus Magazine’s 2022 Recommended Reading List.
Sarah A. Chavez (alumni) — Interviewed by Eric Wilson-Edge on Reliving the Dead for the Paw’d Defiance podcast.
Steven Church (faculty) — Published the essays “Jumping Sharks” in the journal Fourth Genre; “Pooling Resources” in the magazine Under the Sun; and “Every Silver Lining: On the Grateful Dead’s ‘Touch of Grey’” for the March Xness literary tournament.
Anthony Cody (alumni) — Celebrated the release of his second poetry collection, “The Rendering,” published by Omnidawn. The book was reviewed by Cindy Juyoung Ok on The Poetry Foundation’s Harriet Blog. Published the poems “A Dust Bowl Field Recording, Arvin, CA 1940,” “Communique 1.3.0.b – The Ancestral Progeny of Megaptera Novaeangliea,” “Everywhere I sleep, I see Dust Bowl,” “13.0, in watching Tiny Tim’s ‘The Ice Caps are Melting’ (1968) I understand,” and “mmry” in the “After Apocalypse” issue of Elderly Magazine. Published the poem “Tell Me” in the Los Angeles Review, and will have more new works in the forthcoming show “LAR Latinx Digital Poetics: An Electronic Literature Folio” at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Los Angeles. Appeared on the KQED radio program Sunday Music Drop to read and discuss his poem “Cada Día Más Cerca del Fin del Mundo.” His first book, “Borderland Apocrypha,” was analyzed by scholar Matthew Moran for New American Studies Journal: A Forum.
Virginia Crisco (faculty) — With Anne Porterfield, co-authored the article “Embedding learning goals into secondary literacy curriculum: Assessing and implementing teachers’ feedback,” published in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.
Mia De La Cerda (M.A. student) — Named the English Department’s 2023 M.A. Student of Distinction. Selected as honorable mention for the College of Arts and Humanities 2023 graduate dean’s medal.
Isabella De La Torre (B.A. student) — Published the poem “The Descent of the White Bear” in the magazine Honeyguide. Named a finalist in Fresno State’s annual Art Song Festival poetry competition. Featured on Fresno State’s College of Arts and Humanities blog in the story “Once a Young Writers’ Conference attendee, creative writing major now part of editorial board.”
Amrit Deol (alumni) — Accepted a new tenure-track position as an assistant professor of Asian American studies in Fresno State’s Department of Anthropology.
Mercedez Espino (MFA student) — Named a finalist in Fresno State’s annual Art Song Festival poetry competition.
Lillian Faderman (emeriti faculty) — Narrated the independent documentary film “In Her Words: 20th Century Lesbian Fiction” directed by filmmakers Lisa Marie Evans and Marianne K. Martin; the documentary is now playing at North American film festivals. Interviewed by Ben Tumin for the article “The Prison of Gender,” re-printed on the Discourse Blog. Quoted in the article “L.A. Has Its Own History of Anti-Drag Laws” for The Hollywood Reporter.
Kathy Fagan (alumni) — Won a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship in poetry from the Guggenheim Foundation. Won the 2023 William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America for her latest book “Bad Hobby.” Announced that “Bad Hobby” is now available as an audiobook. Published the poems “The Light in Autumn” in The Atlantic; and “Perspective” and “Day Sex Ode” in Plume Poetry. Published the micro essay “Haircut” and a “Reflection on Writing” for the journal One Wild Ride. Interviewed by Eric Zimmer on how to navigate the complexities of caregiving for The One You Feed podcast; by Peter Mishler on the poetic power of misusing language for Literary Hub; and for the Weekly Muse feature for Two Sylvias Press.
Angela Flores (alumni) — Published the essay “Trans Panic and the Trans Literary Imagination” in Ploughshares.
Eddie P. Gomez (alumni) — Wrote the article “5 Amazing Drinks in Fresno, California” for Barista Magazine.
Pilar Christiana Graham (alumni) — Her debut poetry collection “Currents” was featured in the Monterey Herald newspaper and the Monterey County Weekly.
Cynthia Guardado (alumni) — Celebrated the release of a new craft chapbook, “Memories We Never Had: Writing in a Postcolonial Existence,” published by Sundress Publications. Featured in the Los Angeles Times in the article “How the Salvadoran diaspora became a literary juggernaut.” Interviewed by Douglas Manuel for the Poetry.LA webcast. Her second poetry collection, “Cenizas,” was discussed by authors Alfredo Aguilar and Laura Villareal on the Letras Latinas Blog 2.
Celeste Christine Guirola (M.A. student) — Her thesis manuscript “‘Fine, I’ll Write it Myself’: Rhetorical Practices of LGBTQIA+ Fandom Community as Activism” was nominated by the M.A. English faculty for the College of Arts and Humanities Outstanding Thesis award.
Bonita Jewel Hele (alumni) — Published the prose poems “Remnant” and “Growing Stones” in the Dos Gatos Press anthology “Unknotting the Line: The Poetry in Prose.”
Howard V. Hendrix (retired faculty) — Published the poem “Extravehicular Activity” in Scientific American. Published the op/eds “How a viral hot take led the very first Earth Day astray” and “How California’s Big Ag wants you to think about all the rain we just got” in the San Francisco Chronicle. Published multiple stories in the journal Analog.
Nou Her (alumni) — Featured on Fresno State’s College of Arts and Humanities blog in the story “English alumni carve unexpected paths to meaningful careers.”
J.J. Hernandez (alumni) — Published the poem “Small Town Kid Gets Jumped in an Apartment Complex in Fresno” in Plume Poetry.
Matty Hernandez (alumni) — Featured on Fresno State’s College of Arts and Humanities blog in the story “English alumni carve unexpected paths to meaningful careers.”
Hermelinda Hernandez Monjaras (MFA student) — Named winner of the graduate Ernesto Trejo Poetry Prize for the poem “The Exit,” as selected by author Maya Pindyck; and winner of the graduate Mireyda Barraza Martinez Prize for Social Justice Writing for the poems “Ink, Two Versions of the World,” “No More Years. Of Violence,” and “Unidentified,” as selected by J.J. Hernandez. Published the poems “Subtle Places Buried Near My Shoulder” and “Absence of Nowhere” in the journal Rabid Oak; and “Water Garments of Sorrow” in the journal Angel Rust.
Sydney Allison Hinton (alumni) — Interviewed the author Will Betke-Brunswick for The Normal School.
Soreath Hok (alumni) — Featured on Fresno State’s College of Arts and Humanities blog in the story “English alumni carve unexpected paths to meaningful careers.”
Kimberly Horg (alumni) — Published the essays “Three Days Under Water” and “Inside the Witch’s Belly” in the anthology “The Power of Hope” from Wingless Dreamer Publishers.
Gabriel Ibarra (faculty, alumni) — Celebrated the release of his debut poetry chapbook, “On Display,” published by Gunpowder Press.
Ra Jarrar (faculty) — Published the essay “Taking the Knife” for the Longreads series “Messy, Messy Love: A Reading List for Star-Crossed Lovers.” Her memoir “Love Is an Ex-Country” was included on Autostraddle’s list of 12 Queer Road Trip Books to Adventure With, and it was reviewed by Michel Moushabeck for Read Palestine. Will co-star as a voice actor in the forthcoming Amazon Studios animated series “#1 Happy Family USA,” created by Ramy Youssef.
Arielle K. Jones (alumni) — Selected as an alumni reader for the Tin House Summer Workshop 2023 applicants.
Celeste Jones (B.A. student) — Named honorable mention for the undergraduate Larry Levis Poetry Prize for the poem “What Love and Fear Mean to a Queer Kid,” as selected by author Maya Pindyck.
Ingrid Kreuscher (B.A. student) — Presented the paper “A Review of Classical Education” at the annual College of Arts and Humanities Honors Symposium. Her mentor was Prof. Stefani Hooper, Department of English.
Kristin Lacey (alumni) — Completed her Ph.D. in literature from Boston University.
Lee Lee (MFA student) — Interviewed the author MariNaomi for The Normal School.
Phoua Lee (alumni) — Published the poems “Strange Footage of Transmutation in Contrapuntal” in Stoneboat Literary Journal; and “Shaman Song for a Bisexual Specter” for The Margins blog of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Nominated for a Best New American Poet award from the journal Slippery Elm.
Hannah Leece (B.A. student) — Presented the paper “‘Ain’t I A Woman?’ Advancing the Conversation on Medical Gaslighting” at the annual College of Arts and Humanities Honors Symposium. Her mentor was Dr. Stephen Bohigian, Department of History.
Alison Mandaville (faculty) — Received a U.S. Embassy education grant to organize and facilitate climate literacy pedagogy workshops for K-12 teachers in Azerbaijan from June through December 2023.
Andrea Marin Contreras (MFA student) — Published the poem “Remedio de mi Abuela in the Sequoias” in Kaleidoscope magazine.
Sharon K. McClain (B.A. student) — Named winner of the undergraduate Fresno Creative Nonfiction Prize for the essay “Escape Artist,” as selected by author Brenna Womer; and winner of the undergraduate Larry Levis Poetry Prize for the poem “Weathering,” as selected by author Maya Pindyck. Won Fresno State’s annual Art Song Festival poetry competition for her poem “Unearthing Home,” and the poem was performed six times in six original compositions by student musicians and vocalists.
Andrea Mele (alumni) — Named the new director of Fresno’s LitHop festival, scheduled this year for Oct. 14.
Martin Mijares (B.A. student) — Featured on Fresno State’s College of Arts and Humanities blog in the story “Once a Young Writers’ Conference attendee, creative writing major now part of editorial board.”
Edward Miller (B.A. student) — Published the stories “A Letter to His Brother Theobald in Albuquerque” in The Muleskinner Journal; and “That High Lonesome Sound” in The Parliament Literary Journal.
Sarah Fawn Montgomery (alumni) — Published the essays “Writing Despite the Odds” in Brevity; and “Unlearning the Ableist Writing Workshop” in the journal ANMLY. Published the poems “Pomegranate” in Valparaiso Poetry Review; “Glassblower” and “Landscape” in Rowan Glassworks; “Overwinter” in the journal The Fourth River; “Suture” in The Journal at The Ohio State University; and “My Father Tells the Story Where I Am a Girl” in Autofocus Literary. Published a craft essay about her memoir “Halfway from Home” in the If My Book series for the journal Monkeybicycle. The book won a silver medal in lyric prose/hybrid works from Nautilus: Books for a Better World; and it was reviewed in Rowan Glassworks and in The New Territory Magazine. Her previously published story “The Pleasure of My Company” was nominated for a Best Small Fictions award by Hayden’s Ferry Review. In conversation with Jody Keisner about writing the Midwest in the journal Oakwood. Interviewed by Eric LeMay for the New Books Network podcast; and by Marcelle Heath for the Instagram series Apparel for Authors.
James T. Morrison (MFA student) — Named honorable mention for the graduate Fresno Creative Nonfiction Prize for the essay “Thirty Magic Tricks,” as selected by author Brenna Womer.
Lena Mubsutina (alumni) — Her novel “Amreekiya” was reviewed by Michel Moushabeck for Read Palestine.
Laura Musselman (alumni) — Featured on Fresno State’s College of Arts and Humanities blog in the story “English alumni carve unexpected paths to meaningful careers.”
Lindsay Norton (B.A. student) — Named the English Department’s 2023 B.A. Student of Distinction. Selected as honorable mention for the College of Arts and Humanities 2023 undergraduate dean’s medal, and selected as a standard bearer for the college’s 2023 commencement ceremony. Presented the paper “Burdened Blood on the Edge of Eternity: Self-Storying Transcendence in N. Scott Momaday’s ‘The Names’” at the annual Sigma Tau Delta national convention in Denver, Colorado.
Rosalina Nuñez (alumni) — Featured on Fresno State’s College of Arts and Humanities blog in the story “English alumni carve unexpected paths to meaningful careers.”
James O’Bannon (alumni) — Published the poems “Dad Keeps Saying Pray About It” and “Naming” in the Mid-American Review. Interviewed the author KB Brookins for The Normal School.
Delaney R. Whitebird Olmo (alumni) — Published the story “The Crow Nest” in the Decolonial Passage. Published the poems “When You Return Home” in the Green Linden Press journal issue of indigenous ecopoetry; and “Trapped Between Colonial Legacies” and “Watching Knotted Mirrors Unravel” in the journal Feminist Formations with John Hopkins University Press. Named a semi-finalist for the 2022 Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize for her manuscript “The Golden Hunting Years.”
Mary Paul (faculty, alumni) — Will present the paper “Empowering the Future: Leveraging A.I. in Higher Education” in July at the Network for Change and Continuous Innovation (NCCI) annual conference in Baltimore, Maryland.
Alejandro Perea-Sanchez (B.A. student) — Named winner of the undergraduate Mireyda Barraza Martinez Prize for Social Justice Writing for the poems “Part-Time Slog,” “Don’t you know I have to work in the morning?” and “Here’s to the Sandwich I Made at 2 AM,” as selected by J.J. Hernandez.
Shelby Pinkham (alumni) — Published the poems “Unskippable Pharmaceutical Ad” and “Such Luxurious Bones” in the journal ANMLY. Published the collage poems “Segments of My Wet, Angry Spinal Cord” and “want highest setting” in ctrl + v journal. Served as editor for the book “Emerge: 2022 Lambda Fellows Anthology,” which included their poem “post-post thirst.”
Monique Quintana (alumni) — Published the triptych “truce locket,” “fam locket,” and “ritual locket” in Honey Literary. Published the stories “We Bury Ours in Patchwork” in the magazine Full Mood; “The Siren,” “Corrals of Chaac” and “5AM Diorama” in the magazine Kaleidoscoped; and “ditch locket” with Roi Fainéant Press. Published the micro essay “Draven” in the Daily Drunk Magazine anthology “Be Kind, Rewind.” Her previously published story “Dark Lord of the Rainbow” was included in the Arte Publico Press anthology “A Night of Screams: Latino Horror Stories,” edited by Richard Z. Santos. Her novella “Cenote City” was included in the Electric Literature list “11 Books About Women on the Brink.”
Feroz Rather (alumni) — Interviewed the author Isabella Hammad for BOMB Magazine. Published a Hebrew version of the story “A Rebel’s Return” in the magazine Granta.
Jacob Reina (B.A. student) — Named winner of the undergraduate Fresno Fiction Prize for the story “Waiting for Alyona,” as selected by author Dionne Irving. Published the poems “The Function and the Need” in New York Quarterly; and “Age of Reason” in the Clackamas Review.
Kaylee Ruiz (B.A. student) — Named winner of the Soul Vang Prize for Poetry for the poem “asian american pacific islander,” as selected by author Burlee Vang. Named a finalist in Fresno State’s annual Art Song Festival poetry competition.
Brynn Saito (faculty) — Named one of Fresno State’s Promising New Faculty for the 2022-23 Provost’s Awards, as selected by university provost Dr. Xuanning Fu. Published the poems “What is Your Struggle?” and “Numbers Game” in The Rumpus. With scholar Koji Lau-Ozawa was awarded an Aratani CARE Award from UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center for “Cactus Blossoms Revisited,” a project to conduct oral histories with the writers of “Cactus Blossoms,” a poetry collection produced in the Gila River incarceration camp, and their descendants. Announced her third full-length poetry collection, “Under a Future Sky,” will be published by Red Hen Press in August; and a poetry anthology co-edited with Brandon Shimoda on Japanese American/Nikkei incarceration will be published by Haymarket Books in 2025. Appeared on the Dean Rader webcast Poems That Changed Me reading and discussing the Kimiko Hahn poem “Things that are Full of Pleasure.”
Alberto Saldaña Uribe (MFA student) — Named honorable mention for the graduate Ernesto Trejo Poetry Prize for the poem “los muertos no hablan pero los mirones son de palo,” as selected by author Maya Pindyck.
Steven Sanchez (alumni) — Awarded a month-long summer residency at Tin House in Portland, Oregon.
Emily Jo Scalzo (alumni) — Published the story “Hydrogen Bubbles” in the zine Tree and Stone.
Michael Steiner (B.A. student) — Named a finalist in Fresno State’s annual Art Song Festival poetry competition.
Hector Tapía III (faculty, alumni) — Accepted a fully funded Ph.D. admission offer to study comparative literature at the University of California, Davis, including a Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship. Presented the paper “Lust in Translation: Rethinking Why the Hyena Laughs in Aelian, Aesop, Aristotle, and Others” as a featured speaker at the 44th annual Central California Research Symposium.
Jenny Toste (alumni) — Awarded a President’s Club award at Realty Concepts as one of the company’s Top 10 producing agents.
sami h. tripp (MFA student) — Accepted a new tenure-track position as a librarian in the Fresno State Library. Named a finalist for the 2023 Saints and Sinners Literary Festival poetry prize. Published the poems “Agave Abcedarian Worries It’s Becoming an Elegy,” “La Muerte Habla Espanol,” “poet undecided about having children,” and “letter to Babička” in the festival’s anthology.
Brian Turner (alumni) — Announced his latest book, the poetry collection “The Wild Delight of Wild Things,” will be published by Alice James Books in August. He will also publish two additional books this fall. Announced that his debut book, “Here, Bullet,” will be adapted into a musical short film.
Marcus Valadez (B.A. student) — Presented the paper “The Banality of Heroism” at the annual College of Arts and Humanities Honors Symposium. His mentors were Dr. René Rodríguez-Astacio and Dr. Steve Adisasmito-Smith, Department of English.
Mai Der Vang (faculty) — Nominated for an Outstanding Faculty Scholarship award from the California State University, and featured in a CSU employee profile. Published the poem “Declassified” on Poetry Daily. Interviewed for The Chills at Will Podcast; and on empire and afterlives for the Unpacked Podcast of the Critical Refugee Studies Collective. Announced that her second poetry collection, “Yellow Rain,” is now available as an audiobook.
Angela Chaidez Vincent (alumni) — Published the poems “Mrs. Peacock’s Root Canal” in the Oxford Review of Books; “Miss Taylor’s Photos of Portugal” in the Atticus Review; “Vanishing Spell” in Arboreal Literary Magazine; and “Ah Bir Atas Ver (Ah, Give Me a Light)” forthcoming in the Worcester Review. Announced her debut poetry collection, “Arena Glow,” will be published by Tourane Poetry Press in fall 2023.
M.L. Williams (alumni) — His poetry collection “Game” was reviewed by Christine Penko in the journal SALT.
Jer Xiong (alumni) — Published the essay “Calling” in the Cincinnati Review.
Did we miss your accomplishment? If you’re an alumni of the English Department and you have a special announcement, a new job, a professional or creative success, or an inspiring story that you’d like to share, please submit this short “Share Your Success Stories” form, or contact staff Jefferson Beavers by email or at 559.278.1569.
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