Four alumni authors from Fresno State’s Master of Fine Arts Program in creative writing published their first books in 2019 and 2020, including National Book Award for Poetry finalist Anthony Cody.
Avalos graduated from Fresno State in May with a degree in media, communications and journalism. The final two months of her college experience were flipped upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic, as her classes shifted to virtual instruction.
Dressed up in black, with a bowtie, burgundy jacket and matching burgundy Pumas, author and Fresno State alumnus Anthony Cody waited with anticipation in the virtual green room for the 71st National Book Awards to be announced.
Rodríguez began her journey in higher education at Fresno as an Art/Art History major. Following her graduation in 2012, she went on to get her Master’s in Art History from UC Riverside in 2014, followed by a Master’s in Chicana/o Studies from UCLA in 2016. Just months ago, she achieved her Ph.D. in Chicana/o Studies from UCLA.
Author and Fresno State alumnus Anthony Cody’s debut poetry collection, “Borderland Apocrypha,” has been named a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry.
While her community sleeps, Brittney Steele works to find, write, and update stories for the morning news program “Wake Up Northwest” at NBC Right Now in Kennewick, Washington.
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.
For Jennifer, the world is made up of connections between living beings, and she thrives within those connections. Helping others, be it human or animal, is where she has found her calling.
In 1987, Fresno State student Danny Swartz departed for London. It was only his second trip on a plane — the first had been a short hop from Fresno to San Francisco — and his first time out of the country. Up until that point, he had only left the state a couple of times to go to Reno and Las Vegas. Now he would be spending his spring semester in London as part of the Fresno State London Program.