Alumnus Juan Luis Guzmán (left) won a Horizon Award from the Fresno Arts Council. Alumnus Ryan Kenedy (right) published his debut novel, becoming the 40th Fresno State MFA alum to publish a debut book since the program’s founding in 1995.
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 September 2023 and January 2024.
Compiled by Jefferson Beavers
2/07/24
J.J. Anselmi (alumni) — Published his fourth book, the debut novel “The Dirt in Our Skin,” with Rare Bird Lit. Published the essay “The cowboy up mentality endangers suicide prevention resources” for WyoFile.
Roda Avelar (alumni) — Won the Editors Prize for Visual Poetry from Poetry magazine and the Poetry Foundation.
Stacey Balkun (alumni) — Published an essay on the poem “Back on the Ridge” by Vievee Francis, and interviewed the poet Carolyn Hembree for the University of Arizona Poetry Center blog.
Stephen Barile (alumni) — His poem “Townes Van Zandt, pulled by the gravity of the moment,” previously published in the Willows Wept Review, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Emily Basiletti (alumni) — Accepted a new job as Reading and Writing Coordinator for Madera Community College’s writing center.
Rosie Bates (alumni) — Published the essay “The Nose” in the journal Sport Literate.
Venita Blackburn (faculty) — Awarded a 2023 Individual Artist Fellowship for the Central California region, from the California Arts Council. Published her third book, the debut novel “Dead in Long Beach, California,” with Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Published an excerpt from the novel with Literary Hub. Interviewed about the novel by Mariella Rudi for New York Magazine, by Rita Bullwinkel for Interview Magazine, by Carolina Miranda for the Los Angeles Times, by Boris Kachka for the Los Angeles Times book club, by Rachel León for Electric Literature, by Michael Colbert for Shondaland, by Daven McQueen for Autostraddle, and by Sara Davis for Publishers Weekly. The novel was reviewed by the New York Times, by the Washington Post, by Alta Journal, by KQED, by Autostraddle, and by Kirkus Reviews, and it was named an Apple Books staff pick. The novel was included on the New York Magazine list of “23 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2024,” the Electric Literature list of “42 Queer Books You Need to Read in 2024,” the Electric Literature list of “75 Books By Women of Color to Read in 2024,” the Scary Mommy list of “The Most Anticipated Books by Black Authors Coming in 2024,” the Book Riot list “Best New Book Releases in January 2024,” the Literary Hub list “What Should You Read Next,” the Early Bird Books list “The Best Book Club Books of 2024,” and the Alta Journal list “12 New Books for January.” Published the essay “I’ve Never Watched Anything as Transformative as ‘Sailor Moon’” for the New York Times Magazine. Published the book review “Story Collections That are Also Inventories of Catastrophes” for the New York Times.
Sara Borjas (alumni) — Published the poem “Decolonialish Self-Portrait” for the Poem-a-Day series on Poets.org.
David Borofka (retired faculty) — Published the new novel “The End of Good Intentions,” with Fomite Press. Published the story “Paradise” in NiftyLit.
Phyllis Brotherton (alumni) — Published the essay “My Brother’s Heart” in Streetlight Magazine. The essay was named honorable mention in Streetlight’s 2023 Essay/Memoir Contest.
Audra Burwell (MFA student) — Self-published her debut book, the multimedia dystopian fantasy collection “Entropia,” on Blurb. Published the poems “Goodbye Captain America” in New Note Poetry; “Seamstress” in Flora Fiction Literary Magazine; “Ghosts of Childhood” in Sand Hills Magazine; “Android Descent” in the Tiger Moth Review; “The Forgotten Wound” in the magazine Helix; and “Remembrance of the Body” and “Sierra Nevada” in Dream Noir Magazine.
Caleigh Camara (MFA student) — Accepted a new full-time staff job as an administrative analyst/specialist for Fresno State’s Smittcamp Family Honors College.
Daniel Chacón (alumni) — Published the essay “The Writers’ Block” in Another Chicago Magazine.
Kenneth R. Chacón (alumni) — His manuscript “Xolo Mystic & Other Signs of the 6ixth Sun” was named a finalist for publication with the press The Elephants. Published the poem “Eucharist” in the magazine Gulf Stream.
Angela Chaidez Vincent (alumni) — Was named a finalist for the Lascaux Prize in Poetry for her poem “Watching You Nap Beneath a Faded Quilt,” which first appeared in Bellevue Literary Review. Her story “World of Raptors” was named honorable mention for the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition.
Sarah A. Chavez (alumni) — Selected for a retreat at Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Featured in a news profile for the University of Washington Tacoma.
Cheng Lok Chua (emeriti) — Published the article “Carlos Bulosan’s America is In the Heart: Witnessing American Colonialism in Asia” in Mindscape: A Journal of English and Cultural Studies.
Steven Church (faculty) — Published the essay “Float Trip” in the journal Sport Literate.
Corrinne Clegg Hales (emeriti) — Published the poem “Her Husband Wants Her Back” in Vox Populi.
Loretta Collins Klobah (alumni) — Published the poems “The Mountain that Could be Eaten” and “Dao Chang” in Pree, a magazine of Carribean writing.
Virginia Crisco (faculty, alumni) — With the CSU’s Expository Reading and Writing Curriculum collaborative, was co-awarded a $15 million federal i3 grant (Investing in Innovation) to create full-year courses that support English language development students in 9th and 10th grades for the states of California, Washington, New Mexico, and Hawaii.
Lillian Faderman (emeriti) — Interviewed by Colleen Hamilton as “the bard of sexual outlaws and lipstick lesbians” for Them magazine. Interviewed by NBC News for her inclusion in the documentary film “Old Lesbians,” inspired by the archives of the Old Lesbian Oral History Project.
Kathy Fagan (alumni) — Published the poem “What I Was Looking For” for the Poem-a-Day series on Poets.org; and “Inner Circle” in Poetry magazine, from the Poetry Foundation. Featured in the Munro Review on returning to Fresno State for the Fresno Writers Summit.
Rebeca Abidail Flores (alumni) — Interviewed Juan Felipe Herrera for the Acción Latina podcast Radio Teco Cultura.
Will Freeney (alumni) — Published the essay “Don’t Trip” in the Blue Mountain Review. Became a poetry reader for Passengers Journal.
Eddie P. Gomez (alumni) — Published a two-part article for Barista Magazine on helping small-scale coffee producers in Huila, Colombia. (Part 1 | Part 2)
Pilar Christiana Graham (alumni) — Announced the forthcoming publication of her second book, the poetry collection “Falling,” with Stubborn Mule Press.
Juan Luis Guzmán (alumni) — Won a Horizon Award from the Fresno Arts Council for achievements and contributions to Fresno County’s cultural arts community.
Howard V. Hendrix (retired faculty) — Published the new poetry collection “Living Fossils are the Happiest Kind” with the In Case of Emergency Press. Published the novelette “The Apotheosis of Krysalice Wilson” in the magazine Analog. Published the poems “Pioneer Cemetery on Mars,” “[our folly in flight—],” and “Meanwhile in the New Atlantis” in the journal Star*Line. Announced the forthcoming publication of a yet-untitled book of nonfiction literary criticism, with McFarland and Co.
Sydney Allison Hinton (alumni) — Published the essay “The Pufferfish and the Eel” in the journal Shift.
Soreath Hok (MFA student) — Published the essay “Rosalynn Carter helped me, and thousands of Cambodian refugees, survive” for WBUR, and was interviewed about the piece for the program Here and Now.
Kimberly Horg (alumni) — Published the essay “Between the Water on Cursed Land” in a new anthology from Running Wild Publishing.
Juan G. Huerta (MFA student) — Published the essay “Miss Stallion” in Chaotic Merge Magazine.
Gabriel Ibarra (faculty, alumni) — His chapbook, “On Display,” was nominated by Gunpowder Press for a CLMP Firecracker Award. His poem “The Last Thing My Father Ever Bought Me,” previously published by Gunpowder Press, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Madison Johansson (M.A. student) — Published the articles “Dismantling the Stress of the Impending Semester” and “Summer Productivity for Graduate Students” on Fresno State’s Graduate Writing Studio blog.
Ryan Kenedy (alumni) — Published his debut novel, “The Blameless,” with the University of Wisconsin Press.
Kristin Lacey (alumni) — Accepted a lecturer position for fall 2024 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, teaching writing and public speaking.
Suzanne Lummis (alumni) — Published three poems in her “Hypnosis Series” in the Anacapa Review. Published the essay “Is Climate Change Transforming Literature and Poetry?” in the magazine Capital and Main. Her poem “Hurrying Toward the Present” was featured on The Slowdown podcast, hosted by Major Jackson.
Sarah Fawn Montgomery (alumni) — Published the essay “Playing House” in the Cincinnati Review. Published the poems “Deadheading,” “Fossil,” and “Permafrost” in the magazine Sweet Lit. Published the flash fiction “Leap” in Necessary Fiction. Interviewed by Jacqueline Doyle for Craft Literary. Her essay “Doomscroll,” previously published in the New England Review, was listed as notable in the Best American Essays 2022 anthology, edited by Alexander Chee. Her poem “Taxidermy,” previously published in the magazine Okay Donkey, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her book “Quite Mad: An American Pharma Memoir” was included in the list “Six Books That Might Change How You Think About Mental Illness” in The Atlantic.
James T. Morrison (MFA student) — Accepted a new full-time staff job as a graduate student support specialist for Fresno State’s Graduate Student Success Center. Published the essay “Each One a Life” in the magazine Slate. Published the article “The Reverse-Dunning-Kruger Effect” on Fresno State’s Graduate Writing Studio blog.
Yamille Moss (MFA student) — Published the story “Blessing Dogs” in Meow Meow Pow Pow, and has a story forthcoming in The Sprawl.
Lena Mubsutina (alumni) — Interviewed the author Ghassan Zeineddine for The Normal School.
Samina Najmi (faculty, MFA student) — Published the essay “Sweet-and-Twenty” in the magazine Under the Gum Tree.
James O’Bannon (alumni) — His manuscript “Dream in Which I Am Not a Ghost” was named a finalist for the 2023 Ghost Peach Press Prize in Poetry.
Michelle Patton (alumni) — Published the poem “What Lives in the Seine” in the Rising Phoenix Review.
Shelby Pinkham (alumni) — Published the poems “Genetics” and “Nurturing New Anger Rituals” in the magazine Huizache.
Monique Quintana (alumni) — Published the story “Fingerprints on the Ultrasound Pics” in OyeDrum. Published the micro stories “drift locket” in Scavengers Lit; “Boat Locket” in The Coalition; and “Pear Locket” in Where the Meadows Reside. Published the flash piece “Winter Fruit” in the journal Wind-Up Mice. Published the poem “Cold House: A Space Opera in Five Acts” in RogueAgent. Interviewed the author Myriam Gurba for The Normal School. Became the Flash Friday editor for Raising Mothers magazine.
Charles L. Radke (alumni) — Accepted a new job reviewing national defense research at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
Jacob Reina (alumni) — Announced the forthcoming publication of his debut book, the memoir “Purity of the Sky,” with Atmosphere Press. Published the poem “A History of Leaning” in Paper Dragon.
Brynn Saito (faculty) — Awarded a 2023 Individual Artist Fellowship for the Central California region, from the California Arts Council. Interviewed about her new poetry collection “Under a Future Sky” for ABC30 and for Alta Journal. Featured in a Davis Vanguard article about Poetry Behind Bars with Valley State Prison college students. Presented the lecture “Ancestral Poetics” for Fresno State’s Provost’s Award Lecture Series.
Dixie Salazar (alumni, retired faculty) — Awarded a 2023 Individual Artist Fellowship for the Central California region, from the California Arts Council.
Anthony Shemaria (MFA student) — Published the article “AI: Friend or Foe?” on Fresno State’s Graduate Writing Studio blog.
Reva E. Sias (faculty) — Was the featured speaker for the inaugural John M. Hess Lecture at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The talk, based on her current research, was titled: “The Rhetorical Presence and Activism of the First Nineteenth-Century African American Women Physicians.”
Jacob Simmons (MFA student) — Published the essay “The Rougarou” in the magazine Under the Sun.
Carol Spaulding-Kruse (alumni) — Under the pen name Carol Roh Spaulding, published a new story collection, “Waiting for Mr. Kim and Other Stories,” with the University of Georgia Press. The book won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction.
Riley Thomas (alumni) — Published the article “Women’s Rebel Spaces in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale” in the journal Margaret Atwood Studies.
sami h. tripp (MFA student) — Accepted a new tenure-track faculty job as a public service librarian for the Fresno State Library. Their poem “Danza del Venado” won the San Miguel de Allende Writing Contest for poetry, which includes publication and full support to attend their February conference. Interviewed the author Béatrice Szymkowiak for The Normal School.
Brian Turner (alumni) — Published the poems “The Immortals,” “1:41,” and “Sunflowers” for the Poetry Society of America series “In Their Own Words.” His poem “The Bodies” was selected by editor Terence Winch for the Best American Poetry pick of the week. Published the essay “Surviving Loss Through Poetry and Music” in No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music. Interviewed by AJ Baumel for the Southern Review of Books about his triptych of new poetry collections with Alice James Books. Interviewed about his poetry collection “The Wild Delight of Wild Things” for The Wrath-Bearing Tree. Interviewed by CNN for a story about Sen. Tommy Tuberville and the “woke” military.
Mai Der Vang (faculty) — Won a Glenna Luschei Schooner Award from the magazine Prairie Schooner for the story “Injury After Another.”
M. L. Williams (alumni) — Published the poems “Passage,” “Nothing to Say,” and “Antiode” in the magazine Live Encounters.
Brenna Womer (faculty) — Published her fourth book, the cross-genre collection “Unbrained” with Flower Song Press.
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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