Writing (MFA): Related Content

Amber Caron MFA '16 has won a PEN/ Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers for her story "The Handler," originally published in Southwest Review. 

This Will Be My Undoing, a collection of essays by Morgan Jerkins MFA '16, was included in the The Millions most anticipated books of 2017 list.

Morgan Jerkins MFA '16 was interviewed as part of the Pen Ten interview series on Pen America last month. She spoke about "the responsibility of the writer" which she sees as "to be honest and vulnerable. Jerkins is the author of a forthcoming collection of essays, This Will Be My Undoing. She is currently a contributing editor for Catapult. Her take on the Colin Kaepernick controversy, "What Colin Kaepernick's National Anthem Protest Reveals About American" was published in Rolling Stone in August. 

Last month, Buzzfeed published a memoir-style essay by Chandra Ganguly MFAW '18 called "How They Killed My Grandmother." 

Morgan Jerkins MFAW ’16 recently published an essay in Rolling Stone on “What Colin Kaepernick’s National Anthem Protest Tells Us About America.” In it, she argues that “People aren’t merely upset because he is disrespecting the flag; they are upset because [his] anger illuminates just how divided this nation is and has always been.” 

NPR's Selected Shorts aired a reading of Megan Mayhew Bergman's story "Hell Diving Women" from her collection Almost Famous Women. Anika Noni Rose (Dream Girls, Raisin in the Sun) read it.

Sarai Walker, a graduate of the MFA Program at Bennington College, spoke with Scott Simon about her novel Dietland.

MFA core faculty member Alexander Chee spoke with Alison Kinney of the LA Review of Books about his novel, Queen of the Night.

Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney (MFA) spoke with Vulture about the inspriation and process behind her debut novel, The Nest. The interview is titled: A First-Time Novelist’s 7-Figure Midlife Breakthrough. 

Alexander Chee's latest novel, The Queen of the Night, is being greeted with enthusiastic praise on the heels of its February 2 release. Chee is a faculty member in the MFA in Writing program at Bennington College.

Bennington alumni play a starring role in The Millions’ list of Most Anticipated Books of 2016, which includes works by Hannah Tennant-Moore MFA ’10, Sara Majka MFA ’09, Cynthia Sweeney MFA ’13, and Charles Bock MFA ’97, as well as faculty member Alexander Chee. 

Megan Mayhew Bergman MFA ’10, associate director of the MFA in Writing program, published an essay in The Wall Street Journal about her recent experience in northern Kenya as a guest researcher with the BOMA Project.

A poem by Nathalie Handal MFA ’02, Lady Liberty, is featured in posters for the Poetry in Motion® series offered by the MTA in New York City, which serves poetry to seven million commuters daily.

A new book by Sven Birkerts, director of the MFA in Writing Program at Bennington College, has been garnering attention in advance of its October 6 publication date.

A new book by Sven Birkerts, director of the MFA in Writing Program at Bennington College, is receiving warm attention. Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age, published by Grey Wolf Press, which focuses on the effect of digital culture on our ability to engage with our world, and the fate of writing in such a context, has been reviewed in the Chronicle for Higher Education, New Republic, and the New York Times Book Review.

Caroline Zancan MFAW '14, author of Local Girls, links her debut novel to her time at Bennington in an interview with Melville House.

The New Yorker profiled the artist Elise Engler MFA ‘86 in their June 8 issue, highlighting the completion of her year-long project of drawing every one of Broadway’s two hundred and fifty-odd blocks in New York City.

MFA alumna Megan Mayhew Bergman's forthcoming collection of stories, Almost Famous Women, received a starred review from Kirkus, and is an Indie Next Pick for winter. Due out in January, Academy Award-winning actress Anjelica Huston called it "heartbreaking and lovely".

Visual arts faculty member Ann Pibal, MFA faculty member Major Jackson, and alumna Kiran Desai ’93 are among the 175 artists, scholars, and scientists—out of nearly 3,000 applicants—to receive 2013 Guggenheim Fellowships.

The stories that comprise MFA alumna Jamie Quatro '09's recently released debut collection, I Want to Show You More, according to noted literary critic James Wood in his New Yorker review, "are passionate, sensuous, savagely intense, and remarkable for their brave dualism." 

Bennington Writing Seminars Writer-in-Residence Donald Hall, a former Poet Laureate of the United States, was one of 10 artists to be honored by President Obama this week with the 2010 National Medal of Arts.

Profiled in the current issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, MFA faculty member Major Jackson discusses his life as a writer, his just-published collection of poetry, and shares a few thoughts on the Bennington Writing Seminars—which the magazine recently ranked among the best low-residency MFA programs in the world.

In less than three months since being published, Rebecca Chace's new novel Leaving Rock Harbor has been named an"Editor's Choice" by The New York Times Book Review, an "Indie Notable Book" by the American Booksellers Association, and a 2010 New England Book Award finalist.

Eugenia Kim MFA '01's recently published debut novel, The Calligrapher's Daughter, has been recommended by critics in The Washington Post, Vogue, The Christian Science Monitor, and elsewhere.

Award-winning poet, playwright, and writer Nathalie Handal MFA '02 was named a finalist for the 2009 Gift of Freedom Award by A Room of Her Own, a foundation for female artists.