Writing (MFA): Related Content
Samantha Hunt is the author of The Unwritten Book, essays about death and literature; The Seas about a girl who might be a mermaid; The Dark Dark, short fictions; Mr. Splitfoot, a ghost story; and The Invention of Everything Else about Nikola Tesla.
’Pemi Aguda is from Lagos, Nigeria. Her debut collection of stories, Ghostroots, was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Her debut novel, One Leg on Earth, is forthcoming from W.W. Norton in May 2026.
Joshua Wheeler is the author of the essay collection Acid West, which was named a best book of 2018 by Newsweek, The Paris Review, and O, The Oprah Magazine. He’s written for The New York Times, Alta, and Harper’s Magazine. His novel, The High Heaven, was published in 2025 by Graywolf Press. Originally from Alamogordo, New Mexico, Wheeler now lives in New Orleans and teaches at Louisiana State University.
Emily Nemens is the author of the novels Clutch (Tin House/Zando, 2026), and The Cactus League (FSG, 2020), both of which were NYT Book Review Editor's Choice selections. Her stories and essays have appeared in BOMB, Story, Zyzzyva, n+1, and elsewhere. Nemens spent over a decade editing literary quarterlies, including leading the Paris Review, and serving as coeditor of the Southern Review.
Photo by James Emmerman.
Derek Palacio is the author of the novella How to Shake the Other Man and the novel The Mortifications.
Paul Lisicky is the author of seven books including Song So Wild and Blue, Later: My Life at the Edge of the World, The Narrow Door, and Unbuilt Projects.
Thomas Grattan is the author of the novels The Recent East and In Tongues. The Recent East was a New York Times editor’s choice, nominated for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times First Fiction Prize. In Tongues was nominated for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.
Monica Ferrell is the author of three books of fiction and poetry, most recently the collection You Darling Thing (Four Way, 2018), a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Award and Believer Book Award in Poetry.
Sabrina Orah Mark is the author of the poetry collections Tsim Tsum and The Babies, the story collection Wild Milk, and the essay collection Happily: A Personal History—with Fairy Tales.
Craig Morgan Teicher is the Director of Special Projects for the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches poetry and nonfiction in the program. He is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Welcome to Sonnetville, New Jersey. He was a 2021 Guggenheim fellow. His latest book of poems is August, September, October.
De’Shawn Charles Winslow is the author of Decent People, and In West Mills, which was a Center for Fiction First Novel Prize winner. His third novel will be published in 2026.
Shawna Kay Rodenberg is the author of the memoir Kin. She has been the recipient of a Jean Ritchie Fellowship and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award, and her essays have appeared in Salon, The Village Voice, and Elle.
Carter Sickels is the author of the novels The Prettiest Star (2020) and The Evening Hour (2012). His writing has appeared in publications including The Kenyon Review, The Atlantic, Oxford American, Poets & Writers, and Guernica. He is the 2024 recipient of Lambda Literary’s Duggins Prize for Outstanding Mid-Career LGBTQ Novelists.