Writing (MFA): Related Content
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.
A poem by Liam Rector, the late founding director of Bennington's MFA in Writing program, was featured today on The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor, a radio program aired daily on public broadcasting stations around the country.
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.
MFA faculty member Amy Hempel has been selected to receive the 22nd annual PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the art of short fiction. Given in honor of the late Bernard Malamud, who himself taught at Bennington from 1961 to 1984, the award includes participation in the 2009-10 PEN/Faulkner reading series at the Folger Shakespeare Library and a prize of $2,500.
’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.
Stuart Nadler is the author of three novels and a short story collection. His new novel, Rooms for Vanishing, will be published early next year.
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.
Devon Walker-Figueroa is originally from Kings Valley, Oregon. She is the author of Lazarus Species (Milkweed Editions, 2025), a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize in Poetry, and Philomath (Milkweed Editions, 2021), a National Poetry Series winner.
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.
Mark Wunderlich is author of five books of poetry, and his poems, interviews, reviews, and translations have appeared in journals such as The New Yorker, Slate, The Paris Review, and Poetry, and in more than 30 anthologies. His new book, MATEY, is forthcoming from Graywolf.
Edward Carey is a writer and illustrator whose books include The Iremonger Trilogy; Observatory Mansions; Little; The Swallowed Man; and Edith Holler. His artwork has been exhibited in Britain, Ireland, Italy, and America; his essays and reviews have been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Observer, Corriere della Serra, and La Repubblica. Named a Guggenheim fellow in 2019, his writing has been translated in over twenty-five languages.
By Craig Morgan Teicher
Carole Maso is revered by readers and fellow writers for her boundary-breaking novels, including The Art Lover, AVA, and most recently, Mother & Child. She joined the faculty of the Writing Seminars this past June and, on the first day of residency, gave a remarkable lecture that set the mood for the whole ten days. We talked about that lecture and the relationship between a writer’s life and her work.
Hugh Ryan is the author of When Brooklyn Was Queer, The Women's House of Detention, and My Bad: A Personal History of the Queer ’90s and Beyond (forthcoming, May 2026). With actor/activist Peppermint, he hosts the Queer 101 Bookclub & Podcast. Photo by Tim McMath.
Luis Jaramillo is the author of The Witches of El Paso. He is also the author of the award-winning short story collection The Doctor’s Wife. His writing has appeared in Literary Hub, BOMB Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications. He is an associate professor of Creative Writing at The New School. Photo by Matthew Brookshire.
Katy Simpson Smith was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. She is the author of We Have Raised All of You: Motherhood in the South, 1750-1835, and four novels, most recently The Weeds. She received a PhD in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She lives in New Orleans.
Robert Wood Lynn is a poet from Virginia. His debut collection Mothman Apologia (2022 Yale University Press) was the winner of the 2021 Yale Younger Poets prize and the 2023 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. His work has been featured in American Poetry Review, The Atlantic, The Nation, Poetry Magazine, The Yale Review, and other publications. He teaches poetry at Juilliard and cohosts the DGN Reading Series in Brooklyn, New York.
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.