MFA & MA Program News
Over the years, graduates from our MFA and MA programs have published countless books
and won widespread recognition. Their awards include NEA fellowships, the Whiting
Award, a New York Times notable book of the year, The Flannery O’Connor Award, and a Yale Younger Poets Prize.
In addition, two of our graduates have served as Alaska Writer Laureate. Below is
a sampling of recent awards, honors, and publications from our students, faculty,
and alumni. To share your own news, please email Kathryn Reichert at the CLA Public Information Office.
2023
Student & Faculty News
Since October 2023, Manny Melendez has been published in Carolina Muse Literary & Arts Magazine, WayWords Literary Journal, Apricity Magazine (it will also feature in their eighth print issue), Dream Noir Magazine, and Superstition Review (forthcoming this fall). He has received several awards
for his writing (across multiple genres), including The 3rd Annual Derick Burleson
Poetry Contest Award, the E. L. Bartlett Contest for Literary Criticism Award, and
The Farthest North Fiction Contest Short Story or Single Chapter Award.... MFA student Susan Sugai's poem "Golden Shovel Elegy" was published in Cherry Moon: Emerging Voices from the Asian Diaspora. The poem is based on "The Blue Fish" by Frank Soos, Professor Emeritus of English.…
New MFA/MA graduate KJ Janeshek had three poems appear in the "Body Language" issue of Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry.… Assistant Professor Joseph Holt had a flash essay titled "People in Cars Outside the Coin Laundry" and an accompanying
interview appear with Water~Stone Review.… First-year MFA/MA student Zeke Shomler received an honorable mention for his poem "Necessities" in the adult division of Alaska's 28th Statewide Poetry Contest. Also, Zeke's poem "As Long as We Have Windows" appeared in the Summer Solstice issue
of Canary.
Alumni News
Ashley Cowger (MFA, '09) published the story collection On The Plus Side through Galileo Press. Cowger, who teaches at Penn State Harrisburg, is also author
of the story collection Peter Never Came, winner of the Autumn House Press Fiction Prize.… H Warren (MFA, '15) published their debut poetry collection, Binded, with Boreal Books. The collection is described as "an anthem of Queer resilience
and a reminder of the healing powers of community care." .… This Impossible Brightness, the debut novel from Jessica Bryant Klagmann (MFA, '10) will be released by Lake Union Publishing in early 2024.… Zack Medlin (MFA/MA '13) received his PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University
of Utah. He is now a Visiting Assistant Professor at Fort Lewis College in Durango,
CO.… Summer Dorr (MA, '18) has taken a position as Assistant Professor of English and Humanities at
Alfred State College in Alfred, NY. She had previously been teaching at North Country
Community College in Saranac Lake, NY.… Jaclyn Bergamino (MFA, '16), writing under the pen name Jaclyn Wilmoth, is celebrating the release
of her debut novel, The Snow Witch, a work of fantasy and magical realism set in the boreal wilderness.… Several alumni
will be attending PhD programs in the fall: Danny Dyer (MA, '14; MFA, '16) will study comparative literature at the University of California–Davis;
Claire-Elise Baalke (MA, '20) will study medieval literature at the University of New Mexico; and Tara Knight (MA, '16) will study composition and rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.…
Caitlin Scarano (MFA, '14) was named winner of a 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Award. Of her collection The Necessity of Wildfire: Poems, the awards committee wrote: "These poems burn slowly but searing, as readers are
lulled into a sense of comfort in the exploration of the minutiae of everyday life
only to be suddenly startled into a higher clarity." … Split/Lip Press announced that
it will publish Holy American Burnout, the debut essay collection from Sean Enfield (MFA, '21), in December 2023. Enfield's nonfiction "attempts to find connection through
music and words as reclamation of labor, as community care, and as resistance to the
many forces of white supremacy working against marginalized bodies," states Split/Lip
Press.… Heather Aruffo (MFA, '19) was awarded the Oran Robert Perry Burke Prize in Nonfiction from The Southern Review for her essay “At the Women’s Only Handgun Class in Fairbanks, Alaska.” Aruffo also
has work is forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review... Brianna Frentzko, MFA/MA 2019, has entered the doctoral program in English at the University of York,
York, England.
2022
Student & Faculty News
Fiction writer Aaron Salzman took first place in UAF's Three Minute Thesis competition. He also has two story publications this year: "The Fox and the Crow
Cross a Shallow Bowl" in Quagmire Literary Magazine, and "Your Home of Theirs" in the print journal Artful Dodge.… Assistant Professor Sara Eliza Johnson released her second poetry collection, Vapor, with Milkweed Editions. Johnson's essay "Unspeakable" (originally published in Alaska Quarterly Review) was also recognized as a notable essay in The Best American Essays 2022.… Professor Gerri Brightwell released her third novel, Turnback Ridge, with Torrey House Press. Brightwell's story "Ocean City, 1949" was also published in Bayou Magazine, and her flash fiction "Necessary Measures" appeared in Litro Magazine (UK).… Two University of Alaska Fairbanks MFA students were named as winners of 2022 AWP Intro Journals Project Awards. Liz Bolton received a nonfiction award for her essay “Starfish: A Paean to Those Who Cannot
Breathe,” which was published in 
Puerto Del Sol. KJ Janeshek received a poetry award for their poem "I Dream of Dressing Your Altar with Slaughtered
Meat," which appeared in Mid-American Review; KJ’s poem "A Cabin in the Forest" was also named as an honorable mention.… Assistant
Professor Joseph Holt had an essay titled "Ten Years Sober" appear in The Sun.
Alumni News
John Messick (MFA, '13) received Rasmuson Foundation Project Award to help with the completion and promotion of his debut essay collection Compass Lines, which is is forthcoming with the Alaska-based Porphyry Press in Spring 2023.… Sean Enfield (MFA, '21) also received received an Rasmuson Foundation Project Award, which will
help as he completes his debut essay collection Who Be Our Teacher – Essays on Race, Education and Identity. Also, Enfield's essay "The Revolution will be Revised" was recognized as a notable
essay in The Best American Essays 2022. This marks the second time Enfield's work has been recognized by BAE; his essay "South of the South, Reprise" was listed as notable in the 2020 edition.
2021
Student & Faculty News
Fiction writer Alison Miller recently had two publications: her essay "Room for Troubled Dogs" appears at Hippocampus Magazine, and the story "Too Much to Ask" appears at Free Library of the Internet Void.… Poet and nonfiction writer Keely O’Connell recently published four essays: "New Love Letter" in Hippocampus Magazine, "In Wayward Water" in Northwest Review, "Antediluvian Animals" in CRAFT, and "Bird’s Eye View," which received an honorable mention in the 2021 Waterman Fund Essay Contest.… 
Fiction writer Rebecca Wood received a honorable mention for her story "Ain’t No Glory for Billy" in the 2021
AWP Intro Journals Project Awards. "Ain't No Glory for Billy" was published in Concho River Review and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.… MFA/MA student Courtney Skaggs recently published two poems: "Business Insider Interviews MGMT's Lyricist: An Erasure"
in Ghost City Review, and "The Little Death After the Apocalypse," in Strange Horizons.… Nonfiction writer Susan Sugai published an essay titled "Sibling Flying Lessons in the 1950s" in the Asian American
Solidarity issue of SweetLit.…
Joseph Holt released his debut story collection, Golden Heart Parade, with Santa Fe Writers Project. Around the book release, Holt contributed an "If My Book" essay to Monkeybicycle and a "Research Notes" essay to Necessary Fiction.… The story "Inversion" by Associate Professor Daryl Farmer recently appeared in Terrain.org, an online journal dedicated to writing about place.… Poet KJ Janeshek had a prose poem titled "The Sharper Edges of Tongues" appear in The Swamp.… Gerri Brightwell has a ghost story titled "Huldremose" in the new issue of Copper Nickel. Brightwell also has recent work appearing in The Waking: Ruminate Online, Mslexia, The Real Story, 101 Words, and JMWW.… MFA/MA student Michael Kay was selected as a 2021 resident of Theater Alaska’s Alaska Writer's Workshop. The program is a year-long residency that offers professional development for emerging
playwrights.
Alumni News
The poem "김장," written by Eddie Kim (MFA, '11), was nominated by Heavy Feather Review for Best of the Net 2021. The Korean letters 김장 translate to "Kimchi." … Ken Waldman (MFA, '88) has published eight new books in the past two years: the poetry collection
Sports Page, the hybrid craft book The Writing Party; the poetry collection Leftovers and Gravy; and five new volumes of his Trump Sonnets series.… "Force, Mass, Acceleration" by Heather Aruffo (MFA, '19) was selected for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and appeared in the anthology Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize. The story was first published in the Summer 2020 issue of Southern Review.
2020
Student & Faculty News
Fiction writer Ryan Shek was named as winner of the Michigan Writers Cooperative Press 2020 chapbook contest. His manuscript, Bluetongue and Other Michigan Stories, will be published by MWCP.… MFA/MA student Courtney Skaggs recently had two lyric essays published: "Lines on the Road: A Map of My Fears" in
Rejection Letters, and "Ode to an Acorn" in Longleaf Review.… Essayist Sean Enfield won the 2020 Fourth Genre Michael Steinberg Memorial Essay Contest. Enfield's essay,
"The Revolution Will Be Revised," was published in Fourth Genre‘s Spring 2021 issue. Enfield's nonfiction also recently appeared in The Rumpus.… Joseph Holt had a couple essays appear in summer 2020: "Highway to Hades" in Valley Voices and "Smoky Water Elegy" in J Journal: New Writing on Justice. Last year, Holt's essay "Love Running" was featured on a "Breakup Reading List" at Longreads.… Daryl Farmer published a story titled "Once a River" in Ploughshares. Farmer also had an essay—"The Chapel of Man and All That Endures"—in the new edition
of After the Art.… Several UAF English community members had works nominated for the Pushcart Prize:
essayist Sean Enfield for the poem "Birthday" in Thimble Literary Magazine and for the essay "Where Were You When Frank Ocean Returned" in COUNTERCLOCK; essayist Brandi Jo Nyberg for "Vultures" in Border Crossing; and professor Eric Heyne for the poem "Candle Ice" in Shark Reef.… Sara Eliza Johnson had several creative works published in spring 2020: the poem "Vapor" in The Cincinnati Review, the essay "Thanatophilia: A Travelogue" in AGNI, and the essay "Xenomorph" in Bright Wall/Dark Room.
Alumni News
Patrice Melnick (MFA, '97) published her debut poetry collection, City of Hey Baby, with Finishing Line Press. The collection draws on Melnick's experience living in New Orleans in the years
following Hurricane Katrina.… Dr. Jenni Moody (MFA, '12) accepted a position as Assistant Professor at Mount Mary University in
Milwaukee. After graduating from UAF, Moody received her PhD at the University Wisconsin-Milwaukee,
where she was awarded a Distinguished Dissertator Fellowship and served as a Junior
Writing Program Administrator.… Qaggun "Chelsey" Zibell (MFA/MA, '16) was profiled on the front page of the April 13, 2020, edition of the
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Zibell now teaches the Inupiaq language at UAF, where she also compiles an evolving
website of Inupiaq vocabulary and grammar.
2019
Student & Faculty News
Fiction writer Heather Aruffo was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Mongolia, where she will teach university-level English and assist the US embassy
in Ulaanbaator with outreach and community projects.… Fiction writer David Aubuchon received a fiction honorable mention for his story "Finding Lula" in the 2019 AWP Intro Journals Project Awards.
Alumni News
Armor & Ornament, the debut poetry collection from Christopher Miles (MFA, '12), is now available from the University of Alaska Press. The press states that the collection "melds deep-rooted spirituality with contemporary
tensions, offering modern psalms for a tumultuous and uncertain age." … 
Jill Osier (MFA, '00) received the prestigious Yale Younger Poets Prize for her collection The Solace Is Not the Lullaby. Osier has also received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and has served
as the George Bennett Fellow at Philips Exeter Academy.
Further back
Alumni news
Fobbit, the debut novel from David Abrams (MFA), was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2012. Abrams is also author of the novel Brave Deeds (2017).… David Nikki Crouse (MFA) is the author of Copy Cats (2005), winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and The Man Back There (2008), winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction.… Novelist Ian C. Esselmont (MFA) has constructed two successful fantasy franchises: Novels of the Malazan Empire and the Path to Ascendancy series.… Nonfiction writer Natalie Kusz (MFA) received a 1989 Whiting Award and a 1995 fellowship from the National Endowment
from the Arts. Her memoir is titled Road Song (1990).… Eva Saulitis (MFA) authored five books of poetry and nonfiction and in 2013 received the Alaska
Governor's Award for the Arts and Humanities.