Current MFA Students

Brody writes novelettes about sad Michiganders making bad decisions.  His distractions from writing include an angel of a Bernese Mountain Dog, a demon of a tabby cat, the Detroit Red Wings, and poorly playing acoustic guitar.  He is fond of smelling brewed coffee, hearing clothes tumble in a dryer, feeling lost in focus, and the look of a fresh paragraph in an exciting new Word document.

Joshua Lenz is a first-year MFA fiction student who dropped a decent job in Texas to pursue writing in a place he’d never even seen before, and he hopes he made the right move. He grew up as one of nine missionary kids in Peru and, naturally, enjoys writing about cultural intersections, especially U.S.-Latin American. He enjoys camping, songwriting, Jiu Jitsu, interpreting for medical missions, and writing about himself in third person.

Shannon Castor is a poet and painter. She is interested in the periphery of memory and how the perception of these stored images are interpreted in a growing and aging self. What stories sit at the edge of fading? How does the present color the past? How does the dull and sharp push-pull of remembering inform writing? Shannon has an MFA in Art and Ecology from the Burren College of Art, National University of Galway, Ireland and has completed art residencies with Takt Leipzig and GlogauAir. She has been published in The Milk House and SloFloPoJo.

Lewis Millholland is a D.C. native whose writing explores the tension between transience and permanence. Professionally he’s covered small-town news, worked a stint on Bloomberg’s news automation team and coded video games. Recently he inherited his great-aunt’s 100-year-old typewriter but promises he’s not that kind of hipster.

Michelle is a fiction writer who can’t sit still. She grew up wandering and writing in the Great Smoky Mountains and is drawn to gothic, lyrical prose with a strong sense of place. Her work has appeared in Fiction International, Nowhere Magazine, and The New York Times. When she’s not at her desk you can find her enjoying and advocating for public lands.

Megan Slusarewicz is a poet and pigeon enthusiast from Lexington, Kentucky. She received BAs in literary arts and cognitive neuroscience from Brown University. Her interests include writing (duh), the science of addiction, photography and thinking about learning classical guitar. Recently, she’s been undertaking the perilous journey of leash training her cats. Megan has a fondness for verbs, but she also finds that nouns and adjectives are essential for writing sentences. Her work can best be described as eclectic and reflective.

Cassie Kiyoko Woodard is a third year fiction student from Cupertino, California who harbors obsessions with summer fruit, marine life, and gardens. She holds a BFA in creative writing from Boise State University. Her writing explores the echoes of generational trauma in the Japanese American community she grew up in, and the balancing act of holding compassion for others and the self, especially in mother-daughter relationships. Her writing has been shortlisted for The Masters Review 2024 Featured Flash Contest, selected for a 2024 Glenn Balch Award, and published in the South Dakota Review. When she is not writing, she can be found peddling her cooking (of varying quality) onto her loved ones (all of high quality).

Charles Pineda is a fiction scribbler (writer, only if you insist) born and raised near New Orleans, LA. He worked professionally in film and the tech industry for much of his professional career before pursuing writing full-time. In the great tradition of ‘Southern writers,’ he can often be found wandering around with a cigar clutched in hand, a slightly dazed look on his face, and incomprehensibly mumbling to himself about the beauty of a streetcar that no longer runs ‘here’ (and probably never existed to begin with) before sitting down and fortunately typing it into something far more sensible. He enjoys finding both the serious and especially the humor in things.

Kara Killinger is a fiction writer from Texas. She writes about sad girls, situationships, and the weight of emotional intimacy.

Kira Compton is bad at writing bios, as well as several more important things.

Adam Ray Wagner is a poet from various states—mostly Nebraska. He holds a BA in Creative Writing from Colorado State University and an MA in English: Poetry & Poetics from the University of Maine. His poetry is rooted in the Objectivist tradition with a concern for the ethics of perception—particularly how that perception relates to ecological and political crises.

Caleb Merritt is a third-year poet who grew up in South Dakota, though he most recently resided in Alabama. During the pandemic, he married his undergraduate Speech & Debate duo partner, Alli, who he met at Hastings College where he received his BA in Studio Art. Before graduate school, he worked for Habitat for Humanity. You can find his work for free online at literarymerritt.gumroad.com.

Christofer Arbudzinski is a 2020 Pomona College graduate and Dole Kinney Prize recipient. His poems have been said to possess “a searing sense of the line.” His style has been described by its aversion to “[calling] a spade a spade.” His presence in one undergraduate workshop led to the coining of an affectionate phrase: the “Chris Nod,” which involves a satisfied closed-mouth half-smile (pictured) and a slow head motion (not). Christofer has gone by “Chris” all his life while readily admitting that “Christofer” fits better for a fantastical setting or grand occasion.

Savy Butler is a first year poetry student and holds a BA in English from the University of Maine. Her poetry seeks to understand and process what at first doesn’t make sense, ranging from the human psyche to flash floods. She is interested in how language can be used and further stretched to understand the human experience. In her free time, she can be found wandering, practicing yoga, and playing with her dog.

Trey Hayden is a third-year student in poetry. He’s working on poems merging classical piano repertoire, waterways, interstates, and food.