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Creative Writing Program

Student Accomplishments

Job Placement

Recent Creative Writing Ph.D. graduates have secured tenure-track positions at Florida State University, Kenyon College, Susquehanna University, Texas Lutheran University, Washington and Jefferson College, University of Connecticut-Storrs, University of Dayton, Carnegie Mellon, Assumption College, University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, University of North Texas, Gallaudet University, Lehigh University, College of Charleston, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Valdosta State University, Florida Atlantic University, the University of Northen Iowa, Seton Hall University, Sam Houston State University, Idaho State University at Pocatello, Oregon State University, and the University of Cincinatti.

Awards, Fellowships and Publications

Students from our program have been recognized nationally for a broad variety of accomplishments. The following lists contain some of the highlights.

Awards and Fellowships

  • Twelve recipients of first book awards in poetry and fiction (list in pdf)
  • Two 2005 National Poetry Series Award winners
  • Nine recipients of National Endowment for the Arts grants since 2002.
  • A recipient of the 2005 Del Sol Press Poetry Prize
  • A recipient of the 2005 Iowa Poetry Prize
  • A recipient of the 2005 John Simmons Short Fiction Prize
  • A recipient of The Ohio State University Short Fiction Award
  • A recipient of the Kate Tufts Discovery Prize in Poetry
  • A recipient of the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry
  • Two winners of the Ruth Lily Prize from Poetry magazine
  • A recipient of the Whiting Younger Poets Award, given to a young poet of exceptional promise
  • Six recipients of the prestigious Discovery/The Nation Award, awarded
    by The Nation magazine
  • Winner of the 2003 AWP/Prague Summer Fellowship in Fiction
  • Winner of the 2001 AWP/Prague Summer Fellowship in Nonfiction
  • Winner of the 2001 AWP Award Series in Short Fiction
  • Two recipients of the Jacob Javits Fellowships in Poetry
  • Two recipients of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Award, given to emerging women writers

Past graduates and current students have been recognized by both national and regional awards, including the O'Henry Prize in Fiction, the River City Fiction Award, the Gulf Coast Fiction Award, the Iowa Short Fiction Award, the International Merit Award from the Atlanta Review, the Writers at Work Festival Prize in Poetry in Salt Lake City, the Nelsen Algren Award in Fiction, the Hollis Summers Prize in Poetry from Ohio University Press, the Missouri Biennial Award in Poetry, the Sarabande Prize Book Prize, the Hickock Prize in Fiction, The Florida Review's Creative Nonfiction Prose Prize, the Rollins Society Prize, the AWP Intro Journals Award for short fiction, the AWP Award Series in Poetry, the Elixer Press Poetry Prize, the Dogwood Fiction Prize, Pinyon Press Novella Prize, the Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction, Writers Exchange Award in Fiction, the Discoverd Voices Award sponsored by Iron Horse Literary Review, and the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award in Poetry, among others.

Journal Publications

Student poems, stories, essays, and novel excerpts have appeared in journals such as Poetry, The Nation, The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, Antioch Review, The British Journal of Literature and Photography, The Gettysburg Review, Boston Review, The American Poetry Review, Story Line Press, Field: A Journal of Poetry and Poetics, Gulf Coast, Glimmer Train, The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Mississippi Review, Helicon Nine, The Iowa Review, The New England Review, Ploughshares, The FormalistPacific Review, The Denver Quarterly, New Letters, Southern Review, ZYZZYVA, Colorado Review, The Western Humanities Journal, Bomb, and Berkeley Review, among others.

Book Publications

since 2001

Rebecca Dunham's first book of poems, The Miniature Room, winner of the 2006 T.S. Eliot Prize, was published by Truman State University Press.

Nadine Meyer's first book of poems, The Anatomy Theater, winner of the 2005 National Poetry Series Book Award, was published by HarperCollins in 2006.

Steve Gehrke's third book of poems, Michelangelo's Seizure, winner of the 2005 National Poetry Series Book Award, was published by University of Illinois Press in 2007.

Emily Rosko's first book of poems, raw goods inventory, winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize, was published by the University of Iowa Press.

Julie Buchsbaum's second book of poems, A Little Night Comes, winner of the 2005 Del Sol Press Annual Poetry Award, was published by Del Sol Press.

Anthony Varallo's book, This Day in History, winner of the 2005 John Simmons Short Fiction Award, was published by the University of Iowa Press.

Scott Kaukonen's book, Ordination, winner of The Ohio State University Short Fiction Prize, was published by The Ohio State University Press in April, 2005.

Steve Gehrke's book, The Pyramids of Malpighi, winner of The Phillip Levine Poetry Prize, was published by Anhinga Press in March, 2004.

Catherine Pierce's book, Animals of Habit, winner of the Wick Poetry Chapbook Series III Award, was published by The Kent State University Press in February, 2004.

Christie Hodgen's book, A Jeweler's Eye for Flaw, winner of the 2001 AWP Award in Short Fiction, was published by the University of Massachusetts Press in January 2003.

Joanie Mackowski's The Zoo, winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Prize in Poetry and the Associated Writing Program Award Series in Poetry, was published by University of Pittsburgh Press in 2002.

William Grattan's novella, Ghost Runners, winner of the Pinyon Press Prize, was published in 2001.

Kira Salak's book, Four Corners: One Woman's Solo Journey Into the Heart of Papua New Guinea, was published by Counterpoint in 2001.