The University of Arizona

Alumni Publications & Awards

Alvarado, Beth (MFA '89): Not a Matter of Love, New Rivers Press, 2006, a short story collection, won the Many Vocies Project Award in 2005.  Her stories and creative nonfiction have been published in many journals, most recently Ploughshares and Seattle Review. Currently a lecturer in the English Department at the University of Arizona.

Bernhardt, Deborah (MFA ’98): Echolalia, Four Way Books, 2006, was awarded The New Issues First Book Prize, The Ahsahta Press/Sawtooth Poetry Book Prize, and The University of Georgia Press Contemporary Poetry Series First Book Prize. Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship 2003, Writer-in-Residence at Penn State, and currently teaches creative writing at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Bernheimer, Kate (MFA "94): Author of two novels, The Complete Tales of Ketzia, FC2, 2001 and The Complete Tales of Merry Gold, FC2, 2006. Two essay collections, Mirror,Mirror on the Wall, and Brothers and Beasts,  2007.  First children'sbook, The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum, Schwartz& Wade, forthcoming February 2008.  Editor of FairyTale Review (also online at fairytalereview.com.) and on the FC2 Board of Directors.
 
Bertine, Kathryn (MFA ’00): As Good As Gold: One Woman, Ten Sports, Eight Countries and a Two-Year Quest to Make the Olympic Games will be released in April, 2010 by ESPN/Random House. The book chronicles her attempt to make the 2008 Olympic Games in cycling. All the Sundays Yet to Come, Little, Brown, 2002 (Youngest author ever to be signed by Little, Brown and Company.) She currently writes a monthly column,"So You Wanna be an Olympian?" for ESPN online.

Boswell, Robert (MFA '84): Eighth book of fiction, Century's Son,Knopf, 2002, released in paperback, Picador, 2003. He has received two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowhips, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the PEN West Award for Fiction. Currently teaching creative writing at the University of Houston.

Buuck, Christiane (MFA ’05): A Fulbright Scholar in France 2005-2006. Lyric essay, “France in Twenty-Five Exposure,” Seneca Review, Spring, 2005.

Cantor, Jillian (MFA '02) will have her first novel, The September Sisters, published by HarperCollins in 2009.

Canty, Kevin (MFA ’93): Sixth book, Winslow in Love, Talese/Doubleday, 2005. Three books named New York Times Notable Books.

Carnahan, Sue (MFA ’04): Auto Repair, Backwaters Press, 2005, winner of the 2004 Weldon Kees Award.

Casey, Maud (MFA ’95): Genealogy, Harper Collins, 2006. Second book, Drastic, William Morrow, 2002, is a collection of short stories. Her first book is the novel, The Shape of Things to Come, Harper, 2001, which was a New York Times Notable Book. Writer-in-Residence, Kratz Center for Creative Writing, Goucher College, 2005. Associate Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing, University of Maryland.

Chiles, Adam (MFA ’03): Reginald S. Tickner Writing Fellowship, The Gilmore Preparatory School. 2002 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship and 2000 Pablo Neruda Award finalist. Poems published in Antigonish Review, Washington Square, Indiana Review and Sycamore Review. Teaches English, Cesar Chaves Public Charter School.

Coulter, Wendy (MFA, '00): Winner of the Academy of American Poets Prize for her poem "Winnowing" which has been chosen for publication in the Helen Burns Poetry Anthology:  New Voices from the Academy of American Poets' University & College Prizes, 2010. She has also been published in Natural Bridge: A Journal of Contemporary Literature.

Cran, Brad (MFA ’04): Winner of the 2004 Vancouver Arts Commission Award in writing and publishing. Publisher, Smoking Lung Press and contributing editor at Geist magazine. Recent collection of poems, The Good Life, Nightwood Editions, 2002. Editorof Hammer & Tongs, Smoking Lung 1999 and co-editor of Why I Sing the Blues, Smoking Lung, 2001.

Cummins, Ann (MFA ’85): She is the author of the novel, Yellowcake, Houghton Mifflin, 2007, and the story collection, Red Ant House, Mariner, 2003 (A Best American Discovery Book). Professor at Northern Arizona University, her work as appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, and The Best American Short Stories, 2002.  She is a recipient of the Lannan Fellowship, 2002.

Eimers, Nancy (MFA ’83): Third book of poetry, Grammar to Waking, Carnegie University Press, 2005. Professor, Department of English, Western Michigan University.

Finn, Patrick Michael (MFA '00): His novella, A Martyr for Suzy Kosasovich, Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2008, won the Ruthanne Wiley Memorial Novella Contest. His work has appeared in Ploughshares, The Richmond Review, Quarterly West, and other publications. Past winner of the AWP Intro Award and the 2004 Third Coast Fiction Prize

Glasser, Perry (MFA ‘82): Recent winner of Sarah Russo Prize for Exile Literature for “Gimme Shelter – The Rolling Stones: A Rock ‘n Roll Memoir,” Confrontation, Winter 2005. Books include Singing On The Titanic, Univ. of IL Press, 1987, and Suspicious Origins, New River Press, 1983. Widely published fiction and nonfiction, most recently in North American Review, Aspect, Flint Hills Review, and forthcoming in Hanging Loose and Passages North. Coordinator of Professional Writing, Dept. of English, Salem State College.

Goodman, Loren (MFA ‘95): First collection of poems, Famous Americans, Yale University Press, 2003, winner of the 2002 Yale Series of Younger Poets award.

Hamburger, Tiffany (MFA ’05): “On the Origin of Extinction,” The Journal of Anthropology and Humanism, 2004, awarded the Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Fiction.

Hanauer, Cathi (MFA ’94): Latest novel, Sweet Ruin, Atria, 2006. Her first novel, My Sister’s Bones, Delacorte Press, 1996, was an ALA Best Book. Editor of the essay collection, The Bitch in the House: 26 Women Tell the Truth about Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood and Marriage, Artria, 2006, a New York Times bestseller.

Hendricks, Brent (MFA '94): Debut collection of poetry, Thaumatrope, Action Books, 2007.  His poems have appeared in many journals including Ploughshares, Iowa Review, and the Carolina Quarterly.

Hoagland, Tony (MFA ’82): Third book of poems, What Narcissism Means To Me, Graywolf Press, 2003, finalist for National Book Critics Circle Award. Associate Professor, University of Houston and winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry, Guggenheim Fellowship and Academy of American Poets James Laughlin Award.

Khan, Uzma Aslam (MFA '94) The Geometry of God, her third book, was published by Interlink Publishing, Sept. 2009.  Second novel, Trespassing, Metropolitan Books, 2004, has been translated into 14 languages. It was released in paperback by Picador in 2005. Her first novel, Story of Noble Rot was published by Penquin Books in 2001.

Kaukonen, Scott (MFA ’99): Collection of short stories, Ordination, Ohio State University Press, 2005, winner of the 2004 Ohio State University Prize for Short Fiction. Includes the Chicago Tribune's 2004 Nelson Algren Prize winning story, "Punnett's Squares."

Lamberton, Ken (MFA ’02): Two collections of essays: Wilderness and Razor Wire, Mercury House, 1999, winner of the 2002 John Burroughts Medal, distinguished national award for natural history writing, and Beyond Desert Walls: Essays from Prison, University of
Arizona Press, 2005.

Ledger, Kate (MFA '95): First novel, Remedies, Putnam, 2009. Her articles have appeared in several magazines including Self and Health.

Marcum, Carl (MFA ‘00): Poems in The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry, U of A Press 2007. Cue Lazarus, U of A Press, 2001. NEA Fellowship, Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford, 2007 Illinois Arts Council grant, and currently holds tenure-track position at DePaul University, Chicago. 

Maxwell, Kristi (MFA '05): First full-length collection of poetry, Realm Sixty-four, Ahsata Press, 2008.  Second collection, Hush Sessions, Saturnalia ,forthcoming 2009.  Also, Elsewhere & Wise, a chapbook,  2008.  Currently a PhD candidate in English with an emphasis in poetry at the Univeristy of Cincinnati.

Maine, David, (MFA ‘91):  Third novel, The Book of Samson, was published in 2006 and Monster, 1959, forthcoming in 2008.  Also, Fallen, St. Martins Press, 2005 and The Preservationist, St. Martin’s Press, 2004.

Martin, Greg (MFA ’91): Winner of the Washington State Book Award for Mountain City, North Point Press, 2000 named New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Assistant Professor, Creative Writing, University of New Mexico.

Martin, Jana (MFA '94):  First short story collection, Russian Lover, Yeti Books, 2007.  Her work has appeared in Spork, Glimmer Train, The New Yorker, Village Voice and elsewhere.  Has won Glimmer Train's Best New Short Story Writer Award.  Regular contributor to Sporkpress.com.

Martin, Sara Gail (MFA ’04): Stanford University Wallace Stegner Fellowship in poetry, 2005-2006.

McIlvoy, Kevin (MFA ‘80): Fifth book, The Complete History of New Mexico, Graywolf Press, 2005, is a collection of short stories. Regents Professor, New Mexico State University, editor-in-chief of Puerto del Sol, and visiting faculty of Bread Loaf Writers Conference.

Mockler, Karen (MFA ’93): After Moses, MacAdam/Cage, 2003. Dolly Connelly Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism, 2001. 

Mueenuddin, Daniyal (MFA '04) Fulbright Scholar in Norway, 2006-2007 and writer-in-residence at ProvincetownArtists Colony.  Recent fiction appears in The New Yorker, August, 2007 and September, 2008.

Nelson, Antonya (MFA '86): Four short story collections, the latest is Some Fun: Stories and a Novella, Scribner, 2006. Also, three novels including Talking in Bed.  Her work have appeared in many anthologies such as The Pushcart Prize and Best American Short Stories. Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, and the 2003 Rea Award for Short Fiction. Currently teaching creative writing at the University of Houston.  

Nelson, Brian (MFA '02): First book, The Silence and the Scorpion: The Coup against Hugo Chavez and the Making of Modern Venezuela, Nation Books, May, 2009 was reviewed on Economist.com, June, 26, 2009.  Read the complete review here: http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13813460.  His work has appeared in many publications including the Virignia Quarterly, and most recently, The Christian Science Monitor.  A Fulbright Scholar in Venezuela, 2002-2003, he currently teaches at Miami University in Ohio and Johns Hopkins University.

Noel, Katherine (MFA ’97): Halfway House, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006, chapter appeared in Best New American Voices 2003. Jones Lecturer in Creative Writing, Stanford University. Wallace Stegner Fellowship 2000-2001, Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award in 2003.

O’Keefe, Jeffrey (MFA ’04): Stanford University Wallace Stegner Fellowship in fiction, 2005-2006.

Paris, Rae (MFA '03): Her story, "The Girl Who Ate Her Own Skin" was named a recommended story in the  Pen/O.Henry Prize Stories, 2009 edition. She was a finalist for the 2009 Flannery O"Connor Award for Short Fiction and her stories have appeared in Indiana Review, Hunger Mountain, and So to Speak. Faculty Associate in English at Arizona State University.

Pham, Mong-lan (MFA ‘00): Second book of poetry, Why is the Edge Always Windy, Tupelo Press, 2005. First collection, Song of the Cicadas, University of Mass. Press, 2001, won the Juniper Prize and the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers’ Award for Poetry. Widely published (Best American Poetry of 2002, Kenyon Review, etc) Fulbright Award, Wallace Stegner Fellowship (2000-2001), Pushcart Prize. Teaches at University of Maryland.

Puchner, Eric (MFA ‘97): First book, Music Through the Floor : Stories, Scribner, 2005 won the Joseph Henry Jackson Award for young Northern California writers. Wallace Stegner Fellowship in fiction, 2002-2003.

Reents, Stephanie (MFA ‘01): Stanford University Wallace Stegner Fellowship in fiction, 2002-2003. Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of English, Franklin and Marshall College

Richman, Jana (MFA ’00): Riding in the Shadows of Saints: A Woman's Story of Motorcycling the Mormon Trail, Crown, 2005.

Rivard, David (MFA ‘91): Fourth collection of poems, Sugartown, Graywolf Press, forthcoming in 2006. Poetry Editor at the Harvard Review and teaches at Tufts University and the Vermont College. James L. and Celia B. Wagner Award from the Poetry Society of America, Academy of American Poets James Laughlin Award and a Pushcart Prize.

Rios, Alberto (MFA ’79): Twelve books, the most recent, The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body, Copper Canyon Press, 2002, was a finalist for the 2002 National Book Award. Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University and winner of the Western Literature Assoc. Distinguished Achievement Award, 2002. Six Pushcart Prizes, a Guggenheim Fellowship and Walt Whitman Award.

Russo, Richard, (MFA ’80):  Author of six novels, the most recent, Bridge of Sighs, Knopf, 2007, and a collection of short stories,The Whore’s Child, Knopf, 2002. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Empire Falls, Knopf, 2001, which was made in a major motion picture as was his 1993 novel, Nobody's Fool.

Schaffert, Tim (MFA ‘95): The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters, Putnam, 2003. Mary Roberts Rinehart Award. Two Nebraska Arts Council Awards. Managing editor of The Reader, arts and culture newsweekly of Omaha, NE.

Schwartz, Steven (MFA ‘81): Books include two collections of stories, To Leningrad in Winter, University of Missouri Press, 1985, and Lives of the Fathers, University of Illinois, 1991, and two novels, Therapy, Harcourt Brace,1994 and A Good Doctor's Son, William Morrow, 1998. His awards include a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, the 1999 Colorado Book Award for Fiction, the Sherwood Anderson Prize, and two O.Henry awards. He has also been on the faculty of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, where he was the John Gardner Fellow in Fiction. Professor, Colorado State University.

Seldess, Jesse (MFA '01): First book of poems, Who Opens, Kenning Editions, 2006.

Shenoda, Matthew (MFA '01): Latest collection of poems, Seasons of Lotus, Season of Bone, BOA Editions, 2009. His debut collection of poetry, Somehwere Else, Coffee House Press, 2005, won the American Book Award and was named one of 2005's bebut books of the year by Poets & Writers Magazine.  Recently nominated for the 2006 Pushcart Prize, regular contibutor to Voices of the Middle East and North Africa on KPFA Pacifica radio. Assistant Provost of Equity and Diversity and Professor in the School of Critical Studies at California Institute of the Arts.

Siken, Richard (MFA ’94): Crush, Yale University Press, 2005, winner of Yale Series of Younger Poets Award, 2004. Pushcart Prize winner and co-founder and editor-in-chief of Spork literary magazine.

Stolar, Dan (MFA ’97): The Middle of the Night, Picador, 2003. Assistant Professor, De Paul University.

Test, Carol (MFA ’05): First prize in Swink magazine for “Conversational English,” 2004.

Ulmer, Spring (MFA '03):  First book of poems, Benjamin's Spectacles, winner of the 2007Kore Press First Book Award. 

Van Every, Bill (BA ‘94): First book of poems, Devoted Creatures, Tupelo Press, 2004, Tupelo Press Judges Prize Winner.

Viswanathan, Padma (MFA '06): Debut novel, The Toss of The Lemon, Harcourt, 2008 and also by Random House Canada, 2008. Her writing awards include residencies at the MacDowell Colony and the Banff Playwrights’ Colony, and first place in the 2006 Boston Review Short Story Contest. She has also authored several produced plays.

Wallace, David Foster (MFA ’87): Recent books include Consider the Lobster: A Collection of Essays, Little, Brown, 2005 and Oblivion. Little, Brown, 2004. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship, 1997-2002. Endowed Roy E. Disney chair at Pomona College. Named to the usage panel of The American Heritage Dictionary.

Wilkenson, Joshua Marie (MFA ): Second book of poems, Lug Your Careless Body out of the Careful Dusk,  2006, won the 2005 Iowa Poetry Prize. Suspension of a Secret in Abandoned Rooms, Pinball Publishing, 2005. Winner of the Academy of American Poets Prize and the Rella Lossy Chapbook Prize from the San Francisco Poetry Center in 2003. Co-director, with Solan Jensen, of the forthcoming film Made a Machine by Describing the Landscape about the band Califone. Currently living in Colorado, he is completing a doctorate in literature and creative writing.

Currently enrolled Student Recent News:

coming soon..


Alumni are encouraged to contact Marlene Cooksey, program assistant, so that we may add your accomplishments to the above list.

SEND YOUR NEWS TO: mcooksey@email.arizona.edu