SIU MFA Alumni Achievements

Brock Storey

Finalist for the Jake Adam York Prize, 2026.

Jacob Butlett

Author of Stars Burning Night's Quiet Rhapsody (Kelsay Books) and Languish (Kelsay Books, 2026). Chapbook THUNDERCLAPS forthcoming from Main Street Rag. 

Jo Christian

Author of chapbook Post-Eclipse: A Queer Home (Bottlecap Press).

Ellery Capshaw

Author of chapbook The Woman in the Sound (Bottlecap Press) and full-length collection Three Walled World (CLASH Books, 2025). Substack

Emilee Kinney

Poems published in The Pinch Journal, Cimarron Review, Stonecoast Review, Passages North, Zone 3, THE SHORE, and Driftwood Press (2024 Contest Finalist). Nominated for 2022 Best Short Fictions. Associate Editor for Mississippi Review. Director of the 2021 Little Grassy Literary Festival. Received a PhD in creative writing at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Ashley Durrance

Author of chapbook Full of Matches (Bottlecap Press). Winner of the 2021 Academy of American Poets Prize for the poem 'Affair.' Recipient of the Peck Fellowship, 2018 and the Master's Research Fellowship in 2021.

Lauren Crawford

Crawford's debut collection, Catch & Release, was published in spring 2025 as part of the University of Wisconsin's Portage Poetry Series.

Mary Ardery

Author of Level Watch (June Road Press, 2025), a debut collection set in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, drawn from her experience as a wilderness guide for women in a substance-abuse treatment program.

Sarah Jilek

Author of Saint Catastrophe (Southern Fried Karma Press, 2020). Works at SIU Press.

Mandi Jourdan

Author of novels Veritas (Brown Chicken Books, 2021; Adelaide Books, 2018) and Lacrimosa (Brown Chicken Books, 2020; Adelaide Books, 2017); short story collections Shadows of the Mind (Aphotic Realm, 2018) and Immortal Dissent (Bloodstone Press, 2017); and novella The Silenced (Bloodstone Press, 2017). Also the author, writing as Bella Scott, of three novels: Thorns (Bloodstone Press, 2024; Scarlet Lantern Publishing, 2020), Avalon (Bloodstone Press, 2024; Scarlet Lantern Publishing, 2020), and Duet (Bloodstone Press, forthcoming 2026; Scarlet Lantern Publishing, 2021). Winner of The Missouri Review's Miller Audio Prize in Prose, 2019, with the first sci-fi piece published by TMR. Three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Marketing and Sales Manager at SIU Press. Host of the weekly radio show Inside the Blanket Fort on WSIU, available on NPR, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcasting platforms, featuring interviews with SIU Press authors and guests including Henry Thomas.

Troy Varvel

Runner-up for The Missouri Review's Miller Audio Prize in Prose, 2019, for the poem 'Complete.' Best New Poets 2020.

Anna Knowles

Author of two poetry collections: Conditions of the Wounded (Wisconsin Poetry Series, 2021) and In the Country of Hard Life and Rosebuds (Idaho Poetry Prize, 2023). Recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Agency Award. Work in Blackbird, Memorious, The Missouri Review Online, storySouth, and Tin House Online. Currently teaches in Denver.

Meghann Plunkett

Debut chapbook What We Did To Her Made The Water Rise won the Fall 2023 Black River Chapbook competition. Writes television (Station 19, Rebel) and various development projects including adapting the novel 'First Lie Wins' for the screen. Named a Best New Poet of 2018. Winner of the 2017 Missouri Review Editors' Prize and the 2017 Third Coast Poetry Prize judged by Natalie Diaz. Finalist, 2016 Narrative Magazine 30 Below Contest. Anthologized in Best of Net 2017, selected by Eduardo C. Corral. Recognized by the Academy of American Poets in 2016 and 2017. Served as a poetry reader for The New Yorker. Animated poem 'Human' on Button Poetry. Poems in Narrative Magazine, Best New Poets 2018, Third Coast, Pleiades, Rattle, and Washington Square Review.

Teresa Dzieglewicz

Author of Something Small of How to See a River (Tupelo Press), selected by Tyehimba Jess for the Dorset Prize. Children's book Belonging (co-written with Kimimila Locke) forthcoming from Chronicle Books. Winner of a Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets, the Gingko Prize, the Auburn Witness Prize, and the Palette Poetry Prize. Fellowships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Community of Writers at Tahoe, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, and Brooklyn Poets. Fellow with Black Earth Institute; Poet-in-Residence at the Chicago Poetry Center; founding team member of Mni Wichoni Nakicizin Wounspe (Defenders of the Water School).

Andrew Hemmert

Author of three poetry collections: Sawgrass Sky (Texas Review Press), Blessing the Exoskeleton (University of Pittsburgh Press), and No Longer at This Address (University of Pittsburgh Press). Poems in Copper Nickel, The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, New Ohio Review, and The Southern Review. Lives in Thornton, Colorado.

Jessica Lynn Suchon

Author of Scavenger (YesYes Books), winner of the YesYes Books Vinyl 45 Chapbook Contest, a collection examining intimate partner violence praised by poet Lynn Melnick for its layered brilliance and truth. Honors from The Aspen Institute, the Academy of American Poets, and Best New Poets. Poems in Copper Nickel, Willow Springs, Ninth Letter, Yemassee, and RHINO Poetry; anthologized in A Shadow Map: An Anthology by Survivors of Sexual Assault. Playwright: full-length play Shopgirls premiered at Darkhorse Theater Chapel, Nashville. 2019 Tennessee Playwrights Studio Fellow. Librettist in collaboration with composer Stephanie Ann Boyd, with work premiered internationally and covered in national newspapers. Currently lives in Philadelphia.

John McCarthy

Author of Ghost County (Midwestern Gothic Press, 2016) and editor of {Ex}tinguished & {Ex}tinct: An Anthology of Things That No Longer {Ex}ist (Twelve Winters Press, 2014).

Kirk Schlueter

Debut collection The Resurrection of the Body, winner of the 2025 Richard Mathews Poetry Prize, forthcoming from University of Tampa Press, Fall 2026. Winner of master's thesis award. Teacher and tennis coach in Edwardsville, IL.

Emily Rose Cole

Author of Thunderhead (University of Wisconsin Press) and chapbook Love & a Loaded Gun (Minerva Rising Press, 2017), persona poems in the voices of mythological and historical women. Poetry awards from Jabberwock Review, Ruminate Magazine, Philadelphia Stories, The Orison Anthology, and the Academy of American Poets. Featured in Best New Poets 2018 and American Life in Poetry. PhD in poetry with an emphasis in Disability Studies, University of Cincinnati.

Austin Kodra

Author of Visibility at Zero (Iris Press, 2015)

M. Brett Gaffney

Author of chapbook Feeding the Dead (Porkbelly Press, 2017), a collection of horror-inflected poetry praised for its hungry, mythic creatures and lyric consistency. Featured in Sundress Publications' The Wardrobe's Best Dressed. Poet, visual artist, and horror reviewer.

Maggie Graber

Author of Swan Hammer: An Instructor's Guide to Mirrors (Wheelbarrow Books / Michigan State University Press, 2022), winner of the 2021 Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize. Finalist for a 2023 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award. She holds a PhD from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Staci Schoenfeld (writing as Avery M. Guess)

Author of The Truth Is (Black Lawrence Press, 2019) and chapbook The Patient Admits (dancing girl press, 2017). Recipient of a 2015 NEA Fellowship in Literature (Poetry), one of only 36 recipients from 1,634 applicants nationwide. Grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and the Kentucky Foundation for Women; residencies from Ragdale, the Albee Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, and New York Mills Arts Retreat. Instructor of English at Kentucky State University. Work in Greensboro Review, Washington Square, Southern Humanities Review, Muzzle, and Hayden's Ferry Review. Avery holds a PhD from the University of South Dakota.

Andrew McSorley

Author of What Spirits Return (Kelsay Books). Poetry nominated for the Pushcart Prize; work in The Minnesota Review, HAD, and Olney Magazine. Librarian at Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin. PhD in English and creative writing, University of Southern Mississippi.

Jonathan Travelstead

Author of How We Bury Our Dead (Cobalt Press, 2015), Conflict Tours (Cobalt Press, 2017), and The Cloud Understands Our Scarecrow Hearts (2025).

Lesley Doyle Brower

Author of Salt Lick Prayer (Finishing Line Press, 2017).

Max Schleicher

Poet-in-residence at Ripon College, 2025. Work in Poetry, Fence, Subtropics, Mid-American Review, Zócalo Public Square, and Shenandoah. Anthologized in New Poetry from the Midwest. PhD candidate, University of Utah.

Sarah McCartt-Jackson

Author of Stonelight (Airlie Press, 2018), winner of the 2017 Airlie Prize, the 2018 Weatherford Award in Poetry, and the 2020 Phillip H. McMath Post-Publication Book Award. Chapbooks: Calf Canyon (Brain Mill Press, 2018, selected by Kiki Petrosino), Vein of Stone (Porkbelly Press), and Children Born on the Wrong Side of the River (Casey Shay Press), winner of the 2015 Mary Ballard Poetry Prize. Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship; Barbara Deming Memorial Award for Poetry. Artist-in-residence, Great Smoky Mountains and Acadia National Parks.

Sequoia Nagamatsu

Author of How High We Go in the Dark (William Morrow, 2022), a national bestseller and New York Times Editors' Choice, shortlisted for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize, longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Story collection: Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone (Black Lawrence Press). Work in Conjunctions, The Southern Review, Tin House, Iowa Review, and ZYZZYVA. Teaches creative writing at Saint Olaf College and the Rainier Writing Workshop Low-Residency MFA program.

Leslie Adams

Recipient of the Dorothy Sargeant Rosenberg Poetry Prize, 2012 and 2014.

Nick Ostdick

Co-editor of Hair Lit, Vol. 1 and The Man Date: 15 Bromances. Winner of the Viola Wendt Award for Fiction.

Ruth Awad

Lebanese-American poet and 2021 NEA Poetry Fellow. Author of Outside the Joy (Third Man Books, 2024), which received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and Set to Music a Wildfire (Southern Indiana Review Press, 2017), winner of the 2016 Michael Waters Poetry Prize and the 2018 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. Co-editor, with Rachel Mennies, of The Familiar Wild: On Dogs and Poetry (Sundress Publications, 2020). Recipient of Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards in 2016 and 2020. Winner of the 2011 Copper Nickel Poetry Contest and the 2012 Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize; finalist for the 2013 Ruth Lilly Fellowship. Work widely anthologized, most recently in You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, edited by Ada Limón. Poems in The Atlantic, AGNI, Poetry, Poem-a-Day, The Believer, The New Republic, Pleiades, and Waxwing.

Shawn Andrew Mitchell

Editor of Mine is Clouds: 16 Writers on the Life and Legacy of Richard Brautigan; co-editor of The Man Date: 15 Bromances.

Brenna Working Lemieux

Author of the poetry collection The Gospel of Household Plants (Quercus Review Press, 2015, winner of the Quercus Review Press Poetry Book Contest) and chapbook Blankness, Melancholy, and Other Ways of Dying. Fiction published in Catapult, Willow Springs, Meridian, Redivider, CALYX, Epiphany, and The Worcester Review.

Mark Brewin

Author of Scrap Iron (University of Utah Press, 2013), winner of the Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize.

Amie Whittemore

Amie Whittemore (she/her) is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Nest of Matches (Autumn House Press), and the chapbook Hesitation Waltz (Midwest Writing Center). She was the 2020-2021 Poet Laureate of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Her poems have won multiple awards, including a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize, and her writing has appeared in Blackbird, Colorado Review, Terrain.org, Pleiades, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing at Eastern Illinois University.

Jenna Bazzell

Author of chapbook Homeland, published in Floodgate Poetry Series Vol. 1 (Upper Rubber Boot Books, 2014) alongside Campbell McGrath and Martin Anthony Call. Winner of the 2010 AWP Intro Journal Award and Honorable Mention from the Academy of American Poets Prize. Professor at Monroe County Community College and HACC, Central Pennsylvania's Community College.

Alex Lumans

Co-editor of Apocalypse Now: Poems and Prose from the End of Days (Upper Rubber Boot Books, 2012).

Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum

Author of three poetry collections: Ghost Gear (University of Arkansas Press, 2014), Visiting Hours, and Fight or Flight. Editor of Apocalypse Now: Poems and Prose from the End of Days (Upper Rubber Boot Books, 2012). Founder and editor of the Floodgate Poetry Series (Upper Rubber Boot Books / Etchings Press). Creator and editor of PoemoftheWeek.com. Creator, producer, and host of The Nashville Poetry Party. Acquisitions editor for Upper Rubber Boot Books. Assistant Director of the Owsley Fork Writer's Sanctuary.

Kerry James Evans

Author of Bangalore (Copper Canyon Press, 2013).

Jared Yates Sexton

Author of short story collections An End to All Things and The Hook and the Haymaker.

Jason Lee Brown

Author of novel Prowler (Zetabella Press, 2014).

Martin Anthony Call

Author of chapbook The Fermi Sea, published in Floodgate Poetry Series Vol. 1 (Upper Rubber Boot Books, 2014) alongside Jenna Bazzell and Campbell McGrath.

Sara Burge

Author of Apocalypse Ranch (C & R Press, 2010).

Ingrid Browning Moody

Author of chapbook Arriving After Dark (Texas Review Press, 2011), winner of the Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize. Winner of the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize, 2005.

Jan LaPerle

Author of It Would Be Quiet (Prime Mincer Press).

Michael Meyerhofer

Author of poetry collections Leaving Iowa (Briery Creek Press, winner of the Liam Rector First Book Award), Blue Collar Eulogies (Steel Toe Books, 2009), Damnatio Memoriae (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2011, winner of the inaugural Brick Road Poetry Prize), and What to Do If You're Buried Alive (Split Lip Press, 2015). Four prize-winning chapbooks. Novel Wytchfire (Red Adept Publishing, 2014), first in the Dragonkin Trilogy. Winner of the Annie Finch Prize and the James Wright Poetry Award from Mid-American Review. Work in Ploughshares, North American Review, Atlanta Review, and Verse Daily.

Chad Parmenter

Author of chapbook Bat & Man: A Sonnet Comic Book (Finishing Line Press) and Unsent Letters to Modotti (Tupelo Press, 2015).

Chad Simpson

Author of short story collection Tell Everyone I Said Hi (University of Iowa Press, 2012) and chapbook Phantoms (Origami Zoo Press, 2010).

Joan Dy

Author of chapbook The Taste of Saltwater (Finishing Line Press).

Justin Hamm

Author of Lessons in Ruin (Aldrich Press, 2014). Chapbooks: The Everyday Parade/Alone With Turntable, Old Records (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2013) and Illinois, My Apologies (RockSaw Press, 2011). Anthologized in The Captain's Tower: Poems for Bob Dylan at 70 (Seren Books, 2011).

Ben Percy

Author of novels The Wilding (Graywolf, 2010), Red Moon (Grand Central, 2013), The Dead Lands (Grand Central, 2015), The Dark Net (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), The Ninth Metal (2021), The Unfamiliar Garden (2022), and The Sky Vault (2023). Short story collections Refresh, Refresh (Graywolf, 2007) and Suicide Woods (Soft Skull, 2019). Essay collection Thrill Me. Comic book writer for Marvel and DC, including X-Force, Wolverine, Nightwing, Ghost Rider, and The Punisher. Work in Esquire, GQ, The Paris Review, and The Wall Street Journal. Recipient of the Whiting Writers' Award, two Pushcart Prizes, and an NEA Fellowship. 2023 McKnight Fellow in Media Arts.

Curtis L. Crisler

Indiana Poet Laureate, 2024–present. Author of poetry collections Tough Boy Sonatas (Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press), Pulling Scabs (Aquarius Press), Dreamist (Aquarius Press, YA), 'This' Ameri-can-ah (Cherry Castle Publishing), Black Achilles (Accents Publishing), THe GReY aLBuM (Steel Toe Books), Indiana Nocturnes (Nebo Publishing), Don't Moan So Much (Stevie) (Kattywompus Press), and Doing Drive-Bys on How to Find Love in the Midwest (C & R Press, 2024). Recipient of Cave Canem, City of Asylum/Pittsburgh, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts fellowships; Sterling Plumpp First Voices Poetry Award; Indiana Arts Commission Grants. Creator of the sonastic poetry form and the Indiana Chitlin Circuit. Professor of English at Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Kevin McKelvey

Author of chapbook Dream Wilderness, part of a book-length sequence inspired by the Charles C. Deam Wilderness Area in Indiana. Recipient of an Indiana Arts Commission grant to write poems about Indiana's Wabash River. Assistant Professor of English, University of Indianapolis.

Melanie Dusseau

Author of The Body Tries Again (WordTech Communications, 2009).

Adrian Matejka

Author of The Devil's Garden (Alice James Books, 2002, winner of the New York/New England Award), Mixology (Penguin, 2009, winner of the National Poetry Series, finalist for NAACP Image Award), The Big Smoke (Penguin, 2013, winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, finalist for the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize in Poetry), Map to the Stars (Penguin, 2017), and Somebody Loves You (Penguin, 2022). Graphic novel: Last on His Feet (with Youssef Daoudi, 2023), finalist for the 2024 Eisner Award. New collection Be Easy forthcoming 2026, receiving starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and named one of the most anticipated poetry books of 2026 by Literary Hub. Editor-in-Chief of Poetry Magazine. Recipient of Guggenheim and Lannan Fellowships.

Paul Guest

Author of poetry collections The Resurrection of the Body and the Ruin of the World (New Issues Poetry Prize, 2003), Notes for My Body Double (Prairie Schooner Book Prize, 2006), My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge (Ecco, 2008), and Exit Interview. Memoir: One More Theory About Happiness (Ecco, 2010), an account of the bicycle accident at age twelve that left him quadriplegic, and his recovery through poetry. Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Virginia.