MFA News

What's going on with you? News about publications, presentations, and awards from MFA candidates and alumnae/i.

News: Let's Make a Video!

BA alumna Cheryl Strayed saw her younger self played by Reese Witherspoon. BA alumnus Mark Mishek leads the nation's largest nonprofit addiction treatment provider. English alums make a difference across disciplines and fields--which is why we want to make a video starring you!

News: Alumna Receives Honorary Doctorate

Pioneering feminist writer Kate Millett (BA '56) received an honorary doctorate of science on April 21 from President Eric Kaler.

A Fresh Collaboration with Wits Radio

American Public Media's wildly successful nationally syndicated comedy and music variety show Wits is produced by alumna Larissa Anderson, who turned to her alma mater to create an exclusive internship program.

English Students Rise to Challenges

Son of a Seattle longshoreman, Sam Anderson will be the first in his family to earn a bachelor's degree. Alysha Bohanon has been dealing with chronic pain for six years. Both are students recognized by the Beverly Atkinson Scholarship for Outstanding Non-Traditional English Majors. This year's English fundraising efforts are focusing on four important funds, one each for the undergraduate, MFA, and PhD programs, as well as the literary magazine produced by our graduate students, dislocate. We profile the funds over the next two issues of e-Quarterly.

Sophie Liu: A Story Like No Other

A doctoral candidate who put her studies aside in the 1980s to become a lauded Minnesota theater performer and activist died in 2013--but not before completing the short story collection that would earn her, at long last, her PhD.

New Pages

Feeling nostalgic for fall required reading? Dig into this list of new publications from English faculty, alumni, and even students--including a novel about a mermaid (by Amy Shearn), a short story about a Civil War submarine (by Ethan Rutherford), a memoir of a premature birth (by Kate Hopper), and a study of alliterative romances of the mid-fourteenth century (by Alex Mueller).