Faculty Biographies | Master of Fine Arts in Writing

Chris Abani is a novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter and playwright. Born in Nigeria to an Igbo father and English mother, he grew up in Afikpo, Nigeria, received a BA in English from Imo State University, Nigeria, an MA in English, Gender and Culture from Birkbeck College, University of London and a PhD in Literature, and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. He has resided in the United States since 2001.

He is the recipient of the PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the Prince Claus Award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a PEN Beyond the Margins Award, the PEN Hemingway Book Prize and a Guggenheim Award.

His fiction includes The Secret History of Las Vegas, Song For Night, The Virgin of Flames, Becoming Abigail, GraceLand, and Masters of the Board. His most recent poetry collection, Smoking The Bible, was published by Copper Canyon in 2022. His other poetry collections are Sanctificum, There Are No Names for Red, Feed Me The Sun - Collected Long Poems, Hands Washing Water, Dog Woman, Daphne’s Lot, and Kalakuta Republic. His nonfiction book, The Face: A Memoir, was published in 2014.

Through his TED Talks, public speaking and essays Abani is known as an international voice on humanitarianism, art, ethics and our shared political responsibility. His critical and personal essays have been featured in books on art and photography, as well as Witness, Parkett, The New York Times, O Magazine, and Bomb.

His many research interests include African Poetics, World Literature, 20th Century Anglophone Literature, African Presences in Medieval, and Renaissance Culture, The Living Architecture of Cities, West African Music, Postcolonial and Transnational Theory, Robotics and Consciousness, Yoruba and Igbo Philosophy and Religion. Visit his website.

Sanjiv Bhattacharya is presently the U.S. Correspondent for Esquire (UK), and a general freelancer for various titles in both countries, such as The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Observer, Details, Marie Claire, and a handful of others.

He's been twice nominated for PPA Consumer Magazine Writer of the Year for his work in Esquire – in 2017, 2015 and 2013.

He grew up in London, studied at Cambridge, and spent five years at GQ (UK). He then turned to freelance and moved to Los Angeles to spend the next nine years writing features about all kinds of things, especially celebrities, subcultures, and fringe groups.

In 2005, he made a documentary about Mormon polygamy, which led to a book on the topic, Secrets & Wives: The Hidden World of Mormon Polygamy, which came out in 2011. 

In 2008 he went to India for a couple of years to edit men’s lifestyle magazines, first GQ India in Bombay and then a few other titles at the India Today Group in Delhi.

Now he is back in LA, working on more books and articles.

Dr. Adrienne Christian is a poet, writer, professor, and photographer. Her poetry books include Worn (2021, Santa Fe Writer's Project) and A Proper Lover (2017, Main Street Rag). Worn was one of The Rumpus’ Most Anticipated Books of 2021. Her poetry, prose, and photographs have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Hayden’s Ferry Review, CALYX, BUST, phoebe, No Tokens, World Literature Today, American Life in Poetry, Today’s Black Woman, African Vibes, the Los Angeles Review as the Editor’s Choice, Next Avenue, and more. 

She is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Her poem, Wedding Dress, received the 2021 Common Ground Review Poetry Award. In 2016, she was nominated for the Rita Dove International Poetry Award. In 2007, she won the University of Michigan’s Five Under Ten Young Alumni Award. 

Adrienne is a fellow of the Cave Canem, Furious Flower, and Callaloo writing residencies. She has served as editor or jury member for literary prizes including the Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize, the Penumbra Poetry and Haiku Contest, the Cave Canem Starshine and Clay Fellowship, and the Nebraska Poetry Society Poetry Award. She is also Associate Editor at Backbone Press. 

Adrienne has been featured on panels by Ms. Magazine and the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. She holds a BA from the University of Michigan, an MFA from Pacific University, and a PhD from the University of Nebraska. She teaches in the Low-Residency MFA Program at Pacific University. 

When Adrienne is not working, she is photographing the world. She has visited all 50 US states, all seven continents, and 65 of the world’s countries/territories. Read all about her adventures and see her travel photography at adriennechristian.substack.com. Though she was born and raised in Michigan, Adrienne now lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband.

Claire Davis’s first novel, Winter Range, was listed among the best books of 2000 by The Washington Post, Chicago Sun Times, The Denver Post, Seattle Post, The Oregonian, and The Christian Science Monitor, and was the first book to receive both the PNBA and MPBA awards for best fiction. Her second novel, Season of the Snake, and her short story collection, Labors of the Heart, were both released to wide critical acclaim. Her stories and essays have appeared in numerous literary magazines such as The Gettysburg Review, Shenandoah, The Southern Review, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and Best American Short Stories. She recently retired as Professor Emerita from Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho and is currently teaching at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. 

Tyree Daye was raised in Youngsville, North Carolina. He is the author of the poetry collections a little bump in the earth (Copper
Canyon Press, 2024), Cardinal (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), and River Hymns (American Poetry Review, 2017), winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize. A Cave Canem fellow and a Palm Beach Poetry Festival Langston Hughes Fellow, Daye is the recipient of a Whiting Writers Award, a Kate Tufts Award finalist, and a 2021 Paterson Prize finalist. He was the 2019 Diana and Simon Raab Writer-In-Residence at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and received an Amy Clampitt Residency. Daye is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. In January 2023, Daye served as Guest Editor of the Poem-a-Day series.

Jack Driscoll is the author of four books of poems, three collections of short stories, and four novels. In addition, he is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including two NEA Creative Writing Fellowships, the NEH Independent Study Grant, two Pushcart Prizes and Best American Short Story citations, the PEN/Nelson Algren Fiction Award, the Associated Writing Programs Short Fiction Award, and seven PEN Syndicated Project Short Fiction Awards.

His work has appeared in magazines, literary journals, and newspapers such as Chicago Tribune, Kansas City Star, Civilization, Poetry, The Georgia Review, The Southern Review, and Ploughshares.

His novel, Lucky Man, Lucky Woman, received the 1998 Pushcart Editors’ Book Award, the Barnes and Noble Discovery of Great New Writers Award, and the 1999 Independent Book Publishers Award for Fiction. His newest short story collection, The Goat Fish And The Lover's Knot, was published in 2017. Twenty Stories, a selection of his stories from over the years, was published by Pushcart in late 2022. 

Frank X. Gaspar was born and raised in Provincetown, Massachusetts, of Azorean Descent (Pico, Sao Miguel). His ancestors were traditionally whalers and Grand Banks fisherman, sailing out of the Islands and then Provincetown. He is the author of five collections of poetry and two novels. Among his many awards are multiple inclusions in Best American Poetry, four Pushcart Prizes, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature, and a California Arts Council Fellowship in poetry. His debut novel, Leaving Pico, was a Barnes and Noble Discovery Prize winner, a recipient of the California Book Award for First Fiction, and a New York Times Notable Book. His second novel, Stealing Fatima, was a MassBook of the Year in Fiction (Massachusetts Foundation for the Book). His latest book, a fusion of genres, is The Poems of Renata Ferreira.

Cate Kennedy is an Australian writer who has published two short story collections, a novel, three poetry collections, and a memoir. Her stories have appeared in many publications including The New Yorker, the Harvard Literary Review, World Literature Today, and Prospect magazine, as well as numerous Australian literary journals and periodicals including Best Australian Stories in 2006, 2007 and 2009.  Her debut collection, Dark Roots, was given a starred review upon its U.S. publication in Publishers Weekly and the Kirkus Reviews, and was chosen as a Barnes and Noble Great New Writers selection for 2008 and as Oprah magazine’s "new voice of the month" in July of that year. She is the recipient of the Queensland Literary Award for her most recent collection, Like a House on Fire, and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for her 2011 poetry collection, The Taste of River Water. Her novel, The World Beneath, was awarded the People’s Choice prize in the NSW Literary awards in 2010, and has been translated into French and Mandarin. In 2021 she completed her PhD dissertation and was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree at LaTrobe University, Melbourne. Her short story collections are both on the English syllabus in her home state of Victoria in Australia. 

Thoughts on Workshop: All I can think of to say is to echo the master, Anton Chekhov, when he said: "I still lack a political, religious, and philosophical world view. I change it every month, so I'll have to limit myself to the description of how my heroes love, marry, give birth, die, and how they speak."

Valerie Laken's short story collection, Separate Kingdoms, was longlisted for the Story Prize and the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. Her novel, Dream House, received the Anne Powers prize for fiction and was listed among Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2009. Her work has been published in numerous journals, including Ploughshares, Chicago Tribune, and Alaska Quarterly Review, and has received a Pushcart Prize and a Missouri Review Editors' Prize. She holds an MA in Slavic literature and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan, and she teaches in the graduate program for creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Thoughts on Workshop: My goal in workshop is to foster a supportive community where writers feel safe sharing complex, imperfect work, and where readers are dedicated to helping their peers discover the best ways to advance and refine that work. We learn and show respect by taking one another’s work seriously and offering generous, thoughtful reactions rather than formulaic instructions. In my workshops, the author is free to ask questions, express their intentions for their work, and redirect the discussion. Our goal, as a group, is not to impose our values or aesthetic on someone else’s work, but to help each author discover and build on what is most unique and essential in their voice.

Dorianne Laux's newest poetry collection, Only As The Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems (W.W. Norton, 2019) was selected as a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. She is also the author of The Book of Men (winner of the Paterson Prize), Facts about the Moon (winner of the Oregon Book Award), as well as two collections of poetry from BOA Editions: Awake: What We Carry (finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), and Smoke. She is co-author of The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry. Her work has been translated into many languages and has appeared in The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry and in The Best American Poetry four times. She has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, two fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Laux was elected Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2020.

Thoughts on Workshop: Our workshops are a place to present fresh work and receive feedback from a group of peers guided by your teacher. We value specific, concise, considered comments on thematics and craft. The aim is to give the poet useful information with which to continue their work. I encourage a supportive and friendly atmosphere where we feel welcomed, comfortable, and included, all of us working together for the benefit and betterment of each presented poem.  

From Jamaica, and born to a Jamaican father and Venezuelan mother, Shara McCallum is the author of six books of poetry published in the US and UK, most recently No Ruined Stone (2021), which won the 2022 Hurston/Wright Legacy award and named a finalist for the 2022 UNT Rilke Prize. La historia es un cuarto, an anthology of her poems translated into Spanish by Adalber Salas Hernández, was published in Mexico in 2021. McCallum’s poems have been translated into several other languages and her poems and essays have appeared throughout the US, Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Her writing has been awarded various prizes, including the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry, a Silver Musgrave Medal from the Jamaican government, a Witter Bynner Fellowship from the US Library of Congress, and a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship. McCallum is an Edwin Erle Sparks Professor at Penn State University and was appointed the 2021-22 Penn State Laureate.

Thoughts on Workshop: Each workshop is a unique community we form, as practitioners with various subjectivities, brought together through our shared investment in the art and craft of poetry. To reflect this, in our discussions of poems I discourage consensus, unless this happens organically. Instead, I encourage the voicing of a multiplicity of—sometimes contradictory—readings and responses. Central to my idea of workshop is the belief that poems aren’t broken. We aren’t there to “fix” a poem or “torture a confession out of it.” When invited by a poet into their process, I think we serve and honor both the poet and the poem by reading closely, with a keen focus on identifying the poem’s effect and resonances as well as its aspirations and possibilities.

Mahtem Shiferraw is a writer and visual artist from Ethiopia and Eritrea. Her work has been published in various literary magazines, including Callaloo, Prairie Schooner, Poets.org, The 2River View, Luna Luna Magazine, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Numero Cinq, and more. Her short story "The River" received an Honorable Mention at Glimmer Train’s Open Fiction Contest. In 2016, she won the Sillerman Prize for African Poets and her full-length collection, Fuchsia, was published by the University of Nebraska Press. Her poetry chapbook, Behind Walls & Glass, was published by Finishing Line Press. Her most recent collection, Your Body is War, is out now from the University of Nebraska Press. She has served as editor for Atlas and Alice, The Bleeding Lion, The Hunger Mountain, and more. She is the founder of Anaphora Arts, a nonprofit organization working to advance the works of writers and artists of color. She has served as a jury member for different literary prizes and residencies, including the Neudstat International Prize for Literature, the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, the Lucy Munro Brooker Prize, and more. She is a Pushcart prize nominee, and her work has been anthologized widely. In 2018, she received the Imani Award for Artistic Excellence from Harvard University. As of 2020, she also serves on the Editorial Board of World Literature Today. She holds an MFA from Vermont College. Her next poetry collection, Nomenclatures of Invisibility, will be published by BOA Editions, Ltd. in Spring, 2023. 

Thoughts on Workshop: The workshop is a space for thoughtful discourse and discernment; we are here to learn about craft, but also to mitigate our differences, to elevate one another in our storytelling, in our common purpose. The workshop also provides an opportunity to understand new perspectives, to deepen our empathy, and to move forward with compassion. 

Willy Vlautin has published six novels: The Motel Life (2007), which was The New York Times Editors’ Choice and Notable book, and was made into a major motion picture starring Dakota Fanning, Emile Hirsch, Stephen Dorff, and Kris Kristofferson; Northline (2008); Lean on Pete (2010), which won the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction, was short-listed for the IMPAC award, and is soon to be a film starring Steve Buscemi and Chloe Sevigny; The Free (2014), winner of the Oregon People’s Choice Award; and Don't Skip Out On Me (2018). His latest novel, The Night Always Comes, was released in April, 2021. His work has been translated into eight languages.

Vlautin founded the bands Richmond Fontaine in 1994 and The Delines in 2014, featuring vocalist Amy Boone (The Damnations). He currently resides in Scappoose, Oregon.

Thoughts on Workshop: Workshop is an important part of the program, where students can learn to see their work from the diverse perspectives of their fellow students. Discussion and critique are valuable tools for honing our craft, and workshop should be a place where all students feel safe to share their work. Students should come to it with open minds, ears, and hearts. My goal is for students to be inspired and motivated by the discussions we have in workshop.

Cecily Wong is the author of three books. Her debut novel, Diamond Head (Harper), was a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, recipient of an Elle Readers' Prize, and voted a best debut of the 2015 Brooklyn Book Festival. Her second novel, Kaleidoscope (Dutton), was a best book of the month at Buzzfeed, Apple Books, and Today.com. Cecily is also the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Gastro Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to Food (Workman Publishing). Cecily’s work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The LA Review of Books, Self Magazine, Bustle, Atlas Obscura, and elsewhere. She is the 2023 recipient of an Oregon Literary Fellowship. A graduate of Barnard College, Cecily now lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and daughter.