MFA alum John Rice just had a piece published by McSweeney’s Internet Tendency this morning, a review of the 7-Eleven french toast breakfast sandwich, under their Reviews of New Foods section.

McSweeney’s Publishing is a non-profit publishing house based in San Francisco, California, founded by author Dave Eggers in 1998. In addition to their daily humor website, McSweeney’s also publishes approximately ten titles a year, as well as the quarterly literary journal Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, The bimonthly magazine The Believer, Illustoria (an art and storytelling magazine for six to 11-year olds), and, formerly, the legendary food journal Lucky Peach.

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency is considered one of the most preeminent publications for literary satire and humor, so a big congratulations to John is in order!

Go check it out now, and think about it every time you are near a 7-Eleven:

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/7-eleven-french-toast-sandwich-with-sausage-egg-cheese-and-chipotle-bacon-mayonnaise-dressing

We just got some excellent news today: MFA student Richard Prins has been selected for The Best American Essays 2024. Richard, fresh off the heels of winning an NEA Fellowship, had his essay “Because: An Etiology” selected by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and acclaimed New York Times critic Wesley Morris.

The Best American series selects twenty essays out of thousands of nominations from literary journals which represent the best examples of the form published the previous year. Each year an established writer is brought in to act as judge for this prestigious anthology, but is presided over by series editor Kim Dana Kupperman at HarperCollins.

The anthology officially publishes towards the end of October, so you can preorder your copy now. Or, you can read Richard’s inventive essay “Because: An Etiology” in the Potomac Review.

Congratulations, Richard!

I’m seeing double–two QC MFA Programs?!

Students from our MFA Program in Creative Writing met up and held a reading in the thesis show for the QC MFA in Studio Art this past weekend, at Art Cake Gallery.

Our MFA candidates read in front of visual art installations and were treated to a sound installation by our graduating MFA student Julie Goodale.

Our own Nicole Cooley’s new book of poems, Mother Water Ash, will be coming out this summer from LSU Press.

Mother Water Ash explores the personal grief of a mother’s sudden death alongside the environmental crises of the storms, fires, and floods that now dominate our world. Examining the landscapes of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, these poems ponder what it means to mourn in the face of ecological catastrophe, and traipse the terrains left by loss.

To preorder your copy, go to the LSU website:

MFA alum Todd Sullivan has a big write-up in The Korea Times, for the 10th anniversary of his literary journal, Samjoko Magazine.

Todd moved to Korea to teach English language courses and has thrived. Todd is the author of five novels, most recently Blood Stew and The Gray Man of Smoke and Shadows, as well as dozens of short stories, poems, essays, and novelettes. He was also nominated for a Pushcart Prize last year for his short story “One Hour,” in the journal After Dinner Conversations.

Congratulations on all your hard work, Todd! Go read Todd’s profile in The Korea Times:

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/04/113_369487.html

MFA student Julie Hornberger has won a 2024 National Organization of Italian American Women (NOIAW) Scholarship. Each year, NOIAW proudly awards 4-6 scholarships to deserving Italian American Women, enabling them to chase their dreams of higher education. Julie Hornberger was selected from among the many applicants because of her studies here at the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Literary Translation.

Established in 1980, the National Organization of Italian American Women (NOIAW) is dedicated to uniting, celebrating, enriching and empowering generations of Italian-American women.

Congratulations, Julie!

MFA alum Rajiv Mohabir has three poems in this Spring 2024 issue of Sixth Finch, out just today!

Sixth Finch, is a quarterly journal of poetry and art, operating continuously since 2008. You should read Rajiv’s poems right now, then think about submitting your poems for the next issue!

https://sixthfinch.com/mainspring24.html

Professor Kimiko Hahn joined First Lady Jill Biden and Kishida Yuko, wife of Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, in a cultural program as part of an official visit to Washington, just last week.

Fresh off the heels of winning the Ruth Lilly lifetime achievement award from the Poetry Foundation, Kimiko led writing exercises with a group of local high school students, which drew from her heritage and celebrated Japanese culture. The First Lady, who is herself a former teacher of writing, of course knew that Kimiko Hahn would be a great choice to lead this workshop in honor of the Japanese ambassador’s visit.

If you want to see some of this special event, you can watch the video from The White House YouTube page:

Congratulations, Kimiko!

Next year’s Visiting Professor Alaya Dawn Johnson has just been awarded the Best Fiction for Younger Readers Award by the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) for her YA novel The Library of Broken Worlds (HarperCollins).

The BSFA has a rich tradition of recognizing groundbreaking figures in the field of science fiction, so it is an honor for Johnson to be recognized. And it is just this level of skill and expertise that Johnson will bring to our MFA students starting this fall!