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!

MFA alum Jonathan Kravetz’s upcoming novel, How We Were Before, has its first book review up on Kirkus Reviews.

Go check out this praise-filled review and get excited for Jonathan’s book before it becomes available for purchase on May 20th!