Current Students

Read about some of our dynamic Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Poetics students, their educational backgrounds, and writing interests.

2017 Cohort

Woogee Bae

Undergraduate Institution: SUNY Buffalo
Undergraduate Degree: English
Other Degrees or Certificates: SUNY Buffalo, MA in English

Writing Interests: Translingual and transcultural poetry, documentary poetics, ecopoetics

Other Interests: Black coffee, Slytherin House, Geminis, Cate Blanchett, veggie pho, Cotes du Rhone, Sasha Velour, my friend's beagle pointer Neville, Celine Dion, Montreal, happy hours, Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc, Camembert and truffle spread on a baguette, RPDR, Spades, Rihanna (and her Instagram), homemade sugo, LotR, Archer, Pandemic the board game, satire and sarcasm
 

Aya Blackburn

Undergraduate Institution: Ringling College of Art and Design
Undergraduate Degree: Digital Filmmaking

Writing Interests: Short novels and novellas, short stories, poetry, novels in verse, screenplays, horror, made-up occult rituals and fake mythologies

Other Interests: Art, monsters, bunnies, dogs, indie movies, being alone, comfortable silence, modern dance, oddities, swimming, autumn, coffee, trees
 

Peter Buller

Undergraduate Institution: The Evergreen State College
Undergraduate Degree: Creative Writing

Writing Interests: Poetry, Literary Criticism; contemporary philosophy, surrealism, myths and myth-making

Other Interests: Letterpress printing, photography, new wave cinema, theatre
 

Reed Lowell

Undergraduate Institution: University of Washington Bothell
Undergraduate Degree: Culture, Literature, and the Arts

Writing Interests: Fantasy, science fiction, angsty poetry (primarily the less angsty stuff), and writing anything that will leave an impression on the world, though writing for writing's sake is just fine

Other Interests: Reading, listening to really chill music, video games, editing, travel, film, recording podcasts with his friend, politics (no fuzz on that), and speaking in the third person
 

Dana Middleton

Undergraduate Institution: University of North Carolina at Asheville
Undergraduate Degree: Literature- Creative Writing and a minor in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Writing Interests: prose poetry, experimental exercises, erasures, bodies and power, the boundaries of reality, poetry as an act of resistance/ acts of resistance as poetry, book thief vents rage on laureate's poetry with shotgun

Other Interests: Louise (pictured), bookmaking, crop tops, astrology, boxing
 

W. Sean Mosman Sinclair

Undergraduate Institution: The Evergreen State College
Undergraduate Degree: Philosophy/English

Writing Interests: Philosophy: Academic, Literary, and Otherwise; Speculative Fiction; “Experimental” Fictions; Good Stories; Fairytales, Folklore, Parables, Metaphors, and Analogies of All Stripes; Memoir; Poetry (and all that this entails); Physics, Math, and other Science-ish Things; Radical Literature: Feminist, Anarchist, &c.; Visual “Texts.” &c. &c., &c…

Other Interests: Critical Thinking, Community, Teaching and Learning, Not Starving to Death in the Street, The Dog Friend (Grga), Photography and other Visual Arts, Problem Solving, The Fine Art of Good (generative) Arguing, Music, Pattern Finding and Manipulation, Play, Clowning and Circus Arts. &c, &c, &c.
 

Virginia Soileau

Undergraduate Institution: University of Washington Tacoma
Undergraduate Degree: Writing Studies
Other Degrees or Certificates: Associates in Liberal Arts with an endorsement in Written Communications from Pierce Community College

Writing Interests: exploratory intermixing of Poetry and Creative Nonfiction

Other Interests: painting and photography
 

Siolotuma Thompson

Undergraduate Institution: University of Washington Seattle
Undergraduate Degree: Comparative Literature

Writing Interests: Graphic novels, comic books, cartooning, science fiction, creative non-fiction

Other Interests: Art, art history, cooking, wild swimming, animals with short legs
 

2016 Cohort

Jacquelyn Babb

Undergraduate Institution: California State University Fresno
Undergraduate Degree: Theatre Arts

Writing Interests: Kintsukuroi​ -​ things more beautiful for having been broken​​

Other Interests: Dog snuggling, bed lounging, word singing, song writing, city walking, nature viewing, googling​
 

Mike Bagby

Undergraduate Institution: University of Washington Seattle
Undergraduate Degree: English (Creative Writing)

Writing Interests: Everything, but especially Screenwriting, Fiction, and Poetry with a Horror/Fantasy/Golden Age Sci-Fi bent as well as developing randomized story/quest generation for video games and using creative writing to help people develop their empathy skills

Other Interests: Filmmaking, Music, Revolution

Cristina Cortez

Undergraduate Institution: Hofstra University
Undergraduate Degree: Double Major: English, Creative Writing & Literature, and History. Minor: Latin American & Caribbean Studies

Writing Interests: Narrative: Drama, Fairy tale, Fiction narrative, Fiction in verse, Folklore, Legend, Magical realism, Mythology, Biography/Autobiography, Adventure novel, Epic, Historical fiction, Saga, Fantasy, Epic / High fantasy,  and Alternative history. Poetry: Sonnets, Ghazal, Narrative poetry, Epic poetry, Dramatic poetry Light poetry, Oral tradition, The Metaphysical poets, The Danrin school, Romanticism, Symbolism, The Harlem Renaissance, The New York School, The Black Mountain poets, and The San Francisco Renaissance

Other Interests: Professional Speaker, Blogger, Humanities: English, Creative Writing, History, Art History, Music Theory, Irish Studies, and Latin American & Caribbean Studies. Fluent in English, Spanish and Italian. Traveled to: London, England; Doolin, Galway and Dublin, Ireland; Milan,Verona, and Venice, Italy; Mielno, Poland; Kiev, Ukraine,  Mexico City and the Mayan Riviera, Mexico; San Juan, Puerto Rico, and many Caribbean Islands, etc.

Taesung Eom

Undergraduate Institution: University of Washington Bothell
Undergraduate Degree: Culture,literature, and the Arts

Writing Interests: Fantasy, drama

Other Interests: Making sushi, reading, solitary walks in nature

Donna Griggs

Undergraduate Institution: University of California at Berkeley
Undergraduate Degree: English
Other Degrees or Certificates: Minor in Creative Writing, AA in Liberal Arts, AA in English

Writing Interests: Prose Non-fiction, Poetry and Essay writing

Other Interests: Candlelit dinners, long walks on the beach, and tongue-in-cheek humor. Long, boring documentaries, LGBTQ advocacy, cheesy 80's movies, and not taking myself too seriously. Oh, and chocolate. There must always be chocolate.

Jessica Hagy

Undergraduate Institution: Ohio University Honors Tutorial College
Undergraduate Degree: Journalism
Other Degrees or Certificates: Otterbein University, MBA

Writing Interests: Creative nonfiction, Cartooning, Allegorical Fiction

Other Interests: Calligraphy, Data Visualization, Digital Art
 

Dylan Hogan

Undergraduate Institution: Washington College
Undergraduate Degree: Philosophy

Writing Interests: Lyrical prose, poetry, compressed memoir, what it means to have a queer body, Catholic theology and religion/the divine in the mundane

Other Interests: Funky music, good vibes, playing the guitar, cooking up tasty food, stirring the political pot, refusing to get a smartphone, keeping out the riff-raff

Mitchell Koptich

Undergraduate Institution: Azusa Pacific University
Undergraduate Degree: English - Writing Concentration

Writing Interests: Fiction (both short and long), Science Fiction & Fantasy, Memoir, along with some Screenwriting, Stageplay, Meta, and Experimental writing. Major themes often include identity, depression, loss, ostracism, regret, dreams, nature, gender, and usually are self-referential and/or involve character studies.

Other Interests: Anything with a narrative. From books, film, anime, and video games; always on the lookout for an engaging story, or a compelling aesthetic. In addition to this, being a fan of the classic coffee, couch, and fireplace scene (albeit with hot chocolate instead of coffee), and good company.

Amanda Lybeck

Undergraduate Institution: Seattle University
Undergraduate Degree: English Literature, minor in Women and Gender Studies

Writing Interests: Writing for children, poetry, history + literature, the hero(ine)s journey, diving in and seeing where my words can take me

Other Interests: camping, live music, nature, spending time with my husband and son

Tomm McCarthy

Undergraduate Institution: The Evergreen State College
Undergraduate Degree: Creative Writing

Writing Interests: Science Fiction and Fantasy, Speculative Fiction and Fabulism, Secret History and Folk Tales

Other Interests: Film-making, board-gaming, and coffee-drinking

Subha Nair

Undergraduate Institution: National Institute of Technology, India
Undergraduate Degree: Bachelor of Technology in Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Other Degrees or Certificates: Certificate of Excellence, Bangalore Writers Workshop

Writing Interests: Short Stories, Articles

Other Interests: Molecular Science, Particle Theory, Mythology, Swimming, Cycling, Listening to the Smiths

Katelyn Oppegard

Undergraduate Institution: California State University, Long Beach
Undergraduate Degree: Double major in English, Creative Writing and English, Literature

Writing Interests: Creative nonfiction, prose poetry, lists

Other Interests: Harry Potter, dogs, travel, daydreaming about seeing Hamilton, trivia, naps in the sun, reading, Love, and watermelon beer (actually, all beer)

Samantha Siciliano

Undergraduate Institution: The Evergreen State College
Undergraduate Degree: 20th Century French Literature, Poetics

Writing Interests: Gastropoetics, confessionalism, notions of the body, multilingual poetry, flarf

Other Interests: Wildcrafting, French, baking, gardening, performance art, lake-swimming, toe-tapping

Jennifer Treado

Undergraduate Institution: Alverno College
Undergraduate Degree: Computing and Information Technology
Other Degrees or Certificates: Certificate in Creative Writing from Northwestern University

Writing Interests: Personal and lyric essay, flash creative nonfiction and the importance of the quotidian, cross-genre, erasure, DIY/handmade books, zines, game writing, technical writing

Other Interests: video games, cats, learning German, painting, crochet, fantasy fiction/sci-fi, Beat literature (specifically the female Beats), surrealism and postmodern art