Brooke Burns
M.F.A. Creative Writing｜Creative Nonfiction
Brooke is a nonfiction writer from Yardley, PA. She recently graduated from the University of Vermont with a BA in Political Science. While at FAU, Brooke hopes to start her memoir, snorkel, and root for her Philly sports teams from afar. She enjoys oversharing to her cult following, listening to waves on the beach, and The Friday Bowling League.
Austin Hallstrand
M.F.A. Creative Writing｜Fiction
Austin is a novelist from Raleigh, NC. He writes contemporary, fantasy, and sci-fi, including Lie Light Truth Time, which was wildly popular among its four readers. Austin hopes to hone his craft at FAU, then get a Big 5 publishing deal. His favorite things include Twenty One Pilots, the Cosmere, Yang-Yang, and the writing in Friday Bowling League.
Sarah Belli
M.F.A. Creative Writing｜Poetry
Sarah is a poet from Sarasota, FL. She recently graduated from the University of South Florida with a BA in Economics and a BA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. Sarah hopes to spend her time at FAU writing poems, reading poems, thinking about poems, talking about poems, and going to the beach.
Ashley Perry
M.A. English ｜SciFi/Fantasy, Feminist Theory, American Lit
Ashley, a South Florida native, graduated from FAU’s Honors College with a B.A. in English and a minor in Women’s Studies. She received the Isabel Sparks President’s Award for her essay on Barbie and has published in the Sigma Tau Delta Review. She joins FAU’s M.A. program as a GTA and Arts & Letters Fellow, with the goal of becoming a professor.
Alex Lawrynas
M.A. English｜SciFi/Fantasy
Alex is a Fantasy writer with a love for dragons, magic, elves, and peppermint coffee. She has a B.A. in Creative Writing from Flagler College and hopes to author a fantasy series of books in the future. Studying Science Fiction/Fantasy at FAU allows her to combine her love for academics with her love for books.
Ashlan Stewart
M.A. English｜Rhetoric & Composition
Ashlan hails from Houston, Texas, but has spent the better part of a decade living in South Florida. She is pursuing a degree from the MA program with the hopes of passing along the love of writing to future students. She hopes to brush off and hone her analytical skills while gathering inspiration for her personal writing.
Cailey Poirier
M.A. English｜Ecocriticism
Cailey is a recent graduate at FAU with her B.A. in English. She decided to further her studies at FAU in the English M.A. program with high interest in blue ecocriticism. She hopes to gain knowledge about the connections of literature and the environment.
Carrie-Anna Wade
M.F.A. Creative Writing｜Fiction
Carrie-Anna, a South Florida native, joins FAU's MFA program with a passion for the arts. Armed with a B.A. in English, they're ready to immerse themselves in crafting emotive narratives and studying literature. Outside of their studies, they enjoy indulging in the world of cozy games, collecting oddities, and exploring niche topics.
Crystal Murr
M.F.A. Creative Writing｜Poetry
Crystal Murr is a poet from Merritt Island, Florida. She graduated with a BA in Spanish and a BA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from the University of North Florida. While at FAU, she hopes to spread her love of poetry through the classroom, foster her love of owls, and improve her writing.
Elizabeth C.
M.F.A. Creative Writing｜Poetry
Through medical struggles she faced during the coronavirus pandemic, Elizabeth found solace in writing and chose to pursue her second degree, a B.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration. To her surprise, she fell in love with poetry, experimenting with confessional poetry to advocate for herself and others with medical disabilities.
Lea Zeitler
M.A. English｜SciFi/Fantasy
Lea Zeitler, originally from Austria, recently graduated from the University of Iowa with BAs in Journalism and Sport Studies. By pursuing an M.A. with a concentration in Science Fiction and Fantasy writing, she wants to continue to evolve as a writer with the goal of publishing her own work either in a magazine or in form of a book.
Olivia Mettler
M.F.A. Creative Writing｜Poetry
Olivia Mettler is originally from Minnesota. She enjoys taking moments from everyday life and utilizing poetry to turn them into something completely unexpected. She hopes to build connections with fellow peers through the course of the MFA program.
Virginia Boyd
M.A. English｜Rhetoric & Composition
Virginia is from Ocala, Florida. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Florida. She loves studying Rhetoric & Composition, American literature, Children's literature, poetry, literary censorship, and the roles of music, law, and medicine in writing. Her goal is to help others achieve their academic pursuits at the university level.
Elizabeth Searles
M.A. English｜Race & Ethnicity Studies, Queer Theory
Elizabeth is from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. She graduated from FAU with her B.A. in Psychology and English, hoping to find a way to combine both. She is interested in exploring the ways in which personal identity influences relationships. She lives on 5 acres with 40 animals whose relationship definitely inform her own personal identity.
Izzy Martins
M.A. English｜SciFi/Fantasy
Izzy is the Oxford Comma's #1 stan. They're trying to bring back spelling 'etc' as '&c'. Besides fantasy literature, she loves food & fashion history, and expects her thesis to feature at least one page complaining about the presence of potatoes & corsets in medieval fantasy. They spend a lot of time trying to read, write, & work around their cat.
Faith Jackson
M.A. English｜SciFi/Fantasy
Faith received her B.A. in English with a concentration in Writing and Rhetoric at FAU. When she's not writing about fantastical worlds, she's studying them in the English MA Program. Working as a GTA, she's getting good practice as a professor in hopes of becoming one in the future, sharing the joy of literature.
Miranda Miller
M.A. English ｜SciFi/Fantasy
Miranda is a recent graduate of the University of Iowa. She took her B.A. in English and Creative Writing and raced down to Florida to pursue her passion for talking about books all day. You can find her using her free time to do a puzzle, listen to a podcast, or, of course, read. She's got three library cards and she's not afraid to use them!
Pilar García Guzmán
M.F.A. Creative Writing｜Fiction
Pilar García Guzmán is a fiction writer from Santiago, Dominican Republic. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English with minors in Creative Writing and Finance from University of the Incarnate Word. She is currently working on her first novel and aspires to be a full-time author and editor at a publishing house.
Taylor Pack
M.A. English｜American Literature & LGBTQ+ Studies
Taylor is a published writer and recent graduate from FAU. She earned her B.A. in English with a concentration in American Literature, and a Minor in Women and Gender Studies. She’s joined FAU’s M.A. program as a GTA and a recipient of the Next Wave Fellowship. Taylor aspires to share her love of literature and academia with her students and peers.
Jonathan Rockford
M.F.A. Creative Writing｜Creative Nonfiction
His youth, and nearly a decade of night shift janitorial and warehouse experience inform Jonathan’s research interests in labor, poverty, and social and cultural class divisions. Currently, he is translating his visual arts educational background into the writing process to engage these themes through text-based and non-traditional modalities.
Katelynn Schmiedel
M.A. English｜Rhetoric & Composition
Katelynn is a South Florida native and completed her B.A. in English at FAU with a concentration in Writing and Rhetoric and a minor in Communications Studies. She chose to pursue an M.A. to further her rhetoric and composition skills with the goal of becoming an editor or freelance writer.
Shaya Israel
M.F.A. Creative Writing｜Poetry
Shaya Israel completed her B.A. at FAU with a minor in Communication Studies. She hopes to utilize poetry to advocate for social justice and for those who lost their lives to police brutality. She also aspires to become a full time author and editor.
Sierra Lin
M.F.A. Creative Writing｜Creative Nonfiction
Sierra is a Muhlenberg College alum with a background in Environmental Science. Her current work explores her experiences growing up as a cross-cultural adoptee. In addition to her MFA, she is also part of the Environmental Studies certificate program. After graduation, she has plans to work on her memoir with her agent.
Wilson MacConnachie Sims
M.F.A. Creative Writing｜Creative Nonfiction
Wilson MacConnachie (He/Him) is a Behavioral Health Specialist and an MFA Candidate at Florida Atlantic University. His work is forthcoming in Witness Magazine and Longreads, and he was recently published in The Florida Review. He is the winner of The Lascaux Prize in Creative Nonfiction (2021). Essays and information at wilsonmsims.com
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Alex Borowsky, M.F.A. ‘24
Creative Nonfiction, Short Essays
Alex Borowsky attended SUNY Oswego and received a Bachelors in creative writing and communication studies. Borowsky fell in love with creative nonfiction, derived from her passion for animals and real world metaphor. She hopes to publish her collection of essays after receiving her MFA, and eventually become a creative writing professor.
Duncan Tierney, M.F.A. ‘24
Fiction, Science Writing, Haiku
Duncan Tierney is trying his best. He is trying so so hard at grad school. He is going to do so good :)
Justin "Jay" Hersey, M.A. ‘24
They are from Davie, FL with a B.A. in Literature, a minor in Psychology, and a certificate in Exile Studies. They have an interest with older works, related to exile, and also take interest in ancient scholars, having read Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, and Diogenes. They hope to take their gained knowledge and become a full professor of English.
Elizabeth Saldana, M.F.A. ‘23
Creative Nonfiction
After graduating from FIU with her Bachelor's Degree in English Literature in 2017, Elizabeth came to FAU to pursue her MFA in Creative Nonfiction. She looks forward to writing a collection of essays centered on parenthood, loss, and grief. Elizabeth enjoys sitting under trees and reading books at FAU.
J Q. Salazar, M.F.A. ‘23
Fiction
Born in Miami, J grew up on hip-hop music and PlayStation 1 games. After completing a four-year stint in the US Air Force, he earned degrees in Film and English at CU Denver. Through speculative and supernatural worlds, his fiction writing focuses on the nature of addiction and the many cunning, often imperceptible forms that give it shape.
Jacqueline Mullen, M.A. ‘23
Early Indigenous-American Rhetoric & Post Colonial Studies
Jacqueline Mullen is a Florida native and completed her B.A. in English at FAU with a concentration in Multicultural and Gender Studies, graduating Summa Cum Laude. She is currently a fellow with The Center for PJHR at FAU, an Early American scholar focusing on Indigenous Religious Rhetoric, Postcolonial Studies, and Environmental Literature.
Joseph Precanico, M.F.A. ‘23
Poetry, Lyric Essay, Autofiction
Joseph Precanico was born and raised in South Florida. At FAU, he enjoys working one-on-one with students at the UCEW. He is at work on a collection of poems, letters, and lyrics. In the past, he has worked as a content editor for company websites and literary magazines. His writing has been published in Permafrost, PANK, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.
Kennedy Prochak, M.A. ‘23
Nineteenth-Century British Literature
While earning her B.A. in English, Kennedy spent her undergrad years developing an appreciation for British literature, particularly the Victorian era and the interdisciplinary study of gender and sexuality. Now in the M.A. program at FAU her research interests are centered around this era’s literary canon and its shaping of the modern day.
Nannette Mudafort, M.A. ‘23
Rhetoric & Composition
Nannette is from Bradenton, Florida and completed her B.A. in English at FAU with a Concentration in Writing and Rhetoric. She is currently studying to complete her M.A with a continued focus in the field of Rhetoric with goals to grow her career as a freelance writer.
Rachelle Saint Louis, M.A. ‘23
Caribbean Literature, Ecocriticism
Rachelle Saint Louis is a Haitian-American writer, born and raised in South Florida. She received a 2018 Silver Medal in the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition for her poem “Red Blood Cell.” She earned her bachelor’s as a double major in Psychology and English with a Concentration in Multicultural and Gender Studies from FAU.
David Eileen Winn, M.F.A. ‘22
Poetry
Eileen Winn is a poet and author from Cincinnati, Ohio currently working on a collection of poems as an MFA student. They are a writing consultant, as well as the managing editor for Swamp Ape Review, the graduate-run literary magazine. After graduation, they plan to pursue a PhD, centering their creative research on trauma and the natural world.
Merkin Karr, M.F.A. ‘22
Creative Nonfiction, Epistolary Memoir
Merkin Karr is a creative writer, dog mom and teacher from Manitou Springs, Colorado. Attending FAU's Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing program, she focuses on the epistolary memoir. Her work can be found in The Laurel Review, Speciwomen Magazine, The Durango Herald, and more.
Reba K. Dickson, M.A. ‘22
Postcolonial, Critical Race, and Monster Theory
Reba K. Dickson was born and raised in Dennery, St. Lucia. She decided to pursue her MA degree because she wants to investigate the interpellated figure of the "monster" and their altruicide, in African diasporic literature. Reba hopes to pursue a PhD in English upon graduation, exploring postcolonial, African, and African Diaspora literatures.
Rebecca M. Peter, M.A. ‘22
Trauma, Archives, 20th & 21st Century American Lit
Rebecca M. Peter has background in economics, environmental studies, and editing. Upon completing her thesis on dreams and trauma in Toni Morrison’s novels, she will earn her MA in English in Spring 2022 and begin a PhD the following fall with the hopes of attaining a university faculty position or working in archiving or publishing.
Timothy Naslund, M.A. ‘22
Migrant Studies, Aesthetics, Lit Theory, Vladimir Nabokov
Timothy is from Margate, Florida, and an MA student. Upon graduating, he will pursue a PhD with aspirations of becoming a professor. His focus on migrant literature and cultural value constituting citizenship is to provide a transnational perspective toward national identity in hopes of making tangible, legislative and ideological change.
Kelsey Moghadaspour, M.F.A. ‘21
Fiction and Poetry
Kelsey was born and raised outside of Seattle, WA and has loved reading and writing ever since she can remember. Her main motivation for pursuing writing is to write the stories and the characters that she didn't have as a child, so that other children out there have the characters to look up to that she wished she had.