Tag: MFA Alumni Accomplishment

2012 graduate in fiction, Leyna Krow, has made the inland northwest her home for the past decade since moving to Spokane for her MFA. Taking her love for Spokane and its culture, geography, and weirdness in general, she has chosen this place as the setting for her debut novel Fire Season which was published by Viking…

MFA alum, Kathryn Smith’s second full-length poetry collection Self-Portrait with Cephalopod, was the winner of the Copper Nickel Jake Adam York Prize. It was published by Milkweed Editions in early 2021.            

Shawn Vestal, alum and visiting writer/professor at Eastern, received the $25,000 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction for his short story collection Godforsaken Idaho. The award was announced in September of 2014 by the PEN American Center and he received the prize from Louise Erdrich at a ceremony at the New School.    …

MFA alum, Kathryn Smith’s debut poetry collection, Chosen Companions of the Goblin, won the 2018 Open Country Chapbook Contest which was chosen by Heather Cahoon. The collection was published in 2019 by Open Country Press.            

2010 MFA graduate in fiction, Ashley Wurzbacher’s debut short story collection Happy Like This, won the John Simmons Iowa Short Fiction award and was published by the University of Iowa Press in October 2019. The collection features some stories from her thesis from her time at Eastern’s MFA program!            

2018 graduate of Eastern’s MFA in poetry, Kimberly Povloski’s debut poetry collection Hell of Birds won the Adrift Chapbook Contest by Driftwood Press and was published in January 2019.    

MFA alum, Kathryn Nuernberger’s book The End of Pink received the 2015 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, which is given to recognize a superior second book of poetry by an American poet. It was published by BOA Editions in 2016. Her debut poetry collection, Rag & Bone, won the Antivenom Prize from Elixir…

2014 graduate of Eastern’s MFA program in poetry, Kate Peterson’s chapbook Grist won the 2016 Floating Bridge Chapbook Prize and was published in October of 2016.            

MFA in poetry alum, Kimberly Lambright’s debut poetry collection Ultra-Cabin won the 42 Miles Press poetry award and was published in the fall of 2016. Here is what Chris Howell, professor Emeritus at Eastern’s MFA program, has to say about the collection: “I am stunned by Kimberly Lambright’s verbal acuity, its lightning shifts and sudden,…

2001 MFA alum in fiction, Wendy J. Fox, just published a short story collection titled The Seven Stages of Anger and Other Stories. Wendy is originally from Denver, Colorado and her short story collection was named the winner of the 2014 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction. Her manuscript was selected by Kevin Morgan Watson and Christine…