Emerson Writing MFA Celebrating 40th Anniversary at AWP Conference

Writing, Literature and Publishing’s MFA turns 40 in 2024, and in celebration, a panel of alums will converge on the annual Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) conference in February to present a panel, Emerson MFA at Forty: Celebrating Four Decades of Writing & Publishing.

The five alum writers – Ciera Burch, MFA ’20; Rebecca Morgan Frank, MFA ’03; Kenan Orhan, MFA ’18; Shuchi Saraswat, MFA ’10; and Madeline Sneed, MFA ’20 – will discuss how their work in publishing informs their writing, and give readings of work (poetry, essays, stories, novels, YA, and translation) they have published.

Joining them in Kansas City or online will be dozens of alums and faculty members, who are sitting on panels, giving readings, and talking about teaching writing.

The AWP Conference & Bookfair convenes writers, teachers, students, editors, and publishers of contemporary creative writing for four days of events and exhibits that celebrate the joy and value of the written word. This year’s conference (Feb. 7-10) will feature a keynote address by poet Jericho Brown.

On Thursday, Feb. 8, 6-7:30 pm CST, Emerson will host a 40th anniversary celebration at the Kansas City Marriott Downtown. All conference attendees are invited.

Here’s who’s participating in the conference (visit the website for descriptions/schedules):

Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, MFA ’10 is on three panels — Queer Speculation: Transing Genre, Transing Gender; The Hybrid Memoir: Weaving Personal Narrative with Research; and Writing Trans Sex.

Danielle Legros Georges ’86, LHD ’16 will sit on Gathering the Loose Petals: A Celebration of the Work of Afaa Michael Weaver, and Readings from Wheatley at 250: Black Women Poets Reimagine the Verse of Phillis Wheatley Peters.

Matthew Salesses, MFA ’10 will join Crafting Unforgettable Characters – A Writer’s Guide to Storytelling and Vision & Re-Vision: Teaching Revision in University & Community Workshops.

Sophie Klahr ’07 will sit on Against Tradition, Tradition: Contradiction & the Prose Poem and Whose Line Is It Anyway? The Ecstasy & Agony of Collaborative Books

Rachel Simon ’15 will join Everything Is Awful: Sustaining Through Shitstorms & Systemic Obstacles and Exhausted & Overwhelmed: Attempting Queer Joy in 2024.

More Emersonians:

Eloisa Amezcua, MFA ’14 – Biography: The Radical Work of Writing Lives

G’Ra Asim ’14 – Rebel Voices Only

Kurt Baumeister, MFA ’99 – Down to the Wire: The Nuts & Bolts of Editing a Manuscript to Publication

Devon Capizzi, MFA ’20 – Split/Lip Press 10th Anniversary Reading

Sarah Chaves ’11 – The Stages of Writing & Publishing a Memoir

Kirstin Chen, MFA ’10 and Kim Liao, MFA ’09 – Beyond the Debut: Publisher One-Night Stands vs. Long-Term Relationships

Andrea Dupree, MFA ’97 – Evolving Literary Landscape: Creating Innovative Programming at Literary Centers

Lorena Hernández Leonard, MA ’11 and Shuchi Saraswat, MFA ’10 – Lit Mags Explore Challenges & Methods of Expanding Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Edwin Hill, MFA ’03, affiliated faculty member – It’s a Crime! Genre Fiction’s Bad Rap (Sheet) in Academia’s Mean Streets

Taylor Johnson ’17 – Toward a Poetics of Tenderness: Hegemonic Masculinity & the Poetic Imagination

Alden Jones, writer-in-residence, and Zoe Sprankle ’20 – Queer Architectures: New Models for Memoir

Joanna Luloff, MFA ’02 – Collaboration in the Creative Writing Classroom

Matt Miller, MFA ’01 — Heroic Crowns: On the Values of Difficulty & Dazzle

Matt Miller, MFA ’05 — When the Old Names Fail Us

Phong Nguyen, MA ’02 – Show (Me), Don’t Tell: Missouri Writers Grappling with the State of Their State

Kim Roberts ’84 – Creating Community Residencies to Celebrate Queer Writers

Ivelisse Rodriguez, MFA ’00 – Breaking Silence: The Ethics of Writing Inherited Trauma across Genres

Anna Ross, affiliated faculty member – Inside Out, Outside In: How Teaching in Prison Affects Creative Pedagogy

Wesley Rothman, MFA ’12 – Communing with James Baldwin: A Centennial Celebration

Asako Serizawa, MFA ’01 – Fictionalizing Marginalized Histories: India, Jamaica, Japan, USA

Kimberly Southwick-Thompson ’06 – Experiential Learning, Multimodality & the Publishing Classroom, Oh My!

Sebastian Stockman, MFA ’11 – About That Book Life: A Publishing Round Robin

Viktoria Valenzuela ’11 – Sin Fronteras: Navigating, Representing, and Publishing Latine Authors

Did we miss anyone? If so, email alumni@emerson.edu with the name of the panel or session they’re in.