The English Department

Bridget Adams has been published in The Sun, Willow Springs, Hobart, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and elsewhere. She received her MFA from Bowling Green State University, where she was the winner of a Devine Fellowship and Fiction Editor at Mid-American Review. She is currently a PhD student at FSU.

Fatima Jamal Alharthi is pursuing her PhD in Fiction at Florida State University. She received her master's degree from the University of Sydney in 2012, and earned her BA in English from Taibah University, Saudi Arabia in 2008. Her fiction can be found on Smokelong Quarterly, Every Day Fiction, Flyleaf Journal, Garfield Lake Review and Santa Ana River Review, among others.

Tacey M. Atsitty is a second-year PhD student in Creative Writing (Poetry). She holds bachelor’s degrees from Brigham Young University and the Institute of American Indian Arts, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in POETRY; EPOCH; Kenyon Review Online; Prairie Schooner; When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry; and other publications. Her first book is Rain Scald (University of New Mexico Press, 2018). taceymatsitty.com

Ifeoluwa Ayandele was born in rural Ago Are, Nigeria, the son of a painter. He is pursuing an MFA in Poetry at Florida State University and he has received an MA in English Literature at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. His work is published in The McNeese Review, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Shift: A Journal of Literary Oddities, Cider Press Review, Rattle, Pidgeonholes, Verse Daily, and elsewhere.

Laura Biagi is a PhD student in Fiction at FSU, where she is Editor-in-Chief of the Southeast Review. She is the recipient of a Kentucky Emerging Artist Award, and her work has been published in Anthropology & Humanism. She received her MFA from the University of Houston, where she was Fiction Editor of Gulf Coast. Previously, she worked as a literary agent in New York, where she sold New York Times bestselling titles.

Mason Boyles is a second-year PhD student in fiction at FSU. His novel Bark On is forthcoming from Driftwood Press in 2022. His short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in the Wisconsin Review, The Masters Review, The Westchester Review, the Baltimore Review, Flying South, The New Guard, and Black Dandy, among others. He enjoys swimming, riding his bike, and running very long ways through the woods very slowly.

Sarah Destin is a PhD student in fiction at FSU. She received her MFA from the University of Washington and her BA from Hamilton College. Her work has appeared in Bennington Review, The Pinch, Hobart, and other journals. She is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Gemma English is a first-year MFA student in fiction. She graduated from Columbia University in 2019 with a degree in Creative Writing. In her work, she is interested in exploring the intersect between genre and literary fiction.

Alyssa Freeman-Moser is a first-year MFA student studying fiction. She recently graduated with an MA in English from Kansas State University where she taught first-year composition. Before K-State, Alyssa worked a sales job in DC and earned an MA in political communication from The Johns Hopkins University. Check out her story “The Bugman” in Dartmouth’s Meetinghouse.

Daniel Galef is a third-year MFA student. His first book, Imaginary Sonnets (Able Muse/Word Galaxy Press, 2023), is a collection of persona poems each from the point of view of a different obscure historical figure, literary character, or inanimate object. He also writes fiction, and his stories have appeared in the Indiana Review, Juked, and the 2020 Best Small Fictions anthology. His debut collection can be ordered at www.ablemusepress.com/books/daniel-galef-imaginary-sonnets-poems.

Nicholas Goodly earned their MFA from Columbia University. Their chapbook Black Swim won the 2017 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. They were runner-up for the 2019 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and finalist for the 2020 Jake Adam York Prize. Goodly is writing editor of WUSSY. They live in Atlanta.

Samuel Granoff is a first-year PhD student in Fiction. He holds degrees from Columbia University, Duke University, and the University of San Francisco. He has taught classes on The Beatles, Westerns, and baseball, and pitched professionally in Europe this past summer. He is currently working on a novel about the game.

Iain Grinbergs (he/they) is a PhD student in creative writing with an MA from the University of Alabama and a BA from Florida State. He was named a finalist in Black Lawrence Press’s Fall 2021 Black River Chapbook Competition. You can find his recent work in Wilderness House Literary Review, Jersey Devil Press, Ghost Parachute, and Juke Joint.

Amanda Hadlock is a third-year MFA candidate in fiction writing at Florida State University where she is Assistant Editor for Southeast Review. She received her MA in English in spring 2020 from Missouri State University, where she also worked as the Graduate Assistant for Moon City Press/Moon City Review. Her nonfiction, fiction, and graphic narrative work has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as NPR/WFSU’s All Things Considered, Essay Daily, Fractured Lit’s second anthology volume, judged by Deesha Philyaw, Hobart, Wigleaf, New Limestone Review, The Florida Review, and others.

Liesel Hamilton is a PhD candidate in nonfiction writing and holds an MFA from George Mason University. She is the author of Wild South Carolina (Hub City Press, 2016) and has been published in Catapult, The Normal School, and Audubon, among other publications. She has received fellowships from George Mason University and the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center.

Brett Hanley is a third-year PhD student in Poetry and a Poetry Editor for Southeast Review. She holds an MFA from McNeese State. Her work is forthcoming or has recently been published in River Styx, Gulf Coast, Puerto del Sol, Yemassee, the minnesota review, Juked, Crab Creek Review, Underblong, North American Review, and Hotel Amerika. Her chapbook, Defeat the Rest, is forthcoming from American Poetry Journal.

Rebecca Holcomb is pursuing an MFA in nonfiction. She holds a BA in English from Louisiana State University, Alexandria, an MAT in secondary teaching from Northwestern State University, Natchitoches, and served at Title I schools as a high school English teacher for five years. Having previously lived in Asheville, NC, Las Vegas, NV, and New Orleans, LA, her writing explores transience, family dynamics, and regional identities.

Stephen Hundley is an author and former high school teacher from Savannah, Georgia, pursuing a PhD in English with a Creative Writing Concentration at Florida State. He is a fiction editor for Driftwood Press and holds an MA in English from Clemson, and an MFA in fiction from the University of Mississippi. Stephen’s first collection of fiction, The Aliens Will Come to Georgia First, will be published by North Georgia UP in the Spring of 2022, and he is currently seeking representation for his novel, Fish and Wildlife, a surreal coming-of-age set in Georgia’s Sea Islands.

Alex Jaros received his MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia College Chicago in 2015, where he was a Follett Fellowship recipient. He earned his BA in English from the University of Missouri in 2011. His work can be found in Narrative Magazine, Glimmer Train, Bird’s Thumb, Ghost Proposal, LDOC, Goreyesque, and Epic. He hails from Kansas City, Missouri, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing at Florida State University.

Max Lasky is a poet from New Jersey, pursuing a PhD in creative writing. His poems have been published by Frontier Poetry and are forthcoming from Painted Bride Quarterly. He is the co-founder of the literary magazine Leavings (leavingslitmag.com). He earned a B.A. from Ramapo College and an MFA from the University of Maryland.

Zuleyha Ozturk Lasky is a poet from Turkey, pursuing an MFA in poetry. Her poems have appeared in The Adroit Journal, Epiphany, Small Orange, and are forthcoming in Salamander. She was selected as a finalist for the 2022 Gregory Djanikian Scholars Prize. She is the co-founder of the literary magazine Leavings, which can be found at www.leavingslitmag.com, and is an assistant poetry editor at Narrative magazine.

Melvin Li is a first-year PhD student in Fiction at Florida State University, where he has been awarded a Legacy Fellowship. He received a BA in English with a minor in Asian American Studies from Cornell University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa.

Brandi Nicole Martin’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in the Missouri Review, the Cincinnati Review, Prairie Schooner, Colorado Review, Bennington Review, Crazyhorse, Redivider, and At Length, among others. She is pursuing her PhD in poetry at Florida State University.

Olga Mexina is pursuing a PhD in Poetry. She was born in St. Peterburg, Russia. Olga has an MFA in Poetry from the University of Houston; she is a writer, translator, and editor. She lives with her daughter Elsa and her son Huckleberry.

Olivia Murphy is a PhD student in Poetry originally from Atlanta, Georgia. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from University of North Carolina Wilmington and received her BS from Berry College. Her work has recently been featured in Nelle and Palaver.

Hera Naguib is a PhD candidate in Poetry at Florida State University and holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Her work if forthcoming or has appeared in Poets.org, The Common, World Literature Today, The Cincinnati Review, Gulf Coast, Prairie Schooner, among others. Raised in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Toronto, Canada, Hera hails from Lahore, Pakistan. Find her online at heranaguib.com.

Originally from Louisville, KY, Gwen Niekamp (she/her/hers) is pursuing her Ph.D. in creative writing (nonfiction) at Florida State University. An alumna of Vassar College, Gwen received her MFA from Washington University in St. Louis in 2019. Upon graduation, she was awarded a Senior Teaching Fellowship to facilitate advanced creative nonfiction workshops and a graduate-level teaching seminar. Gwen’s writing has appeared in Boulevard, Belt Magazine’s Louisville Anthology, Essay Daily, Hippocampus, and Hobart Pulp.

Hayden Nielander is a poet from the Florida Heartland pursuing an MFA in Poetry. He earned a BA in English from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her works have appeared in Isele Magazine, Catapult, and Guernica. She is a 2021 recipient of the Elizabeth George Foundation Grant. She is currently a first-year Creative Writing (Fiction) PhD student at Florida State University. Home for her is Lagos, Nigeria.

Sarah E. Robinson is a PhD student in fiction. She has a BA in English and Studio Arts from the University of New Mexico and received her MFA from the University of Houston. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Leavings and The Cincinnati Review.

T. Dallas Saylor is a second-year PhD student in poetry, & he holds an MFA from the University of Houston. His work meditates on the body, especially gender and sexuality, against physical, spiritual, and digital landscapes. His poetry has been featured or is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, Colorado Review, Christianity & Literature, PRISM international, and elsewhere.

Aimee Seu is a Poetry PhD student coming from Charlottesville, VA, where she received her MFA in poetry at UVA. Her first collection of poetry, Velvet Hounds, won the Akron Poetry Prize in 2020 and will be published in February 2022. She is originally from the beautiful, dirty, wretched, delicious city of Philadelphia.

Erin Slaughter is the author of A Manual for How to Love Us, a short fiction collection forthcoming from Harper Perennial in spring 2023, and two books of poetry: The Sorrow Festival (CLASH Books, forthcoming summer 2022) and I Will Tell This Story to the Sun Until You Remember That You Are the Sun (New Rivers Press, 2019). She is editor/co-founder of The Hunger, and her writing has appeared in Black Warrior Review, CRAFT, Slice, The Rumpus, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. Originally from Texas, she holds an MFA in prose from Western Kentucky University and is a PhD candidate in poetry at Florida State University, where she co-hosts the Jerome Stern Reading Series and formerly served as Nonfiction Editor of the Southeast Review. You can find her online at erin-slaughter.com

Daniel Sutter is currently pursuing a PhD in fiction at Florida State University and holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans Creative Writing Workshop. His work can be found in The Carolina Quarterly, BOOTH, Fugue, Fiction Southeast, and has been named a finalist for the Iowa Review Award in Fiction, among others. He is from Tampa, Florida.

KT studied narrative medicine & specialized in poetry in the Creative Writing and Writing for Performing Arts MFA at the University of California, Riverside where she served as poetry editor for Santa Anna River Review. She is currently a second-year PhD student at Florida State University where she specializes in poetry and serves as book reviews editor for Southeast Review. Her work is included or forthcoming in Peripheries, Foothill Journal, New Limestone Review, Peacock Journal, Southern Women's Review, The McNeese Review, Turtle Island Quarterly & White Stag Journal.

Natalie Tombasco is pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing at Florida State University and serves as the Interviews Editor of the Southeast Review. Her work can be found in Copper Nickel, Fairy Tale Review, Yalobusha Review, The Rumpus, Southern Indiana Review, Poet Lore, and VIDA Review, among others. She has a chapbook titled Collective Inventions out with CutBank Books, 2021.