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2019 Summer Residency
From polar vortex to rainy and sixty degrees, we're ready for summer here in Ohio. The 2019 MFA summer residency will take place July 22nd to August 2nd on Ashland University’s campus and other local spots.
Come join us for readings and craft seminars by our stunning visiting writers and brilliant faculty, workshops for all of you current students, panel talks by publishers and more.
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Welcome Hanif Abdurraqib, Visiting Writer
We are thrilled to announce that Hanif Abdurraqib will be joining us as a visiting writer this summer during our 2019 Summer residency!
Hanif is a Columbus-based poet, essayist, and cultural critic. For the residency, he'll focus primarily on creative nonfiction. His most recent book is Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest (University of Texas Press, 2019), which is already a New York Times Bestseller. His essay collection They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us (Two Dollar Radio Press, 2017) was named book of the year by NPR, The Los Angeles Review, Buzzfeed, Paste, Esquire, Oprah Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and others.
Stay tuned: we'll be announcing our other visiting writers on social media soon!
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2019 AWP Conference
We hope to see you at the 2019 AWP Conference in Portland, Oregon this year! If you plan on going, stop by our booth - 4024 - and say hello.
Also come hang out with us,VQR, Nouvella, and Zyzzyva at our party: “Meet. Greet. Eat.” The party’s on Saturday, March 30th 6:30-8 p.m. in the Weidler Room, Portland DoubleTree, Level 1. We’ll have the drinks, apps, and conversations flowing.
Many of our MFA faculty have panels and readings scheduled at the conference, so make sure to check those out, as well!
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Thinking about an MFA?
MFA Info Session at AU
If you’re in the Ashland area, swing by the Dwight Schar College of Education building, room 266, Feb. 28 th from 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. to talk with the Administrative Director and learn more about the MFA experience, the low-residency option, and more information about Ashland University's MFA. Coffee, tea, and cookies will be provided. This is an informal session, but please RSVP: mfa@ashland.edu.
Hello!
A note from the Administrative Director,
Paige Webb
As soon as I started here at Ashland this winter, I’ve felt blessed to be so warmly welcomed by the faculty, students, and alumni.
Before Ashland, I was teaching at Columbus College of Art & Design and serving as Poetry Editor for The Spectacle. I hold an MFA in Creative Writing from Washington University in St. Louis, so I’m well aware of the rich vitality an MFA experience brings.
I’ve been enamored by all of the Ashland MFA students, faculty, and alumni I’ve been chatting with, and I can’t wait to see the whole family this summer. If you’d like to say hello, feel free to contact me: pwebb2@ashland.edu / 419-289-5098.
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Faculty News
Follow @ashlandmfa on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates about our faculty, staff, alumni, and students.
Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
 Poetry Faculty
Marcelo Castillo’s debut book, Cenzontle (BOA Editions, winner of the 2017 A. Poulin, Jr. prize) was named one of NPR’s and the New York Public Library’s top books of 2018. It recently won the Golden Poppy Award from the NCIBA (Northern California Independent Booksellers Association) and the 2019 Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award in poetry.
Katherine Standerfer
Creative Nonfiction Faculty
Katherine Standerfer's essay "Diggers" is featured on VQR (Virginia Quarterly Review), which you can read in full on Instagram: Virginia Quarterly Review (@vqreview). In 2018, she completed the Logan Nonfiction Fellow at The Carey Institute for Global Good, working on her book Lightning Flowers. Katherine's work has also recently appeared in New England Review, Crazyhorse, Quarterly West, High Country News, & The Normal School.
Christian Kiefer
Director
MFA Director Christian Kiefer’s new novel Phantoms is forthcoming from Liveright (an imprint of W. W. Norton & Company) April 2019. Early praise for the book: “Sweet life spills from every perfect word. It will break your heart, and in the breaking, fill you with bittersweet but luminous joy.” — Kirkus Reviews
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Current Students News
Renee Beck 
Ashland MFA student Renee Beck's essay "Rain or Shine" is featured in Vocal Verified—Inspiring Stories from 2018—and her essay "September" is in a recent issue of Brine.
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Alumni News
Kathleen English Cadmus
Class of 2016
Alumna Kathleen English Cadmus's memoir Intertwined is slated for release this April from KiCam Press. (Fun fact: Kathleen’s daughter, Laura, is a current MFA student in creative nonfiction as well).
Bill Garten 
Class of 2018
Bill Garten's poetry collection Asphalt Heart was recently published by Main Street Rag Press. The collection is his MFA thesis, previously titled The Beginning of Trouble.
Jon Kerstetter
Class of 2011
Jon Kerstetter's memoir, Crossings, A Doctor Soldier's Story (Crown Publishing, 2017) was just released this fall in paperback. His essay "Triage," first published in River Teeth, was in Best American Essays 2013.
Angie C. Orlando
Class of 2016
Angie C. Orlando's debut, Through the Tunnel: Becoming DeafBlind, was recently released. Praise for the book: "Angie C. Orlando's prose is poetic and plainspoken at the same time. It slips into your heart and settles there to tell an unforgettable tale." - John Lee Clark. It's available in print, e-book, Kindle, and braille.
Mark Putney 
Class of 2018
Mark Putney has a new creative nonfiction piece, "Relearning Home," in Oregon Humanities.
Jan Shoemaker
Class of 2014
Jan Shoemaker’s poetry collection The Reliquary Earth was published January 2019 by Main Street Rag Press, following the publication of her essay collection, Flesh and Stones: Field Notes from a Finite World (2016).
Sarah Wells
Class of 2015
Sarah Well's essay “The Violence of the Given World” won the terrain.org nonfiction essay contest and is published here.
Sandy Wickersham-McWhorter
Class of 2013
Sandy Wickersham-McWhorter's poem "The Stars Are Our Home" appears in Celestial Musings: Poems Inspired by the Night Sky. Proceeds from the book support the Charles W. Brown Planetarium at Ball State University. The anthology is available here.
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