MFA News Room

Sound Like Trapped Thunder, the 2020 Deborah Tell Lyric Essay Book Prize by MFA alum Jessica Lind Peterson, will be celebrated with a virtual launch reading this Thursday, March 18 at 7 pm CT.

Creative Writing Professor Angela Pelster-Wiebe's debut essay collection Limber named one of the best nature books of the 2000s.

Sheila O'Connor was named the recipient of 2020 Minnesota Book Award in the Novel & Short Story category for her book Evidence of V: A Novel in Fragments, Facts, and Fictions. O'Connor also won the Minnesota Book Award in this category in 2004 for her novel Where No Gods Came. 

The Minnesota State Arts Board announced the winners of its 2020 Artist Initiative Grants and six of the grantees are part of the Hamline Creative Writing Programs.

BFA/MFA faculty member Angela Pelster-Wiebe's essay “The Trial” has been published in the 2018/19 Winter Edition of Ploughshares.

BFA/MFA faculty member Angela Pelster-Wiebe has published a new essay, "White Artists Need to Start Addressing White Supremacy in Their Work," at Literary Hub.

Hooper, the latest novel from prolific CWP alum Geoff Herbach (MFA ‘06), is out now from HarperCollins. Don’t miss the launch event at the Red Balloon Bookshop on March 7th at 6 PM

Congratulations to Sarah Ahiers (MFAC '16)  and Caitlin Bailey (MFA '12), both named as finalists for the 30th annual, 2018 Minnesota Book Awards!

The Creative Writing Programs alum Beth Mayer (MFA '08) has won Black Lawrence Review's 2017 Hudson Prize! Her short story collection, We Will Tell You Otherwise, her debut book, will be published in the summer of 2019. Congratulations, Beth! 

Solve for Desire, a collection by MFA '12 graduate Caitlin Bailey, has won the Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry. The award includes a publishing contract from Milkweed Editions.

Winners of the 2017 MN Book Award include two Creative Writing Programs alumni and a Hamline School of Law alumnus. JJ Austrian (MFAC '12) won in Children's Lit for Worm Loves Worm, Brian Farrey (MFA '09) won in Middle Grade Lit for The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse, and Allen Eskens (JD '91) won in the fiction category for The Heavens May Fall.

Gardenia- the newest book by Kelsey Sutton, current student in the MFA- is out now from Diversion Publishing. In this haunting young adult suspense, seventeen-year-old Ivy Erickson knows the exact moment when she will die.

Angela Pelster-Wiebe, CWP faculty, has a new hybrid essay, "Once, Then," published in the newest issue (#38) of Passages North.

Six CWP alums have been named as finalists for the Minnesota Book Awards! Congratulations to J.J. Austrian, Caren Stelson, Brian Farrey, Stephanie Wilbur Ash, and Gretchen Marquette.

Three CWP alums are on Kirkus' Best of 2016 list: Jane O'Reilly (MFAC '09) and Brian Farrey (MFA '12) are listed for Middle Grade, and JJ Austrian (MFAC '12) is listed for picture books.

Angela Pelster-Wiebe's essay, Eating the Dead: A Guided Tour, which appears in River Teeth Issue 18.1, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Gretchen Marquette’s MFA ’12 debut poetry collection, May Day, is being released May 3 by Graywolf Press. Marquette is also an adjunct faculty member the Creative Writing Programs at Hamline.

April Vinding (MFA '05), is celebrating the release of her new spiritual memoir, Triptych, published this month by Wipf and Stock. The release party is April 23 at 7 p.m. at Art House North.

Hamline welcomes visiting writer Joni Tevis March 8-10, 2016 for Public Reading and Author Interview.

Tremolo, a beautiful debut book of poetry from CWP alum Kelly Hansen Maher (MFA '14), is available now from Tinderbox Editions.

Lucie Amundsen's (MFA '14) highly anticipated narrative non-fiction book, Locally Laid: How We Built a Plucky, Industry-changing Egg Farm - from Scratch will be in stores March 1.

Matt de la Peña has won the 2016 John Newbery Medal for his picture book Last Stop on Market Street and Laura Ruby has won the 2016 Michael L. Printz Award for her young adult novel Bone Gap.

Hamline hosts Pushcart Prize-winning author Kevin Moffett on Tuesday, April 14 at 7 p.m. in Kay Fredericks Room, Klas Center. Free and open to the public.

CWP faculty members John Brandon (BFA/MFA) and e. lockhart, a.k.a., Emily Jenkins, (MFAC) are both celebrating new releases in fiction.

Addie's new book, When We Were on Fire: A Memoir of Consuming Faith, Tangled Love, and Starting Over (from her MFA capstone project), received a starred review in October from Publishers Weekly.

Two CWP alums are nominated for Minnesota Book Awards! Nothing Special, by Geoff Herbach (MFA '06), and Silhouette of a Sparrow. by Molly Beth Griffin (MFAC '09), are both finalists for best young people's literature.

New books by Mindy Mejia (MFA '09) and Melanie Hoffert (MFA '08) featured in Sunday Review, Pioneer Press (January 6, 2013)

MFA students Lynne Maker Kuechle and Susan Nettell, as well as MFA faculty Juliet Patterson, have been awarded Minnesota Arts Initiative grants (prose) from the MN Arts Board.

Sheila O'Connor's newest, Keeping Safe the Stars, is available October 11 (Putnam Juvenile). Celebrate at two launch events: October 13 at Wild Rumpus and October 21 at Red Balloon.

A Million Heavens was featured in the Sunday Book Review edition of The New York Times. [excerpt] 'More than once I handed “A Million Heavens” to a friend and watched the rhythms compel him or her into the thickness of a paragraph...'

John Brandon's new novel, A Million Heavens, was published to rave reviews (McSweeney's 2012). The Daily Beast includes A Million Heavens in three "offbeat must-reads."

Hear Garrison Keilor read Katrina's poems, 'Handwriting Analysis' and 'M', both from her new book of poetry, The Alphabet Not Unlike the World.

Read a lovely new article about Mary and an in-depth review of In Caddis Wood by Mary Stein of the Numéro Cinq web magazine.

MFA Alumna Kathy Weihe Reads from her new book of poetry, Unless You Count Birds. Friday, June 8 in GLC 100E.

The CWP is developing a new blog site and we're looking at you to help us name it. Submit through the end of June. The winner will receive a shiny new Kindle Touch!

See CWP faculty Deborah Keenan and Juliet Patterson read with many great local poets -- from the third annual Great Twin Cities Poetry Read on The CWP Youtube channel.

CWP Directory and faculty Mary François Rockcastle is in good company, nominated for a 2012 Minnesota Book Award in Fiction & Short Story, along with CWP Faculty Jim Moore, nominated for Poetry. Congratulations Mary and Jim!

MFA faculty Sheila O'Connor was honored by the Voice of Youth Advocates for her book Sparrow Road.

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) nominates MFAC faculty Ron Koertge and Gary Schmidt, MFA alum Geoff Herbach for best fiction.

Congratulations to the MFA and MALS students and alumni chosen as Loft Mentor Series, McKnight Artists Fellowships selections

For more than two decades, K-6 teachers and administrators have come to Hamline’s Saint Paul campus for one week in the summer to discover the most effective and innovative practices in literacy education.

Sheila O'Connor continues to make news for her new novel, Sparrow Road.

MFA students start nonfiction blog – Join the discussion!