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Department of English

MFA Alumni Publishing

For more than sixty years, the graduates of our university's Creative Writing Program and the Department of English have enjoyed great successes in literary publishing. This page focuses on our distinguished alumni since 1995, when the program transitioned into a full Master of Fine Arts program.

Here's a partial (and growing!) list of MFA alumni publishing accomplishments since 1995.

Debut Books Published

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction

Little Dystopias: A Collection (Lightning Cellar Publications, 2015)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

Sightlines (Tourane Poetry Press, 2013, chapbook)

Additional books:

Vanishing Point (Orchard Street Press, 2018, chapbook)

Also of note:

Fresno Poet Laureate (2021-23)

MFA Creative Writing, Creative Nonfiction

Author website

Heavy: A Memoir of Wyoming, BMX, Drugs and Heavy Fucking Music (Rare Bird Books, 2016)

Additional books:

Doomed to Fail: The Incredibly Loud History of Doom, Sludge, and Post-Metal (Rare Bird Books, 2020)

Out Here on Our Own: An Oral History of an American Boomtown (Bison Books/U of Nebraska Press, 2022)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

Author website

Jackalope-Girl Learns to Speak (Dancing Girl Press, 2016, chapbook)

Additional books:

Lost City Museum (Bull City Press, 2016, chapbook)

Eppur Si Muove (Porkbelly Press, 2019, chapbook)

Fiolet & Wing: An Anthology of Domestic Fabulist Poetry (Liminal Books, 2019, anthology co-editor)

Sweetbitter (Sundress Publications, 2022)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

Author website

Theory on Falling into a Reef (Anhinga Press, 2016, chapbook)

Additional books:

Why Can't It Be Tenderness (U of Wisconsin Press, 2018)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

Author website

The Cholo Who Said Nothing and Other Poems (Turning Point Books, 2017)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

Author website

Borderland Apocrypha (Omnidawn, 2020, finalist for National Book Award)

Additional books:

The Rendering (Omnidawn, 2023)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

Author website

Concrete Paradise (Finishing Line Press, 2018, chapbook)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

Rough Fire (Finishing Line Press, 2018)

MFA Creative Writing, Creative Nonfiction

Author website

Origins of the Universe and What It All Means: A Memoir (Dzanc Books, 2016)

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction

My Pulse Is an Earthquake (West Virginia U Press, 2015)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

By Their Father's Hand: The True Story of the Wesson Family Massacre (Harper Collins, 2007)

Additional books:

Ice and Bone: Tracking an Alaskan Serial Killer (WildBlue Press, 2016)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry; MA English, Composition

Author website

Familiar History (Finishing Line Press, 2016, chapbook)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

Author website

Currents (Tourane Poetry Press, 2022)

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction

Author website

The Bones Stay and Other Short Stories (Passengers Literary Press, 2022)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

Author website

Endeavor (World Stage Press, 2017)

Additional books:

Cenizas (U of Arizona Press, 2022)

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction; BA English Education (2010)

The Wicked We Have Done: A Chaos Theory Novel (Penguin/InterMix, 2014)

Additional books:

Our Broken Sky: A Chaos Theory Novel (Penguin/InterMix, 2014)

A Vault of Sins: A Chaos Theory Novel (Penguin/InterMix, 2014)

Eight Will Fall (Henry Holt and Company, 2019)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

On Display (Gunpowder Press, 2023, chapbook)

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction

Author website

The Blameless (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

Revolver (U of the Philippines Press, 1997)

MFA Creative Writing, Creative Nonfiction

Author website

The Astronaut Checks His Watch (Finishing Line Press, 2014, chapbook)

Additional books:

Leaving Tracks: A Prairie Guide (Finishing Line Press, 2017, chapbook)

Regenerate: Poems of Mad Women (Dancing Girl Press, 2018, chapbook)

Quite Mad: An American Pharma Memoir (Ohio State U Press, 2019)

Halfway from Home (Split Lip Press, 2022)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

The River: Reflections on Life and Poetry (Tourane Poetry Press, 2017, chapbook)

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction

Author website

Peace is a Four-Letter Word (Heyday Books, 2005)

Additional books:

American Music Makers (Walker and Company, 1991)

Women Music Makers (Walker and Company, 1992)

Casey Wooster's Pet Care Service (Atheneum, 1993)

Where Words Leave Off, Music Begins: Stories (2004)

Chest Pains: A Novel (Bridge Works Press, 2008)

Messed Up (Holiday House, 2009)

Addicted to Her (Holiday House, 2010)

Racing California (Holiday House, 2012)

My Beautiful Hippie (Holiday House, 2013)

Wheel of Fire (2016)

Commie Pinko (2017)

Clara Schumann, Pianist and Composer (Bedazzled Ink, 2021)

Florence Price: American Composer (Bedazzled Ink, 2022)

Elizabeth Warren: What It Takes to Run for President (Bedazzled Ink, 2022)

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction; BA English, Literature (2001)

Author website

The Barber's Wife (Alternative Book Press, 2014)

Additional books:

The Circle Game (Alternative Book Press, 2018)

Stinger (West of West Books, 2019, co-authored with Bill McEwen)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

Author website

Insides She Swallowed (West End Press, 2020, winner of American Book Award)

Additional books:

For Want of Water and Other Poems (Beacon Press, 2017, winner of National Poetry Series)

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction; BA English, Literature (2013)

Author website

Cenote City (Clash Books, 2019, novella)

Additional books:

My Favorite Sancho and Other Fairy Tales (Sword and Kettle Press, 2020, chapbook)

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction

Author website

The Night of Broken Glass (HarperCollins India, 2018)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

First Crush (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2016, chapbook)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry; MA English, Composition (1989)

The Particulars of Being (In the Grove Press, 2003)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

Author website

To My Body (Glass Poetry Press, 2016, chapbook)

Additional books:

Photographs of Our Shadows (Agape Editions, 2017, chapbook)

Phantom Tongue (Sundress Publications, 2018)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

The Politics of Division (Five Oaks Press, 2017, chapbook)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

The Shape of Blue: Notes on Loss, Language, Motherhood and Fear (The Lit Pub, 2013)

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction

Everything You Came to See (Skyhorse Publishing, 2018)

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction; BA English, Literature (2002)

Author website

Sunny G's Series of Rash Decisions (Dial Books/Penguin Random House, 2022)

MFA Creative Writing, Creative Nonfiction

Author website

The War at Home: A Memoir (Penguin Books, 2016)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry; BA English, Literature (2003)

The Ghetto Exorcist (Autumn House Press, 2009, chapbook)

Also of note:

Fresno Poet Laureate (2013-15)

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction

Author website

The Dead I Know: Incantation for Rebirth (Swan Scythe Press, 2010, chapbook)

Also of note:

Winner of a Nicholl Fellowship from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, with his brother Abel Vang. Co-directed the feature films "Bedeviled" and "They Live in the Grey."

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry; BA English, Literature (1996)

Author website

To Live Here (Imaginary Friend Press, 2014) 

MFA Creative Writing, Creative Nonfiction; BA English, Literature (2008)

Author website

The Cowgirl and the Racehorse: A Recovery (Skinner House Books, 2020)

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

What I Can Do (Chestnut Review Press, 2020, chapbook)

Anthologies Published

HAWC website

How Do I Begin? A Hmong American Literary Anthology (Heyday Books, 2011)

Co-edited by alumni Anthony Cody, Burlee Vang, Soul Choj Vang, and Andre Yang

The Normal School website

The Spirit of Disruption: Landmark Essays from The Normal School (Outpost19, 2018)

Edited by faculty Steven Church; selections, editing, and promotion by MFA students in the English 286 Practicum in Literary Arts course

Publishing and Editing Jobs

MFA Creative Writing, Creative Nonfiction; BA English, Literature (2010)

Previously:

Editorial Assistant, Fourth Genre

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

Chapbook Series Editor, Sundress Publications

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction; BA English, Literature (2011)

Assistant Nonfiction Editor, Pithead Chapel

Reader, Under the Sun

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction

Previously:

Production Manager, Dwell Magazine

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction

Assistant Editor, Poetry Magazine

MFA Creative Writing, Creative Nonfiction

Digital Engagement and Content Director, The Academy of American Poets

Previously:

Digital Manager, The Paris Review

Director of Marketing and Publicity, Dzanc Books

Web Assistant, Harper's Magazine

MFA Creative Writing

Senior Editor, Beable Education

Previously:

Development Editor, National Geographic Learning

MFA Creative Writing, Creative Nonfiction

Previously:

Production Manager, Dwell Magazine

Production Manager, Afar Magazine

MFA Creative Writing, Creative Nonfiction

Previously:

Nonfiction Assistant Editor, Prairie Schooner

MFA Creative Writing, Fiction; BA English, Literature (2013)

Contributing Writer, Luna Luna Magazine

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

Previously:

Program Associate, Poets & Writers, California office

MFA Creative Writing, Poetry

Founder, Tourane Poetry Press

Founder and editor, Perfume River Poetry Review

MFA Creative Writing, Creative Nonfiction

Editorial Assistant, Zócalo Public Square

Creative Writing Alumni Chapter

Students have studied Creative Writing at Fresno State since the late 1950s, long before the MFA Program was started in 1995.

The Creative Writing Chapter of the Fresno State Alumni Association aims to bring together the multiple generations of Fresno writers.

Join alumni Facebook group