SO IT GOES CONGRATULATIONS

Mfa Class Of 2023

Graduating MFA students (from left to right) Jacob

Anthony Moniz, Lance Carroll, Woori Kim, Arman

Chowdhury, Zoe Darsee, Angie Lorang Mueller, Kalie

Pead, Kristyn Garza, and (Lovely) Raju Kalam each read selections from their final theses at McKenna Hall Auditorium this past April In celebration of their hard work and many talents, the Creative Writing Program wishes our graduating writers all the best in their future endeavors!

I N T H I S I S S U E

Director's Note

Graduating MFAs

Incoming MFA students

Faculty News

Alumni News

The Notre Dame Creative Writing Program, now in its 33rd year – its “Jesus year,” if you’ll pardon the blasphemy – has emerged from the pandemic, like all of us, changed Our program is fortunate (and perhaps unusual) in that many of these changes have been for the better, including notably the re-establishment of a dedicated Creative Writing Program Manager position, staffed by translator, poet, and Notre Dame MFA alum Paul Cunningham ('15).

We do a lot here, and the program has struggled since our previous manager, Coleen J. Hoover, retired six years ago. Paul has already had a significant impact on the program, and we look forward to seeing his contribution shape the program going forward

The program also saw the first substantial increase in MFA stipends in several years, with support from I A O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters, Sarah Mustillo, as well as a $1 5 million endowment from John and Patrice Kelly The John and Patrice Kelly Endowment for Excellence will be used to support Creative Writing faculty in existing and future projects, with a special focus in community engagement, speaker series, and workshops. The program also unexpectedly emerged as the transformative focus of the English Department’s 2023 external review report: we were called upon to be both the “hinge” and the “doorway” to publicfacing, interdisciplinary, global humanities knowledge production and dissemination.” I can only hope we may fulfill that noble calling.

Our faculty, students, and alumni are certainly making a mark. Joyelle McSweeney won a Guggenheim last spring; Dionne Irving’s short story collection THE ISLANDS was shortlisted for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner award; Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi's short story ("It Is What It Is") was selected for The Best American Short Stories 2023 and she was also named a 2023-2024 Carl and Lilly Pforzheimer Foundation Fellow by the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University; two of our MFA alumni had first books reviewed in The New York Times, Joseph Earl Thomas for his memoir SINK and Nazli Koca for her novel THE APPRENTICE; and alum Ae Hee Lee won the 2022 Dorset Prize for her book ASTERISM and was named one of 12 finalists for the 2022 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship Last but not least, Creative Writing undergraduate alum Tess Gunty won the 2022 National Book Award for her novel THE RABBIT HUTCH

Finally, we had a tremendous year of readings and events. We celebrated book launches for faculty members Dionne Irving, Orlando Menes (in collaboration with ILS), Johannes Göransson, and Steve Tomasula, as well as for alumni Francisco Aragon, Tess Gunty, and Joseph Earl Thomas. Tess Gunty’s visit was especially exciting, since we were also celebrating her winning the National Book Award, and collaborated on two readings for her, one on campus, and one at the St. Joseph County Public Library Main Branch. We also hosted readings from local poetry maven Pam Blair; novelists Myriam J.A. Chancy and Jamila Minnicks; poets Mike Corrao, Valerie Hsiung, Julie Morrissy, Destiny Hemphill, and Marty Cain; Sullivan Prize winner Maya Sonenberg; former US poet laureate Natasha Trethewey; and graphic novelist Kelcey Ervick Two of our biggest events this year featured polymorphous literary superstars who defy generic categorization: the long-awaited Yusko Ward-Phillips lecture and Sandeen Memorial Poetry Reading with Anne Carson, and the NDIAS Visiting Artist collaboration with Patricia Lockwood We also collaborated with other units on several events, including Afro-Latinx Poetry Now (ILS), Hanif Abdurraqib (English), an evening with the editors of the ecopoetic journal Reckoning (EHUM), and Catriona Lally (Irish Studies)

Like a certain dude one often sees hanging around Notre Dame classrooms, the Notre Dame Creative Writing Program manages to exemplify tradition while also subverting it. Also like that dude, we love and welcome everyone, while holding ourselves to a higher, otherworldly standard. Hopefully, in our 33rd year, we’ll come to resemble that dude in yet another way: that this year may be the beginning of a glorious transmutation.