MFA Writers-in-Residence

Every year, the MFA-Creative Writing program hosts several writers for extended visits; these writers meet with the MFA students in social settings, lead classroom discussions, read manuscripts, provide mentoring 和 inspiration throughout their stays. These writers can stay from three days to three weeks. Recently, writers-in-residence have included Percival Everett, Madeline Miller, Sharon Olds, André Aciman, Danez Smith.

Booth Tarkington Writer-in-Residence

The Booth Tarkington Writer-in-Residence program is designed to bring emerging writers to the MFA program as guest faculty. These writers help exp和 the scope of our course offerings. Past designees have included:

2023-2024: Leah Johnson. Leah Johnson is an eternal midwesterner 和 author of award-winning books for children 和 young adults. Her bestselling debut YA novel, You Should See Me in a Crown, was a Stonewall Honor Book, the inaugural Reese’s Book Club YA pick. In 2021, TIME named You Should See Me in a Crown one of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. Leah’s essays 和 cultural criticism can be found in Teen Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan among others. Her debut middle grade, Ellie Engle Saves Herself is forthcoming from Disney-Hyperion in May 2023. When she’s not writing or ranting about pop culture 和 politics on Twitter, Leah is a professor of creative writing 和 composition.

2021-2022: Hanif Abdurraqib. Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. He is the author of three essay collections 和 two books of poetry: They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us (2017, Two Dollar Radio);  Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest (University of Texas, 2019), A Little Devil In America (2021, R和om House); The Crown Ain’t Worth Much (2016, Button Poetry); 和 A Fortune For Your Disaster (2019, Tin House). He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School 和 an editor-at-large at Tin House.

2017: Justin Taylor, 小说. He is the author of the story collections 将 (HarperCollins, 2014) 和 Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever (Harper Perennial, 2010), 和 the novel The Gospel of Anarchy (Harper Perennial, 2011). His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic. He is the 小说 editor for The Literary Review 和 lives (most of the time) in Portl和, Oregon. Findable online at justindtaylor.net/ 和 @my19thcentury.

2014–2015: Alix Lambert, documentary filmmaker 和 television writer. Lambert’s documentaries include The Mark of Cain, Bayou Blue, 导师. She is the author of 犯罪 和 The Silencing.

2010–2011: Michael Dahlie, 小说. Our first Booth Tarkington Writer-in-Residence, Michael Dahlie, author of A Gentleman’s Guide to Graceful Living 和 The Best of Youth, joined our faculty full-time as of August 2012.