arizona state university creative writing mfa

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Arizona State University

Arizona, united states.

The master of fine arts degree in creative writing, offered by the Department of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, nurtures and challenges individual talent amid a community of dedicated writers. The program offers the MFA in fiction and in poetry. Students tailor their course of study to fit individual needs, talents, and goals, while working under the direction of faculty who are practicing, publishing writers of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.

Required course work includes writing workshops and literature courses, and three semesters of one-on-one independent work with faculty designed to guide the student's culminating experience, a manuscript of creative work. Several campus entities play key roles in the MFA community: the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing offers students a wide range of support and opportunities, travel scholarships, professional development support, and other teaching and leadership opportunities, including an Outreach Graduate Assistantship; also, the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands brings writers and other artists for intensive workshops, classes, and public events, and it offers Artistic Development and Teaching Assistant Fellowships. The MFA program also hosts a newly inaugurated series of craft lectures and an alumni reading series.

Students have access to a variety of additional professional development opportunities, including serving on the editorial board of an international literary journal, Hayden's Ferry Review; translation experience through the Thousand Languages Project; and internships with award-winning independent literary press Four Way Books.

MFA candidates are offered a TAship and, when available, additional funding. For more information, visit https://english.clas.asu.edu/degree/graduate/mfa-creative-writing

Contact Information

PO Box 870302 Dept of English, Creative Writing Program Tempe Arizona, United States 85287-0302 Phone: (480) 727-9130 Email: [email protected] https://english.asu.edu/academics/areas-of-study/creative-writing

Bachelor of Arts in English/Literature +

Undergraduate program director, minor / concentration in creative writing +, master of fine arts in creative writing +, graduate program director.

The master of fine arts degree in Creative Writing, offered by the Department of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, nurtures and challenges individual talent amid a community of dedicated writers. The program offers students a unique opportunity to tailor a course of study to fit individual needs, talents, and goals, while working under the direction of faculty who are practicing, publishing writers of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, plays, and screenplays. The program includes equal components in literature and writing. Required course work includes three practica: semester-long, one-on-one pairings with faculty designed to guide the student's work toward the thesis manuscript. A final comprehensive examination covers 20th century literature and critical theory. The program benefits from the tremendous resources of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, housed on campus, which supports a vibrant visiting writers series, the graduate student-edited Hayden's Ferry Review, an annual writing conference, a wide variety of outreach programs with area schools and hospitals (among other organizations), and a remarkable global outreach program which has allowed degree candidates to study and teach in, among other places, Prague, China, Singapore, and Wales. The program also facilitates collaborations with musicians, composers, printmakers, photographers, and visual artists. As of this writing, all MFA candidates are offered a TA and, when available, additional funding. For more information, go to https://english.clas.asu.edu/admission/graduate-admission/master-fine-arts-creative-writing.

Wreck Me, Annus Mirabilis, Hold Sway

https://www.saralouiseball.com/

Rockaway, Ball, A Child Out of Alcatraz, The List, Reeling Through Life: How I Learned to Live, Love, and Die at the Movies, At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf

http://taraison.com/

T. M. McNally

Until Your Heart Stops, Almost Home, The Goat Bridge, Low Flying Aircraft, Quick, The Gateway

https://english.asu.edu/content/t-mcnally

Alberto Alvaro Rios

The Dangerous Shirt, The Theater of Night, The Smallest Muscle, Pig Cookies

http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/

In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods, Scrapper, How They Were Found, Appleseed, Refuse to Be Done

https://www.mattbell.com/

Natalie Diaz

When my Brother was an Aztec, Postcolonial Love Poem

https://www.nataliegermainediaz.com/

Jennifer Irish

Common Ancestor, I Am Faithful, Lupine

https://www.jennyirish.com/

Mitchell Jackson

The Residue Years, Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family, FLY

https://www.mitchellsjackson.com/

Safiya Sinclair

Catacombs, Cannibal, How to Say Babylon

http://www.safiyasinclair.com/

Sarah Viren

Mine, To Name the Bigger Lie

https://sarahviren.com/

Publications & Presses +

Hayden's Ferry Review

Visiting Writers Program +

Recently: Muriel Leung, Dexter Booth

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Natalie Diaz

• [email protected]
• Ross-Blakley Hall 341 PO Box 871401 TEMPE, AZ 85287-1401
• Mail code: 1401 Campus: Tempe

Natalie Diaz was born and raised in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California, on the banks of the Colorado River. She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. Her first poetry collection, When My Brother Was an Aztec , was published by Copper Canyon Press. Diaz's second collection, Postcolonial Love Poe m is forthecoming from Graywolf Press in 2020. She is a Macarthur Foundation Fellow, Lannan Literary Fellow and a Native Arts Council Foundation Artist Fellow. She was awarded a Bread Loaf Fellowship, the Holmes National Poetry Prize, a Hodder Fellowship, and a PEN/Civitella Ranieri Foundation Residency, as well as being awarded a U.S. Artists Ford Fellowship, and Princeton University's Hodder Fellowship. Diaz teaches at the Arizona State University Creative Writing MFA program. 

M.F.A. Poetry and Fiction, Old Dominion University 2007

• Layli Long Soldier’s WHEREAS ,  "A Native American Poet Excavates the Language of Occupation,"   New York Times Book Review
• Solmaz Sharif’s LOOK : “A Poet Subverts the Defense Department’s Official Dictionary,” New York Times Book Review
• Review, Major Jackson’s Roll Deep : “Roll Deep,” New York Times Book Review

2021 Spring

2019 spring.

Fellowships and Honors

• 2019 Amanda Davis Returning Fellow, Breadloaf Writer's Conference
• 2018 MacArthur Foundation Fellow
• 2016 Rupert Residency Programm, Vilnus, Lithuania 
• 2015-2016 Hodder Fellowship, Princeton University
• 2014 United States Artists Ford Fellowship
• 2014 PEN Fellow, Civitella Ranieri Foundation Residency, Italy
• 2014 Bread Loaf Katharine Bakeless Nason Fellowship in Poetry
• 2014 Theodore H. Holmes ’51 and Bernice Holmes National Poetry Prize, Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University
• 2012,2014 Lannan Foundation Residency, Marfa, TX
• 2013 American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation,  When My Brother Was an Aztec
• 2013 Native Arts & Cultures Foundation Artist Literary Fellowship – Poetry
• 2012 Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship
• 2012 Bread Loaf Louis Untermeyer Scholarship in Poetry
• 2012 Breath of Life Archival Institute Fellowship

Awards and Prizes

• Best American Essays 2017 , Notable Essay for "The Hand Has Twenty-Seven Bones"
• 2015 Hugh J. Luke Award. Essay for “A Body of Athletics”
• 2014 Pushcart Prize for “Cranes, Mafiosos, and a Polaroid Camera”
• 2013 PEN Open Book Award Finalist for When My Brother Was an Aztec
• 2013 Late Night Library Debut-Litzer Prize in Poetry for When My Brother Was an Aztec
• 2013 New American Poets Selection, Poetry Society of America
• 2012 Narrative Prize for Poetry for “Downhill Triolets”
• A Body of Athletics . Poetry Anthology. University of Nebraska Press (forthcoming) 
• Editor,   Prairie Schooner Winter 2015 Issue: Sports Theme

Visiting Poet, New Writers MFA Program, University of Texas, Austin, TX (Fall 2017); Thesis Advisor, Michener Center, University of Texas, Austin (2018); Visiting Professor, Creative Writing MFA Program University of Texas, El Paso (Online) (Spring 2017); Lecturer, Creative Writing Program New York University, New York, NY (Fall 2016); Thesis Advisor Texas State University, San Marcos, TX (present); MFA Faculty Instructor Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM (2013-2017); Director and Mojave Language Instructor, Fort Mojave Language Recovery Program Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, Needles, CA, and Mohave Valley, AZ (2009-2016); Point Scholar Foundation Mentor in Literature (2014)

• Director, [archi]Text conversation and event series, (2017-present)
• Board of Trustees, United States Artists Foundation, (2018-2020)
• Co-Founder, Poetry Across Nations, (2017-present)
• Co-Curator, Words for Water, (2017)

Expertise Areas

Arizona State University

http://english.clas.asu.edu/cw-admission

Degrees Offered

Fiction, Poetry

Residency type

Program length.

48 semester hours (3 years)

Financial Aid

MFA students at ASU are among the best-funded in the nation: currently, every poet and fiction writer is offered a teaching assistantship and a Piper Fellowship, both renewable for each of the program’s three years. We also offer a limited number of research assistantships, and the Swarthout Prize.

Teaching opportunities

All qualified incoming students are offered a Taship

Cross-genre study

Electives may be taken out of genre, with the permission of the instructor

• Jeff Albers MFA (Fiction) 2014
• Aimée Baker MFA (Fiction) 2008
• Dexter L. Booth MFA 2012
• Adrienne Celt MFA (Fiction) 2012
• Dorothy Chan MFA (Poetry)
• Katie Cortese MFA (Fiction) 2006
• Marian Crotty MFA (Fiction) 2005
• Oliver De La Paz MFA (Poetry) 1999
• Matthew Gavin Frank MFA (Poetry/CNF) 2006
• Kevin Haworth MFA 1997
• Caitlin Horrocks MFA (Fiction) 2007
• Allegra Hyde MFA (Fiction) 2015
• W. Todd Kaneko MFA (Fiction) 2006
• Ruth Ellen Kocher MFA (Poetry) 1994
• Naira Kuzmich MFA (Fiction) 2013
• Sam Martone MFA
• Claire McQuerry MFA (Poetry) 2008
• Bonnie Nadzam MFA (Fiction) 2004
• Dustin Pearson MFA (Poetry)
• Steve Scafidi MFA

Send questions, comments and corrections to [email protected] .

Disclaimer: No endorsement of these ratings should be implied by the writers and writing programs listed on this site, or by the editors and publishers of Best American Short Stories , Best American Essays , Best American Poetry , The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize Anthology .

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• University of Arizona Poetry Center A nationally renowned special collections library and archive, academic and community resource and sponsor of numerous outreach programs, including its distinguished Visiting Poets and Writers Reading Series, the Poetry Center has become one of the foremost literary arts centers in America.
• Case Libre en la Solana The mission of Casa Libre en la Solana is to support and enhance the creativity of professional and novice writers by providing uninterrupted time for work through residency programs; and to provide a venue for classes, readings, and other professional development opportunities.
• Arizona State Poetry Society Encourages the writing and reading of poetry, and to further the goals of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies in securing further public recognition of the art of poetry.
• POG: Poetry in Action A collective of poets, literary critics, and practitioners of other art forms who have joined together in Tucson, Arizona. As a federally-recognized, non-profit organization, POG promotes active appreciation of and engagement with avant-garde artistic work in a variety of media.
• Kore Press Publishes literary and artistic work by by women, including those traditionally underrepresented in the cultural mainstream.
• Persona An annual magazine of art and literature designed, edited, produced, and marketed by University of Arizona undergraduates of all majors.
• Sonora Review One of the oldest student-run literary journals in the country, put together solely by graduate students in the Creative Writing Department at the University of Arizona.

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• Poets & Writers Guide to MFA Programs Search a comprehensive database of graduate creative writing programs.
• The Low Residency MFA Handbook Offers prospective graduate students an in-depth preview of low-residency creative writing MFA programs. The guide also clarifies the application process and offers application tips from program directors and alumni. It also considers funding, program structures, and unique opportunities such as editorships and assistantships.
• Last Updated: Sep 12, 2023 3:30 PM
• URL: https://libguides.library.arizona.edu/creative-writing

• English Department
• MFA Creative Writing

Questions? Please contact...

Creative writing, master of fine arts.

This program, which involves completing a creative thesis, allows you to balance academic course work in English with the serious study of creative writing.

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To receive a master’s degree at Northern Arizona University, you must complete a planned group of courses from one or more subject areas, consisting of at least 30 units of graduate-level courses. Many master’s degree programs require more than 30 units. You must additionally complete:

• All requirements for your specific academic plan(s). This may include a thesis.
• All graduate work with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0.
• All work toward the master's degree must be completed within six consecutive years. The six years begins with the semester and year of admission to the program.

Read the full policy here .

Overview Accordion Closed

In addition to University Requirements:

• Complete individual plan requirements.

Purpose Statement The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing balances the study and practice of creative writing with academic coursework in English. Students participate in writing workshops in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, undertake coursework in literature, and study critical theory. MFA candidates will present a creative thesis of between 45 to 120 pages, depending on genre.  The MFA Program at Northern Arizona University allows you to:   

• live and write in the beautiful, vibrant city of Flagstaff
• focus on poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction
• participate in intensive writing workshops with dedicated professors

Student Learning Outcomes   Upon completion of the Creative Writing MFA students will be able to:

• Examine, explicate, analyze and evaluate literary texts of considerable difficulty in order to determine the place of the student’s own work within a literary tradition.
• Develop the student’s own critical and aesthetic position, based on recognizing, understanding, and interpreting critical positions and literary arguments of other authors.
• Read and respond thoughtfully and thoroughly to work by other MFA students in order to hone the critical, intellectual, and analytical skills that are crucial to success in a broad range of literary, artistic, cultural and professional fields.
• Investigate the world of literary publishing in order to discover suitable journals, magazines and/or quality trade book publishers to which the student author can submit his/her own finished work.
• Refine skills in drafting, revising and editing in a primary literary genre with the goal of producing a polished creative manuscript of marketable quality.
• public readings,
• interviewing other writers,
• attending outside readings,
• writing book reviews,
• serving on editorial boards, and
• organizing literary events.

Details Accordion Closed

Graduate admission information.

The NAU graduate online application is required for all programs. Admission to many graduate programs is on a competitive basis, and programs may have higher standards than those established by the Graduate College. Admission requirements include the following:

• Transcripts.
• Undergraduate degree from a regionally accredited institution with a 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale ("A" = 4.0), or the equivalent.

Visit the NAU Graduate Admissions website for additional information about graduate school application deadlines, eligibility for study, and admissions policies. Ready to apply? Begin your application now.

International applicants have additional admission requirements. Please see the International Graduate Admissions Policy .

Additional Admission Requirements

Individual program admission requirements over and above admission to NAU are required.

• 2 letters of recommendation
• Writing sample
• Personal statement or essay

Master's Requirements

This Master’s degree requires 36 units distributed as follows:

• Creative Writing courses: 12 units
• Supportive coursework: 12 units
• Electives chosen with your advisor’s approval: 6 to 9 units
• Thesis: 3 to 6 units (if 6 units of thesis are selected, it will reduce the number of units of electives required for the degree)
• 500- and 600-level creative writing courses, some of which may be repeated for 9 units of credit (12 units)
• Coursework in literature, literary criticism, literary theory, and/or readings in creative writing (12 units) 
• Electives chosen with your advisor's approval (6-9 units)
• ENG 699 , for the research, writing, and revision of an approved thesis. Please note: You may end up taking more than the 6 units of thesis credit you can count toward your degree because you must register for it each semester while you are working on your thesis. (3-6 units)
• Note that up to 6 units of 400-level literature courses may count toward degree, with advisor approval

Additional Information

Be aware that some courses may have prerequisites that you must also successfully complete. For prerequisite information, click on the course or see your advisor.

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Department of English

Mailing address.

• Graduate Admission

Graduate students in the Department of English frequently present at national, international and local conferences and have received many prestigious awards. Approximately 500 graduate students are enrolled each semester. The program awards excellence by offering outstanding financial packages, including travel funds for professional development and teaching assistantships on a competitive basis. Class sizes are small, giving students the opportunity to work closely with professors in a variety of fields. Reading groups, guest lectures, workshops and other events help bring students and faculty together. Opportunities for   professional development   and   mentoring , such as  Preparing Future Faculty   and   Knowledge Mobilization , prepare graduate students for successful careers within and beyond academia. In addition, there are several internship opportunities for English graduate students as well as study abroad opportunities.   Contact us for more information , or send an e-mail to  [email protected] . 

ASU's Department of English offers several graduate programs with different degrees and culminating experiences. It is important students understand the degree they are earning and the differences in the type of degrees and culminating experiences offered. Please see  Succeeding in Graduate Programs  for detailed information on these differences.

Degree Information

Doctoral programs.

PhD in English (Literature)

PhD in English (English Education)

PhD in English (Writing, Rhetorics, and Literacies)

PhD in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

PhD in Applied Linguistics

Online Master's programs

Master of Advanced Study in Film and Media Studies

Master of Arts in English (English Studies)

Master of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MTESOL) Online

Master's programs

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

Master of Arts in English (Literature)

Master of Arts in English (Writing, Rhetorics, and Literacies)

Master of Arts in English (Comparative Literature)

Master of Arts in English Education

Master of Arts in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

Master of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MTESOL)

Accelerated Programs

Accelerated BA English (linguistics) to MTESOL

Accelerated BA English (literature) to MA English (literature track)

Accelerated BA English (linguistics) to MA Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

Accelerated BA English (creative writing) to MA English (creative writing track) *currently not accepting applications*

Accelerated BA English (secondary education) to MA English Education

Accelerated BA English (writing, rhetorics and literacies) to MA English (writing, rhetorics and literacies track)

Certificates

Graduate Certificate in Computer-Assisted Language Learning  

Graduate Certificate in Critical Theory

Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities   (in conjunction with the School of International Letters and Cultures)

Graduate Certificate in Linguistics

Graduate Certificate in Medieval Studies

Graduate Certificate in Translation Studies   (in conjunction with School of International Letters and Cultures)

Graduate Faculty

Application deadlines.

PhD English (Literature), PhD English (English Education), PhD English (Writing, Rhetorics, and Literacies), PhD Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, and MFA Creative Writing:  January 1 for fall .

MA English (Writing, Rhetorics, and Literacies):  January 1 and April 15 for fall .

MA Linguistics and Applied Linguistics:   January 15 and April 15 for fall; September 15 for spring.

MA English Education:  January 15 and June 15 for fall.

Note for the above programs: The committee reviews applications shortly after the deadline. The application must be complete with all supporting documents before review. This is the applicant's responsibility. Please plan accordingly when submitting an application.

MTESOL and MA English (Literature):   July 22 for fall and December 14 for spring. 

MA English (Comparative Literature):  May 1 for fall and December 14 for spring.

MA English (English Studies) Online, MTESOL Online, MAS in Film and Media Studies: 

• Spring 2024 Admission: December 11, 2023 session A, February 12, 2024 session B (in the application, select "Spring (Jan)"
• Summer 2024 Admission: April 18, 2024 session A, June 3, 2024 session B (in the application, select "Summer (May)")
• Fall 2024 Admission: July 25, 2024 session A, September 18, 2024 session B (in the application, select "Fall (Aug)"

Note for the above programs: Complete applications will be reviewed within 14 days of receipt. The application must be complete with all supporting documents before review. This is the applicant's responsibility. Please plan accordingly when submitting an application.

Accelerated (4+1) programs:

• Accelerated Pre-application form is due by   May 1 for fall and December 1 for spring.
• Graduate Application for the Accelerated Program must be submitted by October 1 for fall and March 1 for spring. 

Note:   Accelerated   English Education only accepts pre-application and graduate applications for fall.

The deadlines above do not apply to the accelerated Creative Writing program. This accelerated program is currently not accepting applications. More information will be forthcoming. For specific questions, please contact the Program Manager   Justin Petropoulos . 

Graduate certificate applications are accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis.

MFA Info Session

Considering an MFA in Creative Writing? Wondering what the application process entails, which factors matter most, and what the experience is really like? Join Director of Creative Writing and Associate Professor Amy Butcher and Visiting Assistant Professor of English Dr. Aza Pace for an information session on writing beyond Ohio Wesleyan University on Monday, April 1 from 12:10-1pm in Sturges #109. Pizza will be provided.

OWU Sponsoring Organization/Office: Creative Writing ProgramContact: Amy Butcher at  [email protected]

• Arizona Arts
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• Center for Creative Photography
• University of Arizona Museum of Art
• School of Art
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• Fred Fox School of Music
• School of Theatre, Film & Television

2024 MFA Thesis Exhibition features 7 artists

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Carrying on a tradition that began in 1970, seven graduate students from the School of Art will present their work in the 2024 MFA Thesis Exhibition in collaboration with the University of Arizona Museum of Art.

The exhibition, “Leaving to Arrive,” with installations in UAMA and in the school’s Joseph Gross Gallery, will run from April 15 to May 10. A public reception is scheduled for May 9 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the School of Art’s lobby and atrium.

Featured will be the work of graduating MFA students  Jacqueline Arias,   Nathan Cordova, Drew Grella, Hanan Khatoun, Tessa Laslo, Anita Maksimiuk  and  Dana Smith .

This annual MFA Thesis Exhibition, the culmination of the Master of Fine Arts Studio Degree, is presented during a graduate student’s final semester in the three-year degree program. During the last year of their coursework, graduates work closely with faculty to develop a body of original art to present to the public in lieu of a written thesis. The result offers visitors the opportunity to see new, cutting-edge art in a variety of mediums and styles.

“This is the next generation of artists who will be going out and impacting the discipline and thinking about what their next chapter looks like,” School of Art Director  Colin Blakely  said.

A look at each student’s installation and their artist’s statement:

Jacqueline Arias

• Title: “A Lived Experience”
• Gallery: UAMA

The monumental engineering feat of the Panama Canal came at great cost: 40,000 people were displaced, and their villages submerged forever. During the construction of the canal over twenty thousand men and women, brought from the West Indies, lost their lives. Decades after these tragedies, I found myself on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus, as an adoptee from Costa Rica, inhabiting foreign soil with a new identity and language. It was here where I forged a profound connection with the people and the culture of Panama.

This installation tells the story of these interconnected experiences. Utilizing rope and pulleys, I interrogate the ramifications of power structures on individual bodies and collective identities. The constructed knots reveal the ongoing legacy of imperialism. Rope and AI technologies are transformed from their roles as signifiers of power and control to find meaning and connection amid the tumultuous currents of displacement and cultural erasure. The individual strands and fibers of the dismantled rope reflect the complex paths carved by my lived experiences. My hands and body recode history both materially and digitally through embodied knowledge critiquing unethical adoption practices and labor exploitation in Panama.

“A Lived Experience” grapples with the trauma of colonial dehumanization and the yearning for reunion with one’s homeland and culture.

Nathan Cordova

• Title: “Feeling a Future Coming”
• Venue: UAMA

My project considers the potential of friendship and offers a pointed critique of institutions and our consumption of their products. Friendship is slippery and difficult to maintain. There are social and cultural taboos that attempt to constrain our friendships. This is a social experiment that breaks through the isolation we all feel. What does it say about our present moment where amidst profound loneliness, we desire visceral connections with each other to problematize the limits of our individual bodies? By inviting participation, I’m asking myself and my friends to step out of this isolation and to encounter each other anew. I’m valuing critical connections over critical mass, applying force on strategic pressure points that form the boundaries of typical friendships. There is a momentary embodiment of liberation in this act, as I re-imagine what is possible.

I appropriate and re-contextualize collections of digital images of western domination gathered from the internet. This involves engaging with both the visible architecture like the skyscraper, and the supposedly invisible infrastructure, such as data centers and military drones. Anger and pleasure play an important role, offering a means of embodiment and exploration of the collection’s emotional and sensorial dimensions. Through a material intervention, I challenge notions of fixed identity and embrace the fluidity and multiplicity of human experience. This interruption utilizes an interdisciplinary process of layered blurring that transforms their symbolisms into something elemental; liquid and flame, semen and squirting, embodied presence etching sunlight and sifting blood.

Blurring the boundaries between past and present, self, and other, I invite viewers to engage these collections on a visceral level through the presence of their own reflections in black acrylic surfaces mediated by images layered with physical ejaculate, traces of our sequential self-pleasure. Remixed marketing videos from The University of Arizona and Raytheon (now rebranded as RTX Corporation) point to their mutually beneficial relationship built on endless cycles of debt and death.

All of this works together to disrupt conventional modes of perception. Challenging the rigidity of these images as repositories of meaning and enforcers of social order, “Feeling a Future Coming” reconfigures their signifiers to a point of emergence, where all futures become possible again. Reclaiming agency over our bodies and desires is a fundamental step toward liberation, contributing to a more empathetic and introspective society that questions rigid authority and embraces the beauty of uncertainty.

Drew Grella

• Title: “No Trespassing | Passing | Trespassing”

“The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot.” Bruce Chatwin

I moved to Tucson during the Covid-19 pandemic when everything was shut down. I spent a lot of time roaming the desert and the town. Walking in the liminal space of the dry Rillito riverbed was especially surreal, strewn with trash, memorials, votive sculptures, and lost possessions. While my body moved through this new and unique place, my mind mapped my impressions of nature, waste, and the boundaries between public spaces and private property.

Deliberate walking is simple and beautiful. It is my method for collecting the imagery which emerges when I draw. Intuitive drawing is simple and beautiful. It is my method for revealing to me what I did not know, what I cannot put into words. In the studio, the walking body becomes the drawing body, continuing a contemplative stroll.

Hanan Khatoun

• Title: “Sheer”
• Gallery: Joesph Gross

My separation from culture, language, and family as a member of the Lebanese Diaspora has driven my desire to narrate the experience of what happens after the sensationalizing of war and displacement wears off. The struggle of forging and finding space for one’s identity both within and outside the structures of culture, religion, and family is a reality for those who are generations removed from another home. I am a second-generation immigrant from Lebanon, one of the smallest countries in the world, yet the diaspora population outside the country is larger than that within. Being removed from one place and living in another is common in an increasingly globalized and colonized society. In what ways do we create space for navigating these realities?

“Sheer” is a physical space representative of my search for cultural identity. I construct a space for navigating this self-conception using familial archives, trinkets, documents, photographs, and oral storytelling. These all hold unique language and memory, which in turn, become proof of experience. Woven together they create an identity which I embrace and push against. The act of weaving enables me to explore how disparate things often come together to make a chaotic but contained whole. The work is viewed only at a distance through a fabric cage, indicative of the structures and barriers against which I struggle to understand my multicultural identity.

Tessa Laslo

• Title: “Imprints”
• Gallery: Joseph Gross

In my performative drawing and video works, I delve into the intricate web of personal trauma, investigating its impact on my body, relationships, and self-perception. The lingering effects of sexual assault has left me grappling with fragmented memories and physical scars while igniting a profound anger — an emotion that pervades my work and influences my ability to engage in intimate relationships.

The emotional and physical effects of this trauma are not portrayed as overwhelming obstacles in my work, but rather as integral components of an ongoing narrative. I revisit past abuse to illuminate the resilience and strength that can emerge from a process of artistic confrontation and self-discovery. Imprints combines cyanotype and soft pastels in large-scale drawings alongside a video installation using a twin-sized bed. I’ve opted for materials that lack any semblance of preciousness. The paper is weathered, beaten, and used; worn down by time and wear. Each crease and tear are reflections of the sense of violation that still affects my body and mind. The physicality of the paper, marked by violence, serves as a tangible manifestation of my emotions and experiences, grounding them in truth.

Anger, a powerful undercurrent in my artistic expression, stems not only from what I have experienced, but from the ongoing emotional and physical ramifications that are likely to persist throughout my life. It is a visceral response to the violation of my autonomy and the enduring consequences that ripple through my existence. This anger weaves itself into the fabric of my art, becoming both a driving force and an intense element that shape the narrative of my work.

Anita Maksimiuk

• Title: “Infinity Stone: American Prawda”

As a printmaker, my work engages the symbology of migration, root-taking, rootlessness, and the urban environment. This is largely based on my experience as a first-generation American in Brooklyn, New York and beyond. Watching the city’s immigrant enclaves gentrify and lose their sense of sanctuary motivates me to document, preserve, and question the familiar through printmaking.

By creating cityscapes that deconstruct and reconfigure the iconic, I preserve both places and histories that fade along with the immigrant. As I move through this country, I keep in mind the glare of separation, the repairs I’ve made, and the fractures that remain.

“Infinity Stone: American Prawda” features primarily lithography, with screen printed elements. Historic mediums once prevalent in both fine art and advertising, these two processes challenge and contrast one another.

Methods of deletion, stencil and layer come together to form the printed image, all while honoring its ghost. These approaches allow me to subvert the traditional application of the lithography process, working the limestone surface until it becomes a source of light, color and texture. Starting with photographic images from my personal archive, I coax information out from the surface of the stone chemically. As the landscape is layered, removed and replaced, it begins to mimic the motions of an overdeveloped urban space.

I use the stone to create one-of-a-kind prints rather than producing editions. Using shifts in scale, photographic elements and a non-traditional approach to the process, I reclaim it as a tool of documentation, propaganda and mystery.

Pushing the lithograph beyond its traditional black and white, drawn image, the group of foldable posters presented here re-casts an iconic cityscape in an intimate light, worked into existence entirely by hand. Hung as banners, these images will travel, degrade, and return as I do.

Meant to be approached, the light and horizon that grounds these prints let the gaze linger while the viewer imagines, yearns, or simply remembers. This perspective alludes to an unattainable yet promising aspect of building a home, nationality and a claim to a city. The images take on an iconographic quality, representing a place that is constantly in motion. It is a horizon that is constructed over, bought, sold, and advertised as an object of desire. Here, it is reconstructed as a symbol of hope, haven, and history. It will tear but persist, both physically on paper and intangibly, within the child looking towards home.

Whether these prints become mementos or mirages, they ultimately take on the role of documents. I see my evolving work as a journey, a narrative and a documentary practice, bound within a fleeting medium.

• Title: “The Sonoran Desert: A Model for Surviving the Sixth Extinction”

Since the Cambrian explosion over 500 million years ago, an astounding variety of exotic and resilient life forms have thrived and diversified throughout the world. Starting as primitive cells in a world slammed by catastrophic events, the life forms today in the rugged Sonoran Desert have developed extraordinary physical defenses key to their survival. This beautiful yet brutal desert inspired me to investigate the world of invertebrates and microorganisms, the survivors of multiple planetary catastrophes, whether gathered from a habitat in my backyard pond and examined under a microscope or encountered while roaming the desert.

Constructing oversized ceramic sculptures and drawings re-creates and interrogates the magnificent structures that these creatures have used as protection for survival. Bringing attention to these armored desert microorganisms and insects who have learned to adapt to extreme heat and long-term drought may teach us much as we enter the era of the Anthropocene. We can learn from their secrets as concern arises over our own adaptability.

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U of A's Creative Writing MFA Celebrates its 50th Anniversary

Cara Blue Adams, Alberto Ríos and Aisha Sabatini Sloan

In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the University of Arizona's Creative Writing MFA Program, we are so proud to present a  reading  by three distinguished alumni from across the decades:  Cara Blue Adams, Alberto Ríos and Aisha Sabatini Sloan. 

Please join us for this very special event at the University of Arizona Poetry Center  this Thursday, November 17, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. UA Time . Outdoor seating will be available. A cake and lemonade reception follows the reading in the breezeway.

As always, the event will be livestreamed by our generous Poetry Center colleagues  at this link  – a nice way for folks who are out of town or more comfortable watching from home to join us. 

Our gratitude to  everyone  who has helped bring this celebration together – beginning once upon a time in 1972! This celebration is for your many and mellifluous voices.

You can learn more about our readers and event sponsors below. 

Cara Blue Adams  is the author of the interlinked story collection  You Never Get It Back  (University of Iowa Press, 2021), named a  New York Times Editors’ Choice  and awarded the John Simmons Short Fiction Prize, judged by Brandon Taylor, who calls it “a modern classic.” The book was shortlisted for the Mary McCarthy Prize and long listed for the Story Prize. She has received the Kenyon Review Short Fiction Prize, the Missouri Review Peden Prize, and the Meringoff Prize in Fiction, along with selection as a Pushcart Prize Notable. She is an associate professor at Seton Hall University and lives in Brooklyn.

Alberto Ríos’s  latest books are  Not Go Away Is My Name , poems, and a novel,  A Good Map of All Things . A National Book Award finalist, Ríos has taught at Arizona State University since 1982. He is Arizona’s inaugural poet laureate, a recent chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.  He is a graduate of both the MFA Program  and  has a BA in English from the UA! Double alum!

Aisha Sabatini Sloan ’s writing about race and current events is often coupled with analysis of art, film, and pop culture. She is the author of the  The Fluency of Light ,  Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit ,  Borealis , and, with her father, the image + text collaboration,  Captioning the Archives . The recipient of a CLMP Firecraker award, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a National Magazine Award, a Lambda Literary award, and a Jean Cordova award for Queer Nonfiction, she is an assistant professor of English at the University of Michigan.

This reading is sponsored by the UA College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, the Department of English, and the  MFA Program in Creative Writing . 

Additional support for the 2022-2023 Reading & Lecture Series was provided by  Innovations in Healthy Aging  – a strategic collaboration led by the University of Arizona Health Sciences, rethinking what it means to thrive while aging.