Alabama grads go on to publish well. Work by alumni has appeared in magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, The New Yorker, Poetry, Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, Paris Review, Story, and dozens of others, such as The Pinch, The Journal, Quarterly West, ESPN.com, Puerto del Sol, as well as in such anthologies as New Stories from the South, Scribner’s Best of the Writing Workshops, Starlight I, AWP Intro Awards, Best American Poetry, Best American Essays, New American Poets, and The Pushcart Prize.
They compete brilliantly for other forms of national recognition. Alumni have received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship, The Wallace Stegner Fellowship, The Jacob Javits Fellowship, The Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship, the John C. Zacharis Prize from Ploughshares, the Yale Younger Poets prize, the AWP Award Series in Creative Non-Fiction prize, the New Millennium Writing Award in Poetry, and the Atlantic Monthly Student Writing prizes in poetry, non-fiction and fiction.
Graduates have published books with an array of presses covering the contemporary gamut, from Graywolf Press to the University of Mississippi Press, and Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Little, Brown, and Company, Black Lawrence Press, Yes Yes Books, Storyline Press, Cobalt Press, and Tinhouse Press. They hold important editorial positions at magazines (as of this writing, UA MFAs are at the helm of the Georgia Review, the Southern Review, the Gettysburg Review, the New Orleans Review, and the Idaho Review), major publishing houses, and on-line venues, and teach in a wide variety of private and public colleges and universities.
Regardless of what they do when they leave here, our graduates take with them a network of readers for their future productions, a finely-tuned sense of how to balance the needs of the writer with more workaday demands and, more often than not, lifelong friends.
While in the program, students are encouraged to tap the program’s resources to facilitate their artistic and professional development. Students start magazines, found presses, organize reading series, connect with community partners to teach writing to underserved populations, create radio programs, and much more, and the program does all it can to support such endeavors.
For more examples and excerpts of current and former UA MFAs, check out our Facebook page.
Books by MFA Alumni
Author | Title | Publisher | Publication Year | Genre |
---|---|---|---|---|
Jeffrey Bean | Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (winner, 2013 Vern Cowles/Copperdome Poetry Chapbook Prize) | Southeast Missouri State University Press | 2014 | Poetry |
Diminished Fifth | David Robert Books | 2009 | Poetry | |
John Bensko | Visitations | University of Tampa | 2014 | Poetry |
Sea Dogs | Graywolf Press | 2004 | Fiction | |
The Iron City | University of Illinois Press | 2000 | Poetry | |
The Waterman’s Children (winner, Yale Series of Younger Poets) | University of Massachusettes Press | 1994 | Poetry | |
Green Soldiers | Yale University Press | 1981 | Poetry | |
Amy Benson | The Sparkling-Eyed Boy: A Memoir of Love, Grown Up | Mariner Books | 2004 | Nonfiction |
Sarah Blackman | Motherbox and Other Tales (winner, FC2 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Contest) | FC2 / The University of Alabama Press | 2013 | Fiction |
Ryan J. Browne | Outside Come In | Bright Hill Press | 2012 | Poetry |
Tom Chiarella | Thursday’s Game: Notes from a Golfer with Far to Go | Emmis Books | 2004 | Nonfiction |
Writing Dialogue | Story Press | 1998 | Nonficton | |
Foley’s Luck: Stories | Knopf | 1992 | Fiction | |
Jill Christman | Borrowed Babies | Shebooks | 2014 | Nonfiction |
Darkroom: A Family Exposure (winner, Associated Writing Programs Award) | University of Georgia Press | 2011 | Nonfiction | |
C. Bard Cole | This is Where My Life Went Wrong | Blatt Books | 2009 | Fiction |
Briefly Told Lives | St. Martin’s Press | 2000 | Fiction | |
Cade Collum | The Dogs of Havana | Red Hydra Press | 2008 | Poetry |
Lion Froth Crown | Red Hydra Press | 2014 | Poetry | |
Thomas Cotsanas | Nominal Cases | Black Lawrence Press | 2016 | Fiction |
Jennifer S. Davis | Our Former Lives in Art | Random House | 2007 | Fiction |
Her Kind of Want (winner, Iowa Short Fiction Award) | Universidy of Iowa Press | 2002 | Fiction | |
Cathy Day | Comeback Season | Free Press | 2008 | Fiction |
The Circus in Winter (finalist, The Story Prize, the Great Lakes Book Award, GLCA New Writer Award ) | Harcourt | 2004 | Fiction | |
Lynn Domina | The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Exploration of Literature | Greenwood | 2014 | Nonfiction |
Framed in Silence | Main Street Rag | 2011 | Poetry | |
Poets on the Psalms (Ed.) | Trinity University Press | 2008 | Nonfiction | |
Understanding Ceremony: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents | Greenwood | 2004 | Nonfiction | |
Understanding A Raisin in the Sun: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents | Greenwood | 1998 | Nonfiction | |
Corporal Works | Four Way | 1995 | Poetry | |
Andy Duncan | Wakulla Springs (Co-author) | Tor Books | 2013 | Fiction |
The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories | PS Publishing | 2012 | Fiction | |
On 20468 Petercook | Tor Books | 2012 | Fiction | |
Night Cache | Globe Pequot Press | 2009 | Fiction | |
Alabama Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff | PS Publishing | 2009 | Nonfiction | |
Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic (Co-Ed.) | Tor Books | 2005 | Anthology | |
Beluthahatchie and Other Stories | Golden Gryphon Press | 2000 | Fiction | |
Tim Earley | Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery | Horse Less Press | 2014 | Poetry |
The Spooking of Mavens | Cracked Slab Books | 2010 | Poetry | |
Boondoggle | Main Street Rag | 2005 | Poetry | |
Tony Early | Mr. Tall | Little, Brown and Company | 2014 | Fiction |
The Blue Star | Back Bay Books | 2009 | Fiction | |
Somehow Form a Family: Stories That Are Mostly True | Algonquin Books | 2002 | Nonfiction | |
Jim the Boy | Back Bay Books | 2001 | Fiction | |
New Stories from the South (Ed.) | Algonquin Books for Chapel Hill | 1999 | Anthology | |
Here We Are in Paradise: Stories | Back Bay Books | 1994 | Fiction | |
Brett Evans | After School Session | Subpress | 2002 | Poetry |
Andrew Farkas | Self-Titled Debut | Subito Press | 2008 | Fiction |
David Floyd | The Sudden Architecture of the Dark | WordTech Communications | 2006 | Poetry |
Timothy Geiger | The Curse of Pheromones | Main Street Rag | 2008 | Poetry |
Blue Light Factory | Spoon River Poetry Press | 1999 | Poetry | |
Paul Guest | One More Theory About Happiness | Ecco | 2011 | Nonfiction |
My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge | Ecco | 2008 | Poetry | |
Notes for My Body Double (winner, Prairie Schooner Book Prize) | Bilson Poetry | 2007 | Poetry | |
The Resurrection of the Body and the Ruin of the World | New Issues Poetry & Prose | 2003 | Poetry | |
Jeff Hardin | Fall Sanctuary (winner, Nicholas Roerich Prize) | Story Line Press | 2016 (forthcoming) | Poetry |
Notes for a Praise Book (winner, Jacar Press Book Award) | Jacar Press | 2015 | Poetry | |
Restoring the Narrative (winner, Donald Justice Prize) | Story Line Press | 2015 | Poetry | |
Until that Yellow Bird Returns | Red Hydra Press | 2013 | Poetry | |
Small Revolution | Aldrich Press | 2005 | Poetry | |
Annie Hartnett | Rabbit Cake | Tin House Books | 2017
(forthcoming |
Fiction |
Joshua R. Helms | Machines Like Us | Dzanc Books | 2016 | Poetry |
Jessica Hollander | In These Times the Home is a Tired Place (winner, Katherine Anne Porter Prize) | University of North Texas Press | 2013 | Fiction |
B. J. Hollars | Dispatches from the Drowning: Reporting the Fiction of Nonfiction | The University of New Mexico Press | 2014 | Nonfiction |
Opening the Doors: The Desegregation of the University of Alabama and the Fight for Civil Rights | The University of Alabama Press | 2014 | Nonfiction | |
Blurring the Boundaries: Exploration to the Fringes of Nonfiction | University of Nebraska Press | 2013 | Nonfiction | |
Sightings: Stories | Break Away Books/ Indiana University Press | 2013 | Fiction | |
Monsters: A Collection of Literary Sightings (Ed.) | Pressgang | 2012 | Anthology | |
Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence, and the Last Lynching in America (winner, Society of Midland Authors Award; The University of Alabama Award for Excellence in Research by a Master’s Student; The University of Alabama Outstanding Thesis Award) | University of Alabama Press | 2010 | Nonfiction | |
You Must Be This Tall to Ride: Contemporary Writers Take You Inside the Story (Ed.) | Writer’s Digest Books | 2009 | Anthology | |
J. R. Jones | The Lives of Robert Ryan | Wesleyan University Press | 2015 | Nonfiction |
Dan Kaplan | Bill’s Formal Complaint (runner-up, 2006 National Poetry Review Book Prize) | The National Poetry Review Press | 2008 | Poetry |
SKIN | Red Hydra Press | 2005 | Poetry | |
Laura Kochman | The Bone and the Body | BatCat Press | 2015 | Poetry |
Matthew Mahaney | The Storm that Bears Your Name (winner, Cupboard Pamphlet’s Fourth-Ever Contest) | The Cupboard | 2015 | Poetry |
Your Attraction to Sharp Machines | BatCat Press | 2013 | Poetry | |
Ander Monson | Vanishing Point | Graywolf Press | 2010 | Nonfiction |
The Available World | Sarabande Books | 2010 | Poetry | |
Neck Deep and Other Predicaments (winner, Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize) | Graywolf Press | 2007 | Noncition | |
Vacationland | Tupelo Press | 2005 | Poetry | |
Other Electricities | Sarabande Books | 2005 | Fiction | |
Leah Nielsen | Side Effects May Include | The Chapbook | 2014 | Poetry |
No Magic | Word Press | 2005 | Poetry | |
Alissa Nutting | Tampa | Ecco | 2013 | Fiction |
Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls (winner, Starcherone Prize for Innovative Fiction) | Starcherone Books | 2011 | Fiction | |
Brian Oliu | I/O: A Memoir | Civil Coping Mechanisms | 2015 | Nonfiction |
Enter Your Initials for Record Keeping | Cobalt Press | 2015 | Anthology | |
Leave Luck to Heaven | Uncanny Valley Press | 2014 | Nonfiction | |
Liver of Dixie: Stories from Egan’s (Co. Ed) | Broken Futon Pres | 2013 | Anthology | |
Tuscaloosa Writes This (Co. Ed.) | Slash Pine Press | 2013 | Anthology | |
Tuscaloosa Runs This (Ed.) | Broken Futon Pres | 2012 | Anthology | |
Come See for Yourself | Google Maps | 2012 | Nonfiction | |
Level End | Origami Zoo Press | 2012 | Nonfiction | |
So You Know It’s Me | Tiny Hardcore Press | 2011 | Nonfiction | |
Jessica Lee Richardson | It Had Been Planned and There Were Guides (winner, FC2 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Contest) | FC2 / The University of Alabama Press | 2013 | Fiction |
Justin Runge | Hum Decode | Greying Ghost Press | 2014 | Poetry |
Plainsight | New Michigan Press | 2012 | Poetry | |
Rob Trucks | Tusk (A 33 1/3 Book) | Bloomsbury Academic | 2011 | Nonfiction |
The Catcher: Baseball Behind the Seams | Clerisy Press | 2005 | Nonfiction | |
The Starting Pitcher: Baseball Behind the Seams | Clerisy Press | 2005 | Nonfiction | |
Cup of Coffee: The Very Short Career of Eighteen Major League Pitchers | Clerisy Press | 2003 | Nonfiction | |
The Pleasure of Influence: A Conversation with American Male Fiction Writers (Ed.) | Purdue University Press | 2002 | Anthology | |
Lucas Southworth | Everyone Here Has a Gun (winner, Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction) | University of Massachusetts Press | 2013 | Fiction |
Brandi Wells | This Boring Apocalypse | Civil Coping Mechanisms | 2015 | Fiction |
Poisonhorse | Dzanc Books | 2013 | Fiction | |
Please Don’t be Upset | Tiny Hardcore Press | 2011 | Fiction | |
Leia Penina Wilson | i built a boat with all the towels in your closet (and will let you drown) | Red Hen Press | 2014 | Poetry |
Tommy Zurhellen | Armageddon, Texas | Atticus Books | 2014 | Fiction |
Apostle Island | Atticus Books | 2012 | Fiction | |
Nazareth, North Dakota (winner, 2012 Independent Publisher Book Award Gold Medal for Best Fiction from the U.S. Midwest Region) | Atticus Books | 2011 | Fiction |
Other Projects
Below is a sampling of some projects begun by alums: