• Sophie Nunberg Wins Coveted AWP Intro Journals Project Award
    Sophie Nunberg (PhD in progress) has won one of the coveted AWP Intro Journals Project Awards for her creative nonfiction piece, “This is Just to Say I Have Recommended the Last Book You Were Saving.” It will appear in an upcoming issue of Mid-American Review. From AWP’s website: “The AWP Intro Journals Project is a literary competition for the …
  • Frederick Smock Poetry Prize Awarded to Ellen Elder
    The inaugural Frederick Smock Poetry Prize was awarded to Ellen Elder (PhD, 2009) for her poetry collection, We Left a Window Open to the Sea, selected by Kentucky Poet Laureate Emeritus Richard Taylor. The book will come out in fall 2026.
  • Professor’s book debuts on New York Times bestseller list
    The Voice in My Head is God (Black Privilege/Penguin Random House), a debut memoir from Grammy-winning artist 2 Chainz cowritten with UWM professor and poet Derrick Harriell, debuted at number 10 on the Times' Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction Bestseller list in March 2026.
  • Creative Writing Student Wins Award
    Kim Rouse, who is pursuing an MA in English with a creative writing focus, recently won a Lillian Boese Award for Writing Excellence from the Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books. Congratuations, Kim!
  • Su Cho and Canese Jarboe Named 2025 NEA Fellows in Poetry
    Su Cho (PhD, 2021) and Canese Jarboe (PhD, 2024), have both been named 2025 NEA Fellows in Poetry and will receive grants of $25,000 each. Cho will join Vanderbilt University's MFA program as an assistant professor in fall 2025; Jarboe published their collection Sissy (Garden-Door Press) in 2024 and was also a 2024 Tallgrass Artist-in-Residence. …