Welcome to the Fall 2021 semester at Chapman University! It’s a whole new ballgame.

We’re back to in-person instruction, and it’s great to hear students in spontaneous conversation with each other again. Masks are required indoors, and some faculty are using voice amplifiers. Some of our whiteboard pens had dried out. I hadn’t touched a PC since December 2019, so I forgot that the mouse on the classroom computers scrolls backwards. If you want to know more about the current university policies regarding covid, check the CU Safely Back website, including the Dashboard with current (not cumulative) case numbers, positivity rates, and building exposures.

The English Graduate Meet & Greet is Tuesday, September 28, at 6:30-7:30pm on the 3rd floor south patio of Argyos Forum. MA, MFA, and Dual students, faculty, and alums are all welcome!

The first Tabula Poetica visiting writer is Ruben Quesada on Tuesday, September 14, for a Poetry Talk & Reading at 2:30pm and The Poetry Life: A Conversation at 7pm. Both events will have students in a zoom classroom and livestream on YouTube for the rest of us! Contact Samantha de la O at sadelao@chapman.edu for more info.

Presidential Fellow Carolyn Forché is set to return to campus in November and will run a three-day generative workshop. While spots are limited, we welcome applications from alums in the area as well as from current students, especially because the pandemic interrupted this program last year. More information will be available soon, and applications will be due October 15.

I’m also excited about the Engaging the World program based in Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. This year’s focus combines environmentalism and social justice in a variety of events, from a conversation about environmental justice here in Orange County to a film discussion of Fractured Land to a book club and talk by ocean explorer Jill Heinerth.

Remember, whether you’re an alum or a current student, we want to help you sustain your writing life. If you have good news about a publication or a job you’ve landed or if you find an opportunity for writers that you’d like to share, please write to us at mfacwnews@chapman.edu. We also have a private Facebook group for sharing and conversation: https://www.facebook.com/groups/324502170948986

- Dr. Anna Leahy, Director of MFA in Creative Writing

Congratulations to the Classes of '20 and '21

Summer was a busy season as we celebrated the classes of 2020 and 2021 with two consecutive commencement ceremonies, welcoming two new cohorts of MFA alums!

Aysel Atamdede

Ariel Banayan

Manuel Calvillo de la Garza

Melissa Childs

Sierra Ellison

Jocelyn Foster

Melissa Gaiti

Teresa Ge

Matt Goldman

Chris Hines

Destiny Irons

Rachel Jeffries

Ryan Johnson

Larissa Lacy

Nikolas Loyatho

Daniel Miess

Jonathan Moch

Tori O'Leary

Nana Prempeh

Marco Randazzo

Sam Risak

Natalie Salagean

Natalia Sanchez

Danielle Shorr

Daniel Strasberger

Jason Thornberry 

Karina Trejo 

Geneva Trelease-Gordon

Sarah Valadez

Alexandra Vernon

Morgan Wilson

Phil Wood

Candice Yacono

Tryphena Yeboah

Kati Zamani

Alumni Achievements

Faculty Achievements

Jobs & Internships

Exeter Academy's Writer in Residence (George Bennett Fellowship) is open for the 2022/23 school year. The application is open September 1-30.

Coffee House Press is seeking a spring intern for a literary internship. Applications are accepted September 15 through November 1 for spring internships lasting January through April in person at their Minneapolis office, with some remote work opportunities.

Oxford American offers a comprehensive year-round editorial internship program. They are seeking full-time and part-time positions available and offer a stipend of $2,500 per term. Internships begin in January, June, and September. 

Opportunities

The Academy of American Poets First Book Award is a $5,000 first-book publication prize. The winning manuscript is published by Graywolf Press. The winner also receives an all-expenses-paid six-week residency at the Civitella Ranieri Center. Submissions are accepted from August 1, 2021 to October 1. 

Bat City Review is interested in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, art, and cross-genre pieces that experiment with language, form, and unconventional subject matter. Submission deadline is September 15.

New Plains Review seeks creative works ranging from poetry and prose to plays/screenplays and music and short films. New Plains Review is a student-run literary journal published in spring and fall through the University of Central Oklahoma’s New Plains Student Publishing. Deadline to submit work is September 15.

Boulevard is taking submissions for fiction, poetry, and nonfiction for their contest for Emerging Writers. Deadline September 30. 

Pleiades is seeking submissions for their Latinx LGBTQIA+ Poets issue. Deadline September 30.

RHINO's Founders' Prize Poetry Contest is open for submissions until September 30.

Sixth Finch is seeking chapbook submissions for their fall issue until October 6. 

Pangyrus publishes writing, comics, and visual art in every genre. Deadline October 14.

The Copper Nickel Jake Adam York Prize for a first or second poetry collection is a collaboration between Copper Nickel and Milkweed Editions. Book-length manuscripts can be submitted via Submittable through October 15. The prize-winning poet receives $2,000 and publication. 

Phoebe is looking for fiction, poetry, and nonfiction submissions for their winter issue. Deadline October 15.

Tupelo Quarterly seeks submissions of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, lyric essay, hybrid work and visual art during open reading periods. Submissions are open until October 15.

Washington Square Review is taking poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Deadline October 15.

Ruminate's VanderMey nonfiction prize is open for any type of creative nonfiction—personal essay, short memoir, literary journalism, etc. Deadline October 18.

The American Poetry Review is seeking submissions for the Honickman First Book Prize, as well as poetry and prose submissions. Deadline October 31.

Conduit Book's Minds on Fire Open Book Prize is now taking submissions. Grand prize is $1,500 and publication. Deadline is October 31.

Headmistress Press is open for submissions for their Sappho's Prize in Poetry from October 1-31.

Kallisto Gaia Press's Ocotillo Review seeks submissions of poetry, short fiction, creative or narrative nonfiction, and flash fiction through October 31.

Kissing Dynamite seeks poetry microchap manuscripts for print publication in 2022. Submissions are open from October 1-31.

Metatron Press's prize for rising authors in poetry and fiction is open until October 31. 

Persea Book's Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize competition is open to self-identifying women who have yet to publish a full-length book of poems. Submissions are open until October 31. 

Red Hen Press is looking for novels, memoirs, creative nonfiction, hybrid works, and story, essay, and poetry collections. Submissions for The Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award must be submitted by October 31. 

Redivider seeks previously unpublished works from new, emerging, and established artists and writers. Deadline October 31. 

South Broadway Press is seeking poems and experimental pieces on the theme of home for their second anthology Dwell. MFA alum Erica Hoffmeister is on the editorial staff, and Anna Leahy's poetry was featured in their first anthology. Submissions are open until October 31. 

The Brunel International African Poetry Prize is open for submissions from October 1 to November 1.

The Autumn House Rising Writer Prize in Poetry is seeking first full-length books of poetry. Submissions are open from October 1 to November 30.

Entropy Magazine's Where to Submit List has a detailed list of current submission opportunities, updated to cover three months of opportunities at a time. If you are an editor or publisher and would like your journal, press, or literary organization to be included on the next Where to Submit list, please email Small Press Editor Justin Greene (justingreene@entropymag.org).

The Sancho Panza Literary Society is back with their summer residency at Trinity College Dublin. The program is open to published and unpublished writers who write fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. For more information about fees and accommodations, email Director Professor Joseph Reynolds (ajoreynolds@fordham.edu).

Sweet publishes emerging and established writers for poetry and creative nonfiction. Rolling submissions.