MFA in the news

Alumna Mel Coryell was named Indiana’s 2015-16 Milken Educator. The Milken Educator Awards honors top educators around the country with $25,000 unrestricted awards. The Milken Educator Awards targets early-to-mid career education professionals for their already impressive achievements and for the promise of what they will accomplish in the future.

Alumnus Kaveh Akbar read his poem,”Palmyra” on PBS Newshour. The poem, written in response to the beheading of Syrian archeologist Khaled Al-Asaadon, has also been featured at the Poetry Foundation and FSView. “This poem is an instance where I’m kind of cracking open the window and looking at, for as long as I can bear it, what is physically unbearable,” Akbar said.

flashed-ed-josh-neufeld-sari-wilsonThe team from Pressgang (Butler’s small press) is celebrating the completion of FLASHED: Sudden Stories in Comics and Prose. The early buzz on this one is strong. NewPages reviewed the ARC in December and said that Flashed was “one of the most fun reading experiences” they had in 2015. To be released in February, Flashed is a unique, call-and-response collaboration between short fiction and comics. Contributors, including Junot Diaz, Lynda Barry, Aimee Bender and more, riff on each other’s work in curated triplets that begin to form an echo chamber on the creative process.

Our newest Creative Nonfiction student, Suzette Hackney wrote the powerful cover story for the Indianapolis Star’s Sunday Living section. The personal essay tells an emotional story of Hackney’s personal loss and her commitment to healthy living. Her essay has gained an outpouring of support and praise, including a tweet from John Green naming Hackney “Indianapolis’ brilliant newish columnist.”

Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 2.07.50 PMFiction candidate Elisabeth Giffin has had an outstandingly successful year in theater. First, she won Encore Association’s Best Major Supporting Actress in a Drama for her role in August: Osage County. Then, local theater critic, Ken Klingenmeier recognized Giffin with a “Mitty” (Most Impressive Theatre award).  She won “Most Impressive Actress in a Smaller Role” for her role in It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. Klingenmeier wrote, “Elisabeth Giffin showed a certain verve in her roles, creating feelings of both a carefree comic nature and, when necessary, feelings of distress and wantonness. And she did it all with what seemed to be an enviable effortlessness.” Giffin also landed a spot in a Lids commercial filmed in downtown Indy. If you haven’t seen it, check it out here.