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About

Program Director Gregory Spatz is the author of the novelsÌýInukshuk,ÌýFiddler’s DreamÌýandÌýNo One But Us,Ìýand of the story collectionsÌýHalf as HappyÌýandÌýWonderful Tricks. His stories have appeared in many publications, includingÌýThe New Yorker,ÌýGlimmer Train Stories,ÌýShenandoah,ÌýEpoch,ÌýKenyon Review,ÌýNew England Review,ÌýandÌýZyzzyva.ÌýHe has written forÌýPoets and Writers, as well asÌýThe Oxford American. He is the recipient of a Michener Fellowship, an Iowa Arts Fellowship, a Washington State Book Award, and a 2012 NEA Fellowship in literature. Spatz also plays the fiddle in the twice Juno-nominated bluegrass band John Reischman and the Jaybirds.

When not on the road with the Jaybirds or busy at work teaching and writing, he enjoys playing music with his wife, Caridwen, also a fiddler, and being a step-dad to her two sons Tal and Angus.

Visit Greg’s website atÌý.

Read Greg’s article in Poets & Writers:Ìý. Check out Greg’s interview with .

Listen to Greg talk about MFA programs and the application process on Jared McCormack’s podcast: .

About

Polly Buckingham is the author of one book of poetry,ÌýThe River PeopleÌý(Lost Horse Press 2020), two books of fiction,ÌýThe Expense of a ViewÌý(Katherine Anne Porter Award, UNT Press 2016) andÌýA Year of SilenceÌý(Jeanne Leiby Memorial Chapbook Award, Florida Review Press 2015), and of the forthcoming bookÌýThe Stolen Child and Other StoriesÌý(Betty Books). She is the recipient of a 2014 Washington Artists Trust Fellowship. Polly is the editor ofÌýWillow SpringsÌýmagazine and the series editor for The Katherine Anne Porter Award. Her work appears inÌýThe Gettysburg Review, Threepenny Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Sugar House, The Poetry Review, North American Review, Conduit, Spillway, The MothÌýand elsewhere.

About

Jonathan Johnson’s poems have been anthologized in Best American Poetry, published in recent issues of Ploughshares, Southern Review, , Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, New Ohio Review, and Gettysburg Review, and read on NPR’s Writer’s Almanac. His books include the poetry collections Mastodon, 80% Complete (Carnegie Mellon, 2001), In the Land We Imagined Ourselves (Carnegie Mellon 2010), and May Is an Island (Carnegie Mellon 2018); and the memoirs, Hannah and the Mountain (Nebraska, 2005) and The Desk on the Sea (Wayne State, 2019). Ode, his play about John Keats and Fanny Brawne, was produced as part of the GetLit! Literary Festival, and his fiction has appeared recently in Ploughshares, Bellevue Literary Review, and Missouri Review. Johnson migrates between the Northwest; his hometown of Marquette, Michigan; and his ancestral village of Glenelg in the Scottish Highland where his cousins are still crofters.

In addition to his regular course load, Jonathan teaches a unique summer writing class from Yellowstone National Park. All students in previous sections of this course have watched wolves. Other observations have included wild trout, grizzly bears, falcons, mountain goats, and bison (lots and lots of bison). The course is designed to be a peak life experience that inspires writers to observe their world closely, to conduct field research, and to write from their own experiences for years to come.

About

Samuel Ligon is the author of two novels—Among the Dead and DreamingÌýandÌýSafe in Heaven Dead—and two collections of stories,ÌýWonderland, illustrated by Stephen Knezovich, andÌýDrift and Swerve. He’s co-editor, with Kate Lebo, ofÌýPie & Whiskey: Writers Under the Influence of Butter and Booze. His short fiction has appeared inÌýGeorgia Review,ÌýPrairie Schooner,ÌýNew England Review,ÌýThe Quarterly, and elsewhere.ÌýLigon serves as theÌýArtistic Director of the .

About

Rachel Toor is the author of five books of creative nonfiction:ÌýWrite Your Way InÌý(Chicago, 2016);ÌýMisunderstood (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015);ÌýPersonal RecordÌý(Nebraska, 2008);ÌýThe Pig and IÌý(Penguin, 2005; Nebraska, 2009) andÌýAdmissions ConfidentialÌý(St. Martin’s, 2001). Her first novel,ÌýOn the Road to Find Out, was published in 2014 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.ÌýShe writes a monthly column on issues in writing and publishing forÌýThe Chronicle of Higher EducationÌýand “Everything is Copy,” which appears monthly in the Spokesman-Review. She was a longtime contributor toÌýRunning TimesÌýand in 2012 she was given an award for journalistic excellence by the Road Runners of America. Her work has appeared inÌýThe New York Times,ÌýPloughshares,ÌýSB Nation,ÌýGlamour,ÌýInside Higher Ed,ÌýReader‘s Digest,ÌýThe Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA),ÌýThe LA Times, and other various and diverse publications. Three times she has had essays listed as Notable in Best American Sports Writing, and once in Best American Essays, and in 2017 she received a Special Mention forÌýthe Pushcart Prize. She’s been sponsored by Athleta and SkirtSports.

After graduating from Yale, Rachel spent a dozen years as an acquisitions editor at Oxford and Duke University Presses. She has an MFA from the University of Montana.

About

Christopher Howell’sÌýLight’s LadderÌýwon the Washington State Book Award in 2005. His poems, essays, and translations have also appeared in a number of anthologies and journals, includingÌýAntioch Review,ÌýColorado Review,ÌýCrazy Horse,ÌýDenver Quarterly,ÌýField,ÌýGettysburg Review,ÌýHarper’s,ÌýHudson Review,ÌýIowa Review,ÌýNorthwest Review,ÌýPoetry Northwest,ÌýSouthern ReviewÌýandÌýVolt. He has been the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes and two National Endowment fellowships, as well as a number of other awards.