Riley Morsman is a recent graduate of Kansas State University where she received her BA in English with minors in Nonprofit Leadership and American Ethnic Studies (although she argues that she also deserves a minor in Architecture after spending four semesters in the program). While her primary genre as an MFA candidate is creative nonfiction, Riley is also a poet and enjoys pursuing the intersection of the two in order to capture a more lyrical style to her nonfiction work.
During her graduate studies, Riley plans to research the psychological and philosophical implications of environment in order to develop depth and distinction in her work. She is also interested in the ways in which creative writing can help readers connect the seemingly disparate in our world – such as the way, in architecture, a ceiling beam might lead your eyes to a window across the room. She believes that words have the same power.
Described by a colleague as their “lovely extroverted friend of the prairie,” Riley is proud to hail from the Sunflower State. Although both she and her husband, Ben, grew up in the suburbs of Kansas City, they were able to spend several years in the Flint Hills of central Kansas – a place Riley deems is the true home of “spacious skies” and “amber waves of grain.”