Virginia Kovach Lecturer [ENGL]Virginia Kovach is a native Midwesterner, having lived in either Wisconsin or Iowa my entire life. I write fiction as well as poetry. I write to shine a light on the people and other forms of life who we tend...
Taylor Sklenar Graduate Assistant [A&BE]Taylor Sklenar is a playwright, poet, and theatre artist pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing and the Environment. He received his Bachelors’ degrees in chemistry, English, and performing arts from ISU and his MA in Theatre from the University of...
Emily Riley-Smith Lecturer [ENGL]Emily Riley worked in Hyogo, Japan as an English teacher before joining ISU's Creative Writing and Environment program. She experienced intersections of language and culture firsthand. For the first time in a long time, she was illiterate, and she had...
Alana Jones AffiliateAlana Jones is passionate about corn, a gas station pizza enthusiast and eager to try deep fried butter at the prestigious Iowa State Fair. This California native completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Iowa in genetics and also...
Peter Haleas Graduate Student [ENGL]Peter Haleas is a writer and Iowa State University MFA student from Western Springs, Illinois. He spent the last four years living in Mizokuchi, Tottori, Japan as an English teacher on the JET Program. His favorite writers are Herman Hesse,...
Emily Golden Lecturer [ENGL]Emily Golden is a first year MFA CWE candidate with a Bachelors from Willamette University in English and Theatre. She splits her time between fiction and playwriting, focusing in both cases on the intersections between myth, science, and human consciousness....
Natalie Deam Graduate Assistant [LAS]Natalie Deam is an Ames local, happy to be back in the Midwest after studying in France and California. She received a PhD in French literature from Stanford University in 2019 and completed her BAs in French, English, and Comparative...
Charles Castinado Graduate Student [ENGL]Jordan Castinado is a first-year student in the Creative Writing and Environment program, and a Pearl Hogrefe Fellow for 2019-2020. Jordan earned his BFA in creative writing at Prescott College in central Arizona, where he fell in love with the...
John Carter Graduate Student [ENGL]John Carter is a current student in the MFA in Creative Writing and Environment program and Midwestern to his bones. Born, raised, and educated in East-Central Indiana, he received both his BA and MA in Creative Writing from Ball State...
Zachary Calhoun Lecturer [ENGL]Zachary Calhoun is an MFA candidate in Creative Writing and Environment. A graduate of St. John’s College and Tulane University, he has published and presented papers on philosophy, environmental ethics, and the history of math and science. He taught undergraduate...