Hari Alluri was the first place winner of the Vera Manuel Award for Poetry 2022. Hari holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Diego State University and is a founding editor at Locked Horn Press.

Andy Stewart, just published his first novel We Shall Sing a Song into the Deep, with Tor Books.  The novel is a lyrical and page-turning coming-of-age exploration of duty, belief, and the post-apocalypse.  Stewart lives and writes in southern California.

V. Ruiz’s first book In Stories We Thunder will be published by Sundress Publications in 2022.  V. recived their MFA from SDSU and is currently an Associate Publisher for Row House Publishing.

Keith Enterante (MFA fiction) was featured recently on the podcast MFA Writers. Keith was interviewed and read an excerpt from his absurdist fantasy novel Phooka Road, which he completed here at SDSU.

MFA fiction alumnus, Stephen Silke's novella, The Glossolalia, was published by Wipf and Stock.  He lives in San Diego, California where he works as a copywriter.

Creative writing MFA alumnus Eric Madeen released his second book titled Tennis Clubbed, Snubbed and Rubbity-Dub Dubbed.

Tabitha Chirrick received an S.T. Joshi Endowed Research Fellowship in H.P. Lovecraft studies from the Hay Library at Brown University.

Hari Alluri has a poetry chapbook forthcoming from Next Page Press -- Our Echo of Sudden Mercy -- in November 2022.  

Thomas Gresham's novel, Heck, Texas, has been published by Atlatl Press and his novel Sunflower has recently been published by Spaceboy Press. 

Robert Cross and Brett Warnke both published stories in issue #3 of The Lit Quarterly.

William Lambert won the President’s Award for the Arts at 2021 Student Research Symposium for his short story, “Decayed Martyr."

Kurt Kroeber's novel, Good At Drugs, has been accepted for publication by Back Patio Press. His short story, "bugbugbug," will be produced as a radio play podcast by QCode Productions as part of a series called Bad Vibes.

Christopher Newman's latest novel, Pillage, was published by North Main Press in New York.

Felipe Orellana Baeza’s “Soul Data” published in the January 2020 issue of Queenmobs. (An essay on Karen Lee’s Maze of Transparencies.)

Congratulations to MFA students, Brent Ameneyro and Grace Li, recipients of the SDSU Master’s Research Scholarship.  Scholarships were awarded through a competitive process.

Alumni Ron Salisbury has been named San Diego's first Poet Laureate. Ron will serve as an ambassador and advocate for poetry, spoken word and the literary arts. We wish Ron all our best in his new role.

Congratulations to MFA student Renee Westbrook, whose recent one-woman show “Shelter,” earned rave reviews and won the award for Outstanding Solo Performance, as part of the San Diego International Fringe Festival.

Congratulations to Richard Robbins, whose book of poetry, Body Turn to Rain: New & Selected Poems, was published by Lynx House Press.

Congratulations to alumni, Chris Baron, on the release of his new young adult novel, All of Me. Read the recent article about the book on The San Diego Union-Tribune website.

Congratulations to Marta Balcewicz on her recent publications in AGNI ("Bonnie Parker Photoshoot" and "Natasha"), as well as her Pushcart Prize nomination for her poem, "This is East Euro."

Chris Baron's debut novel in verse, Weight, was just acquired by Macmillan and is set to be published in the Spring of 2019.

Congratulations to Erin Rodoni, who just won the Montreal International Poetry Prize of $20,000, for her poem: "Caesura."

Carly Joy Miller is the author of Ceremonial (Orison Books, 2018), which was selected by Carl Phillips as the winner of the 2017 Orison Prize for Poetry.

Congrats to Kimball Taylor, whose book The Coyote's Bicycle, is a finalist for the California Book Awards, as well as on the short list of picks for One Book, One San Diego.

Carla Wilson's second book, Curious Impossibilities: Ten Cinematic Riffs, was just released. The book features ten creative responses to ten classic films and addresses the nature of dreams vs. reality, memory and love.

Ephraim Scott Sommers is the author of The Night We Set the Dead Kid on Fire (Tebot Bach 2017), winner of the 2016 Patricia Bibby First Book Award.

David Tomas Martinez received a 2017 NEA in Poetry and is teaching creative writing at Columbia University. His new book, Post Traumatic Hood Disorder, will be published soon.

Congratulations to MFA poetry student, Brenda Taulbee, recipient of both the 2017 Minas Savaas Scholarship and the Sarah Brenda Marsh Rebelo Scholarship. From Portland, Oregon by way of Montana, Brenda Taulbee has followed her passion for writing down the coast to San Diego State University's MFA program. A Pushcart-nominated poet, her work has appeared in various online and print publications including The Inflectionist Review, NAILED Magazine, and Grist literary journal. Her first collection of poems, The Art of Waking Up, released in 2014 by GobQ/Reprobate Books, examines the intricacies of family, love, and loss.

You can read Eric Magnuson’s short story "The Men of Minneapolis are Scared to Provide" at Kenyon Review Online.

Kayla Rodney is pursuing a PhD at the University of Florida. She is studying African religious practices as represented by diasporic women writers.

Binh Nguyen, poet and 2016 Inamori Fellow, has poems and essays in Connotation Press, 3:AM Magazine, The Inquisitive Eater: New School Food. 

Gabriel Rubi was awared an AWP Intro Journals Award in poetry for 2017. Gabe is a Southern California native who is an emerging writer and a civil servant. His work has been published or is forthcoming in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Poetry International, minor literature[s] and Lingerpost

Kevin Dublin's poetry chapbook, "How to Fall In Love in San Diego," is available from   Finishing Line Press.

Poetry alum Carlos Kelly has been accepted into PhD programs at Ohio State University and UC Riverside.

Ron Salisbury (SDSU MFA 2016)  is the winner of Main Street Rag’s 2015 Poetry Prize for Miss Desert Inn. He teaches poetry and writing workshops at San Diego Writers, Ink.

Rachel Greenberg, fiction, has been accepted into UC Riverside's PhD program, and has new work forthcoming from "Sequestrum."

Hari Alluri’s MFA thesis in poetry, The Flayed City,  has been published by Kaya Books. Hari is a founding editor at Locked Horn Press, where he has co-edited two anthologies, Gendered & Written: Forums on Poetics andRead America(s): An Anthology. He has received VONA/Voices and Las Dos Brujas fellowships and a National Film Board of Canada grant.

Arthur Kayzakian, an Armenian-American diasporic poet,  is a recipient of the Minas Savaas Fellowship. His poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from several publications including Pacific Review and Rufous City Review.

Matt de la Peña is a recipient of the Newbery Medal, one of the most prestigious literary awards in North America! Matt is the New York Times Bestselling author of five critically-acclaimed young adult novels: Ball Don’t Lie, Mexican WhiteBoy, We Were Here, I Will Save You,  and The Living. He’s also the author of the award-winning picture book A Nation’s Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis (illustrated by Kadir Nelson).  He teaches creative writing at NYU and speaks at high schools and colleges throughout the country.

Author of PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE (Dial Press/Random House) and Essence Magazine/Blackboard bestseller, Renee Swindle has a new book, A Pinch of Oh la la,out this month. Renee received a $500,000 advance for her first book while still an MFA in our program.

Translator, author, and editor, Martin  Woodside has published his first collection of poems, The River Goes Two Ways (WordTech). He teaches at the College of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Piotr Florczyk, translated and published of six volumes of Polish poetry soon after graduation.  Additionally he published Los Angeles Sketchbook  with Sputen Duyvil Press , Barefoot with  Eyewear Publishing and his first full-length collection of poetry, with Lost Horse Press.   

Chad Stroup has just published his first novel, Secrets of the Weird, with Grey Matter Press

Stephen Silke recently published a chapter from his novel. "An Artist Prepares" has been published in the July/August issue of decomP: a literary magazine.

Jackie Snyder's Cat & Mouse was published by A Lady and Her Pen.

David Snyder's Massassauga is in video production with Fifty Square Feet.