Several alumni of the Department’s Creative Writing Program reported updates in their careers since completing their degrees:

 

Tim Stobierski ‘11(CLAS) has recently had poems published or on the way in Poetry Ireland, Chicago Quarterly Review, Baltimore Review, Midwest Quarterly, Chestnut Review, Crab Creek Review, &change, EOAGH, Chiron Review, Gathering of the Tribes Magazine, and elsewhere. He’d served as one of the judges for the 2025 Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry, presented by The Publishing Triangle.

 

Kelly Rafferty ‘19 (CLAS) has previously received an MA in English from UMass Boston, where she was awarded the Robert T. Crossley Prize for the most innovative, interdisciplinary, or risk-taking Final Project. She is now pursuing her PhD in English at the University of Michigan, focusing on climate activism and poetry.

 

Shannon Hearn ‘16 (CLAS) holds an MFA in Poetry from Queen College and is completing a creative PhD dissertation at SUNY Binghamton. Hearn also serves as the managing editor for Harpur Palate and has worked at Blue Flower Arts for over 9 years as their Content & Contracts Manager. She is the author of two chapbooks: tracing circles in dirt  and Paranoid citi (forthcoming), her other works have been published by Cream City Review, Lover’s Eye Press, and elsewhere.

 

Christine Byrne ‘19 (CLAS) is currently an Academic Advisor at Johns Hopkins University and has recently graduated from the Iowa Writers Workshop. Byrne’s first poetry book was a finalist for the National Poetry Series in 2024. Byrne has also published poems including The Missouri Review, The Southeast Review, Seneca Review, and Ninth Letter.

 

Congratulations, everyone!