Anne McKenna is a first year graduate student in English studies. Anne graduated from Benedictine College in 2023 with a major in English and a minor in French. Her research interests include Victorian, Russian, and Irish literature. Anne has worked as a consultant at a Writing Center and a tutor for ESL students and enjoys interacting with different academic and practical prespectives. Anne is excited to continue her study of literature at UNH. When Anne is not reading, writing, or writing about reading, she enjoys running, hiking, and spending time with friends and family.
Shane is a non-traditional student, who has worked his way through the BA program of English Literature at UNH in recent years. Carrying with him Minors in Philosophy as well as Women and Gender Studies, Shane has a keen interest in the intertextuality and intersectionality of literature, societies and the human family. As an early admitted student, through the Accelerated Masters Program, Shane carries both unbridled academic passion and inquisitiveness as he undertakes the next step into First-Year Graduate studies. Other interests include astronomy, poetry, world literature and Star Trek. Creative projects include finalizing a manuscript for a chapbook of poems, leveraging ekphrastic methods in poetry and tapping into science and science fiction for new speculative poetry approaches.
Aelfwine is a second-year graduate student in the English: Language and Linguistics program. He graduated from Saint Louis University in 2021 with a BA in German Studies and a minor in French. Aelfwine's area of interest is historical linguistics, specifically the historical evolution of grammatical structures such as case and gender in Germanic languages and how these compare to other Indo-European language groups. He is also interested in studying gendered languages in a modern setting and exploring how changes can be made to certain grammatical structures in order to make languages more inclusive. Aelfwine speaks five languages including French, German, Ukrainian, and Polish. Outside of academics, Aelfwine does competitive horseback riding and enjoys hiking, reading, and writing fantasy stories.
Vallery is a second-year graduate student in the English: Language and Linguistics program. In 2016 she received her BA in Classical Studies with Emphasis in Latin at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, WA. She has been teaching Latin and French at the secondary level for the last six years since moving to New England from the Pacific Northwest. Ancient linguistics and Alphabetical origins and transitions are a major area of interest as well as comparing linguistic transitions from ancient to modern eras. By studying English linguistics Vallery hopes to gain a greater grasp on linguistic progressions over the years and how social linguistics helps in these progressions. Aside from these direct applications of Linguistics to her current career, Vallery also wishes to travel and teach abroad having become better equipped in language acquisition.
Autumn was raised in the Berkshires, MA, and graduated cum laude from Emmanuel College in 2022 with a degree in writing, editing and publishing. She has had nonfiction pieces published in The Medical Literary Messenger and Oyster River Pages and currently works as editorial assistant and writer for Art New England magazine. She takes an multi-disciplinary approach to writing fiction, often incorporating visual art and historical research into her process. When she is not writing, making art, or spending way too much on fancy coffee drinks, she can usually be found at home with her pet rabbit, Lavender.
Laura is a part-time student in the MFA program and works full time in advancement at UNH. She studied English and Italian at Wellesley College and earned an M.A. in English Literature at UVA. Laura spent much of her life living abroad before moving to New Hampshire. After 22 years of campus life at Phillips Exeter Academy, where her husband teaches, Laura and family recently moved to an old farmhouse in Lee, where projects and critters abound.
Dylan is an incoming first-year MFA student from Pennsylvania. He recently graduated from Allegheny College in May 2023, where he received his BA in English with an Emphasis in Creative Writing. As a writer, he is particularly concerned with short story form, including interests in historical fiction, romance, and contemporary fiction. This summer, he completed the Writing Workshop in Greece, directed by Christopher and Allison Bakken. It is there, on the remote island of Thasos, he partook in a series of generative workshops, gaining from Lauren Alleyne, Amanda Michalopoulou, and Joanna Eleftheriou valuable insight on craft and the art of writing fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Before attending the Greece program, Dylan had already stayed extensively abroad with his semester in Lancaster, England, where he similarly pursued a writing workshop, along with a literature course on Jane Austen. Outside the classroom, and when he is not reading or writing, Dylan enjoys amassing artwork, listening to classical music, skateboarding, swimming, and traveling. He is especially eager to return to Britain in the future, but even more so to finalize a novel (loosely inspired by Katie Kitamura’s A Separation) currently in the works.
Dani Mueller is a writer and massage therapist who recently moved to New Hampshire from a small town in northern Michigan. He likes looking for cool rocks, finding quiet places, and seeing what’s around the bend. Nothing satisfies him quite like writing, when the words catch the light of meaning in just the right way.
Throughout his 10 years of work as an analyst at startups and non-profits, Colin Fong got distracted by ideas for novels he wanted to write. He applied to UNH's M.F.A. writing program so he could stop daydreaming and write those novels.
Colin has experience writing blogs, whitepapers, e-books, and even in-depth analysis of the MLB, but the M.F.A. program will be his first foray into creative writing. In his free time, he will cook, clean, and do yardwork for his loving wife who supports him in all his creative endeavors.
Colton Huelle graduated from UNH with a BA in English Literature and is thrilled to be returning to his alma mater to begin his MFA. Prior to entering the program, he taught high school English at Great Bay Charter School in Exeter, NH. Among his favorite writers are George Saunders, Jesmyn Ward, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. When not reading or writing, Colton enjoys playing basketball, bird-watching, and leaning against brick walls.
Vicktor M. Bueno is a writer of many faces. Their current mask speaks of Speculative Fiction - it might be their favorite.
Born and raised in NYC, New Hampshire felt like the perfect place to disappear off to. They wonder if they’re missed.
Born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, Rich holds a BA in English from Worcester State University where he graduated summa cum laude, and also holds an AA from Quinsigamond Community College in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Sociology. He was Editor-in-Chief of The New Worcester Spy’s Creative Writing section for two years, was co-Editor of The New Worcester Spy for a year, while periodically serving as the director of INK, WSU’s on-campus creative writers club. His work tends to focus on the antihero, setting as its own character, various sorts of enclaves, colloquialism, and issues surrounding class and affluence. Rich is currently a first-year MFA student at the University of New Hampshire, where he concentrates in Writing Fiction. Outside of telling stories, Rich has also been known to explain what the heck the progymnasmata is to anyone willing to listen, fish (quite terribly), theoretically adapt Joe Abercrombie’s First Law Trilogy for television, and complain about the respective states of his favorite sports teams.
Alexandria Carolan is a third year fiction student. She graduated from the University of Maryland ('18) with degrees in English and journalism. Alex also graduated from UMD's Jiménez-Porter Writers' House, a selective undergraduate creative writing program. Since then, she has dabbled in science journalism, oncology communications, and the cat rescue social media world. She likes to write about pathetic animals, uncomfortable situations, and life in coastal New Jersey.
Amanda Nevada DeMel is an emerging speculative fiction author. Her favorite genre is horror, thanks to careful cultivation from her father. She especially appreciates media that can simultaneously scare her and make her cry. Amanda also loves reptiles, musicals, and breakfast foods.
Ervin Brown is a twenty-one-year-old storyteller and poet from Coney Island. At fifteen, he got accepted to study at Bard College and left high school. His fiction, poetry, and essays have been published in over a dozen literary magazines and printed in North America and Europe. In 2023, he was inducted into the Poets & Writers Directory, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Beverly is a 70-year-old mother and grandmother. She retired after forty years working as a clinical social worker, providing mental health counseling to people of various ages and backgrounds. Her favorite job was working with the US Armed Forces, which was a big surprise to her. It was probably the most validating position she ever held. Beverly and her husband, Jim, lived in Tyngsboro, MA, for 38 years while raising their family. Beverly is very excited about embarking on a new chapter in her life. Pun intended. She has many examples of various symptoms from her long career in mental health service delivery, and she wants to write about how mental illness affects not only the patient, but their family and friends as well. She is hopeful that some of her stories may be effective in softening the stigma against mental illness and perhaps help some people feel less shame about issues in their own lives.
Em is a fiction writer who enjoys sci-fi and fantasy and anything that holds their attention. Their ultimate goal is to go back to Maine to live out their days on the coast. Despite having a stable family, all their writing seems to be about messed up family dynamics, which are always more interesting.
Cat is a second year fiction student at the University of New Hampshire. She graduated from UConn with a bachelor’s degree in English with a creative writing concentration and film studies minor. Her life has been split between a single American mother and an Irish-national father, so she really had no choice but to become a sardonic writer type. She has spent six years suffering in customer service, with the past two in the trenches of waiting tables for tourists in the Seacoast area. She writes about the horrors of the feminine experience, evil women, and the viscerally weird.
Benjamin is pursuing an MFA in creative nonfiction with an eye toward disability justice, queerness, and . Prior to UNH, he studied film and media culture at Middlebury College and the University of Edinburgh, but to this day doesn’t know what “media culture” means. Since receiving his BA he has worked as a producer and video editor, primarily in Minneapolis. The writers he most admires are Eli Clare, Elena Ferrante, Maggie Nelson, and Ottessa Moshfegh.
Rebecca is working on her MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in Nonfiction. She is a freelance writer for the outdoors industry and has spent the last year working on a project where she is hiking all of the trails in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. She also works part time as a substitute teacher. Rebecca taught Special Education from 2013-2020 and holds a M.Ed. from UNH, graduating in 2013 with a K-12 General Special Education certification. Her interests revolve around the outdoors industry, hiking and backpacking culture, and narrative nonfiction. She plans on working as a freelance writer as well as working on getting her own memoir published. In 2020, Rebecca was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and went through treatment for nineteen months. Some of her writing centers around her diagnosis and how she remained active while undergoing treatment.
Steph grew up in Nashua, NH and holds a BA from UMass Amherst in Communication with a concentration in Rhetoric, and a minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She worked for Heinemann Publishing for five years, producing several podcast series for K-12 educators. She is currently a freelance audio editor and producer, as well as a freelance writer. Previously, she wrote for The American Gardener, and spent many, many years working in greenhouses.
Steph in interested in ideas of home, sense of self, and political and cultural formation. Writers currently providing the most inspiration include Julie Otsuka, Barbara Kingsolver, Jacquelyn Landgraf, and Tracery Kidder. You can often find Steph in her community garden plot planting radish seeds, challenging her friends to games of backgammon, and loudly rehearsing karaoke tracks in her car. She resides in Dover, NH with her cat, Calliope.
Lily is a third-year Nonfiction MFA Candidate with a special interest in gender and sexuality studies. She aims to tell stories that make people feel seen. As someone who often turns to the page when looking for answers to life's hardships, Lily hopes to be honest and vulnerable in her writing in an attempt to guide others as they navigate confusing and complicated experiences surrounding gender and sexual identity. Aside from writing, Lily enjoys playing rugby, playing Dungeons & Dragons, and taking woodland walks with their partner.
Mason is a multimedia storyteller working in text, image, audio, and object, currently focused in essay and memoir. His work often explores aspects of personal/social identity relating to community, sexuality, religion, and queer subcultures. He's the Editor-in-Chief of UNH MFA's Barnstorm Literary Journal, and is formerly both the Journal's Managing Editor and Co-Host of Read Free Or Die (the UNH MFA student reading series).
Now returned to his fifth-generation hometown of Somersworth, NH, Mason studied journalism, political science, and documentary photography at Emmanuel College in Boston and Bauhaus Universität-Weimar in Germany, and worked in higher education student affairs focusing in diversity & inclusion. His writing and photography have been published/exhibited internationally, and his work in academia has ranged from pedagogical accessibility initiatives to art gallery book publishing. When not holding a pen or camera, Mason is a metalwork jewelry artist, works in the nightlife industry, and is often found in coffee shops.
Rachel is a part-time MFA student in her first year back at UNH, where she was an undergrad in Animal Science a lifetime ago. Since then, she’s studied molecular biology and genomics, and works as scientific writer and editor in the biomedical field; she also edits as a volunteer for the litmag Pangyrus and the nonprofit organization Biodiversity for a Livable Climate. She’s finally decided that it’s time pursue her love of writing beyond the confines of her current job, and is thrilled to be returning to campus. While at UNH she plans to complete her memoir-in-progress, and to explore projects to build awareness of why the growing biodiversity crisis is so important, and what we can do about it.
Bianca is currently in her second year in the Nonfiction MFA program. In 2020 she spent over six weeks in the hospital recovering from a botched surgery. It was the only rock bottom that led her to achieving sobriety after battling alcoholism for over a decade. Now, she is working on her memoir, speaks publicly about her experience, and loves teaching English 401. She pushes her students to reach for their darkest spaces to write about when teaching the Personal Narrative Unit; she teaches them that writing can be survival.
Her piece “Sip of Soda” was recently published in the online journal You Might Need to Hear This.
Isabelle is a second-year Nonfiction MFA candidate who recently graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a BA in Journalism and a minor in history. Now, Isabelle is finally putting the hours they spent scrolling through social media as a teenager to good use as they explore our modern relationship with pop culture, and its intersection with gender, sexuality, and interpersonal relationships,.They currently work as a freelance journalist.
Caleb Jagoda is a poet, journalist, and lord of the living room with a burning passion for a good half-soup, half-sandwich meal deal. He was assistant editor at New Hampshire Magazine, has reported for America’s Test Kitchen’s Proof podcast, Down East Magazine, and Beer & Weed Magazine, and has published poetry in Polaris Literary Magazine and Write on the DOT. He’s a first year poetry student and a graduate teaching assistant who hopes to unite the soul with oatmeal cookies just like his favorite poet, Bob Kaufman. You can find him surrounded by a rambunctious crew of stalwarts, crouched on a stoop like a gargoyle, or out on the town, digging the scene.
Caroline grew up in Franklin, Massachusetts before embarking on their exploration through the rest of New England. They received their BA in English with a concentration in writing from Worcester State University and attended the Salem Poetry Seminar at Salem State University. After releasing a chapbook in 2019 with Ibbetson Street Press, they have gone on to publish work with Woodcrest Literary Magazine, Cardinal Sins Journal, and Awakened Voices, amongst others. Their work is inspired by the honesty within the human experience and the pain, pleasure, and love along the way. When not writing, they can be found at a rock show with a camera in hand or in a coffee shop with a maple latte and cheesy romance novel.
Haley graduated from the University of Lynchburg in 2021 with a B.A. in Marketing and Graphic Design. It was there, in Southern Virginia, nestled among the Blue Ridge Mountains, that her love of poetry and nature ultimately merged.
After losing her job in the summer of 2022, she ran off to Maine and there, among the waves and white pines, decided to pursue an MFA in poetry. While at UNH, she will work as the Portsmouth Music Hall intern.
When not writing in a coffee shop, you can find Haley off somewhere in her big green converted camper van hiking or rock climbing.
Matthew Dinaro (they/them) is a second year poetry MFA student working as the graduate assistant for the Nossrat Yassini Poetry Festival. Raised in Duxbury and Grafton, Massachusetts, they attended UMass Amherst for undergrad and have lived in Boston, Amherst, and Portland, Oregon, where they participated in the local music and literary scenes and worked as an art museum guard and freelance writer. Since 2016 they’ve co-edited the online lit journal Pom Pom with UNH Fiction MFA alum Irene Doukas Behrman. They enjoy writing on the mysterious border between poetry and prose.
(Photo by Marjorie Williams)
Ann DeCiccio is in her fifth year of the PhD program in Composition Studies. Her interests include multilingual writers’ perceptions of meaningful writing in their first-year composition class at community college. Ann has taught at Nashua Community College and at high schools in Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Earlier, she wrote for several New England technology companies. As a freelance writer, her clients included the University of Massachusetts in Lowell and a shelter for survivors of domestic violence. Ann earned an M.A. in Writing and Literature from Rivier University in Nashua, NH, and a B.A. in English from Wheaton College in Norton, MA.
Rachel is a fourth-year PhD student in Composition and Rhetoric. Her research interests include disability studies and writing center studies and she is interested in making writing spaces accessible for all. She graduated with her BA in English and MS in Publishing from Pace University.
Jennifer Daly is a PhD student in English Composition Studies. Her conference presentations include: “Let It Be Known: Margaret Fuller’s Voice in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Work on Women’s Rights” and “The Father of Transcendentalism and the Mother of American Feminism: The Influencing Friendship between Margaret Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson.” She also attended the 2017 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Session "Transcendentalism and Reform in the Age of Emerson, Thoreau, and Fuller." Her research will focus on the transcendentalists, original ideas, plagiarism, and teaching writing. She has been teaching First Year Writing for the past four years at Montclair State University and Sussex County Community College, both in New Jersey.
Nicole Cunningham-Frisbey is in her 5th year in the Phd program in Composition Studies. She is currently serving as the Associate Director of University Writing Program. Her research interests include Mestiza Rhetorics, Community Writing Engagement, CE-WAC Scholarship, and Online Literacy Pedagogy. Nicole earned her BA in Professional Writing from University of Texas in San Antonio and her M.A. in English Language and Literature from Texas A&M San Antonio. Nicole is also a 2020 recipient of the CCCC Scholar's for the Dream Grant for her archive project on ChicanX Radio.
Mali Barker is in her first year of the PhD program in Composition Studies. She has her M.A. in English from Boston College, and while there, she studied composition theory, pedagogy, and rhetoric, and she taught First Year Writing. She is now interested in studying the intersection between composition pedagogy, sociolinguistics, and cognitive poetics.
Elizabeth is a 5th year PhD candidate studying Victorian literature. Her main research focus is overlooked women writers, and her dissertation explores the concept of Victorian novelists "writing too much" and how this has been used to keep women like Margaret Oliphant, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Charlotte Riddell, and Ouida out of the literary canon. Her other research interests include the Gothic, the marriage plot, and folklore and fairy tales. She received her MA in English Literary Studies: Romantic and Victorian Literature from Lancaster University in 2016 and wrote her dissertation on the use of oral folklore in the Victorian Gothic novel.
Jess is a 5th-year PhD student focusing on masculinity in literature across the 20th century. His dissertation theorizes that a new male identity emerged in response to feminism, a kind of "splintered man" who uses the rhetoric of feminist principles to increase his personal or social power at the expense of gender equality and women's rights. He has taught a Gender and Science Fiction course for the Women's Studies program at UNH and he received his Feminist Studies certificate in 2022. He presented at last year's NeMLA, and at the Fifth International Edgar Allan Poe Conference, on topics related to William Hope Hodgson, New Wave science fiction, Masculinity Theory, fascism, feminism, and gender. Also, he was thrilled to visit the Ursula K. Le Guin archives last summer through a STAF Award and hold copies of her original manuscripts, as well as read her increasingly bizarre letters from Philip K. Dick. Jess is currently on a dissertation year fellowship and has moved back home to Washington state, though he dearly misses his friends and colleagues in New England. He graduated with an MFA from Stonecoast in 2016.
Alexa Koch holds an MFA in fiction from UMass Boston. She is a contemporary Americanist, and her work centers class and gender in experimental feminist literature.
Meggie is a first-year doctoral candidate at UNH. She attended Dartmouth College, where she majored in English as an undergraduate. Meggie holds an MS in Education from Antioch University NE and a MA in English from Middlebury College. She taught literature and history at the middle school level before deciding to return to the world of academia full-time. A life-long learner and teacher, Meggie believes that the study of literature is the act of falling in love with stories. Her scholarly work focuses on the intersection of gender and revenge within texts. She is interested in examining how value systems centered on honor/shame have shaped poetic ideals of the avenger, justice, and fate. Meggie hopes to explore how theologies of atonement, as well as historical and societal conceptions of gender and race, challenge ancient ideals of vengeance. Most recently, she re-examined Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre focusing on how race and gender impact the narrative of vendetta for female characters. Meggie resides in Durham, NH, with her partner, their two dogs (Archie and Togo), and a rabbit named Levin (named for her favorite Tolstoy character). You can find her running the roads and trails around Durham when she's not reading and teaching!
Cameron Netland grew up in Boxford Massachusetts and graduated from Connecticut College in 2018 with a bachelors in English and Economics. He then received his masters in Secondary Education from ASU in 2020 through Teach for America while teaching in Phoenix.
His interests include guitar, running, and chess. His literary interests range from antiquity to postmodernism. He aims to study classical works or American literature.
Jonathan Levitt is a third-year PhD student in English literature. He holds master’s degrees in English from Boston College and in English secondary school teaching from Boston University. His interests are in Medieval and late Victorian/early modern literature. His research is focused on how J.R.R. Tolkien was inspired by Medieval literature, as well as his experiences in World War I, to shape the fantasy genre into its modern form. He is also intrigued by how media such as video games, comics, and film represent classical literary themes.
Abby is a PhD student in the English Literature program. From North Carolina originally, she received her BA in English from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her areas of focus include transatlantic modernism, the Harlem Renaissance, and the intersection of class and trauma theories.
Her favorite writers include: Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, Ocean Vuong, Oscar Wilde, Ada Limon, Seamus Heaney, and J. R. R. Tolkien. More broadly, she enjoys postmodern philosophy, jazz, the collected works of Natalie Wyn, anime, going outside, and Hozier's discography.
Chelsea has a BA in English from Ithaca College and an MA in Literature from SUNY Brockport. Their primary focus is in late Gothic/early Victorian transatlantic literature with a focus on gender politics.
Derek completed his undergraduate degree in English at Tufts University and his MFA in Creative Writing at the Stonecoast MFA program. Before starting his academic life, Derek was a world traveler, visiting Europe, Central, and South America. His travels sparked his current research interests which include mixed race studies, translation theory, and cultural identity in American literature. When not buried in books, Derek explores other forms of storytelling, such as movies and video games. He has a soft spot for mythology, folklore, and fairy tales.
Nicholas Jaroma is a second-year Ph.D. student. He is experienced in teaching and tutoring college students, a huge fan of New England Sports teams, and is greatly invested in American politics. He received his M.A. in English at Rhode Island College in 2019, after successfully defending his master’s thesis on the works of William Shakespeare’s influence in American politics. His area of focus is early modern English literature, with particular interests in Shakespeare, Milton, as well as the Bible as literature.
Julia is a second year literature PhD student in English Literature. She holds a BA in English Literature and Political Science from Providence College. Her primary interests are contemporary British Literature and Women's Writing — with particular interests in the works of Margaret Drabble and Zadie Smith. She is also interested in journalism, baseball (and the writing and films that come along with it), and exploring New England.
Michaela George is a 4th year PhD candidate studying 19th-century British writers. Her dissertation focuses on the role of sickrooms and deathbeds in Romantic literature and how mother daughter relationships are impacted through these scenes. She received her MA from Northern Arizona University in 2018. Her essay “The Symbolism of Trees in Tess of the d’Urbervilles” is published in The Explicator.
Christopher Westrate is a second-year doctoral student at UNH. He holds an MA from the University of Massachusetts, Boston where he studied Vladimir Nabokov’s work in parody and art theory. Chris taught literature and writing for many years at the high school level and enjoyed serving as executive director of his program for over a decade. Interested in cultural flux, Chris thinks a lot about how texts signal dramatic change as they interrogate social performance. He studies the spearheading of societal shift during iconoclastic periods, especially writers’ exploration of “the new” by way of repurposing outgoing semiotic systems. Literary interests: mythology and symbols, evolution of the novel, modernism, and Nabokov. Other interests: rambles via paths and pavement, public coffee drinking, nonprofit leadership, teaching, and amateur snowboarding.
