Amanda Abel
Amanda Abel is a second-year MFA student in poetry. She has earned Bachelors degrees in English and Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in Social Documentation from U.C. Santa Cruz. Amanda is most passionate about creative writing, documentary photography, and teaching. Her poem “Jasmine” won an honorable mention in the 2011 Academy of American Poets Prize competition, and she recently received a scholarship from the Sewanee Writers Conference. Her nonfiction appears in Trans-portal. She is head nonfiction editor as well as a poetry editor for Nashville Review.
Chad Abushanab
Chad Abushanab is a second-year MFA student in poetry. He recieved a B.A. in English literature with a concentration in creative writing from the College of Charleston. He has worked as an assistant editor at Crazyhorse and led poetry workshops at an inner-city high school in conjunction with the Lowcountry Initiative for the Literary Arts. He is currently a poetry and comics editor for Nashville Review.
Christopher John Adamson
Christopher John Adamson is a first-year MFA student in poetry. He was raised near the foothills of Salt Lake City, Utah. He is a graduate of the undergrad poetry writing program at Northwestern University, where he won an Academy of American Poets prize. He comes to Vanderbilt from Chicago, where he worked as a private tutor and a freelance writer and editor. His poetry has been published in 491 Magazine and is forthcoming in Cicada.
Ricardo Zamorano Baez
Ricardo Zamorano Baez is a first-year MFA student in poetry. He earned a B.A. in Creative Writing at the University of California Riverside. His work appears or is forthcoming in Verdad Literary Magazine, The Packinghouse Review, and The American Poetry Review. In 2008, he received the Ann Gregor Poetry Prize.
Matt Baker
Matthew Baker is a third-year*** MFA student in fiction. Baker’s fiction has appeared in American Short Fiction, Denver Quarterly, and Ninth Letter, among others, and he is the primary English translator of Ts’ui Pên’s online serial novel The Numberless, which can be read at www.thenumberless.com.
Rebecca Bernard
Rebecca Bernard is a second year MFA student in fiction. She received her BFA in film from NYU. Her work has been published in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency among other publications. She is head fiction and music editor for Nashville Review.
Melissa Cundieff-Pexa
Melissa Cundieff-Pexa is a 2nd year MFA candidate in poetry and head poetry editor for Nashville Review. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Iron Horse Literary Review, Fairytale Review, Juked, and 42opus. One of her poems was selected as a runner up for a 2011 Iron Horse Discovered Voice Award, and she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She has a four-year-old daughter, Wren Reveille, with whom she enjoys drawing pictures of Edgar Allan Poe.
Cara Dees
Cara Dees is a first year MFA student in poetry. She received a B.A. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010, where she also studied Creative Writing and French and served as poetry editor for Illumination: The Undergraduate Journal of the Humanities. Dees grew up on a small farm in Wisconsin, tutored writing in Madison, and taught in the south of France, before she came to Vanderbilt. She is currently a poetry editor for Nashville Review.
Zachary Greenberg
Zachary Greenberg is a third-year*** MFA student in poetry. He earned a B.A. in English Literature & Language and Contemplative Studies from the University of Michigan. A California native, Zachary worked as a counselor at a substance abuse treatment center in Los Angeles, and as a mentor for students with learning disabilities in Monterey. His poetry has appeared in Off The Coast, Tabula Rasa Medical Arts Journal, and Xylem Magazine. His poem, “At My Most Beautiful,” received an honorable mention in the 2010 Academy of American Poets Prize Contest.
Claire Jimenez
Claire Jimenez is a first-year MFA student in fiction. She was a Posse scholar at Colby College, from which she received her BA in English in 2006. After graduation, she returned to her home town, New York City, where she spent several years teaching and coordinating activities for youth development agencies. She received a District of Cultural Affairs’ artist grant from the Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island in 2010 and 2011; with that funding, she established a youth arts council to map arts opportunities on the island and to host an open mic series for teenagers at the local library.
Marysa LaRowe
Marysa LaRowe is a first-year MFA student in fiction. She grew up outside Chicago, and studied Journalism at Boston University before completing her B.A. in English and Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Marysa has worked as a health benefits counselor, and has also taught creative writing in a Wisconsin men’s prison. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Southeast Review, Matchbook, Wisconsin People and Ideas, and Valparaiso Fiction Review. She is a fiction editor for Nashville Review.
Jill Schepmann
Jill Schepmann is a second-year MFA student in fiction. A native Kansan, she earned her B.A. in English and Psychology from the University of Kansas. She later taught and coordinated programs for high school and middle school students in Kansas and northern California. She is a fiction editor for Nashville Review.
Janet Thielke
Janet Thielke is a first year MFA student in fiction. She graduated with honors in Creative Writing from the University of Southern California in 2010 and has spent the last year working and writing in London, Edinburgh, and New York City. Her short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in New Delta Review, Southern Humanities Review, and Dos Passos Review; she has worked for LA Stage Times, Anthem Press, The Paris Review, and is currently an Assistant Editor for Narrative Magazine. Most recently, her unpublished short story collection was a finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Short Fiction Award.
Jenna Williams
Jenna Williams is a second-year MFA student in fiction. She was raised in southeastern South Dakota. Prior to moving to Nashville, Jenna lived in Missoula, Montana, where she earned a B.A. from the University of Montana and afterward worked as a bookseller, nanny, academic paper grader, and office/publications assistant for two non-profit organizations. Her fiction has appeared in The Pinch, CutBank, The Tusculum Review, and at NPR.org. She is a fiction and nonfiction editor of Nashville Review.
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*** In Spring 2011, the MFA program received special support for two fellowships in Creative Writing; the faculty decided to use that money to support a third year at Vanderbilt for two students, one in fiction and one in poetry. The fellowship allows these students dedicated time in which to write. See the Awards page.
