MFA Creative Writing Program at FIU

Our MFA program thrives on mentorship and collaboration between teachers and students as well as students and teachers. Case in point:

This Saturday night (August 15) at MAD Arts in Dania Beach MFA alum Ana Maria Caballero will read with her former thesis director Julie Marie Wade, then share a conversation moderated by MFA alum Yaddyra Peralta!

Doors open at 6 PM, and the reading and conversation begin at 7 PM, with book-signing and reception in the sculpture garden to follow.

Ana will read from her newest collection, MATERIAL, which includes some poems and lyric essays written during her time in the MFA Program at FIU, and Julie will read from her newest collection, QUICK CHANGE ARTIST, a 2026 Silver Medalist at the Florida Book Awards.

Reserve your free tickets here:

Our MFA program thrives on mentorship and collaboration between teachers and students as well as students and teachers. Case in point:

This Saturday night (August 15) at MAD Arts in Dania Beach MFA alum Ana Maria Caballero will read with her former thesis director Julie Marie Wade, then share a conversation moderated by MFA alum Yaddyra Peralta!

Doors open at 6 PM, and the reading and conversation begin at 7 PM, with book-signing and reception in the sculpture garden to follow.

Ana will read from her newest collection, MATERIAL, which includes some poems and lyric essays written during her time in the MFA Program at FIU, and Julie will read from her newest collection, QUICK CHANGE ARTIST, a 2026 Silver Medalist at the Florida Book Awards.

Please reserve your free tickets here:

https://www.yeswearemadarts.com/calendar-events/poetry-plus

Huge congratulations to MFA alum Paul Christiansen, sometimes known as Doc Suds, whose poetry collection _River Octopus_ has been selected by Patricia Smith for the Miller Williams Poetry Series to be published by the University of Arkansas Press in spring 2027.

Of the collection, Smith writes: “Now that we can all admit that we live in an indiscernible world, Paul Christiansen, in his magical River Octopus, has arrived to help us discern what we can. Primarily set in his adoptive home of Vietnam, these subtle and searching poems urge us toward an understanding of self if we are to brave the wild uncertainties that surround us. There is still beauty in our bewilderment..."

“And so it is, a day to appoint myself emissary from the empire of self and venture into society,” announces the speaker in a poem that proceeds to traverse a surreal interpretation of modern-day Sài Gòn. Across River Octopus, society includes former Việt Cộng fighters, ice factory workers, colonial lacquer artists, rubber magnates, mobile lamination machine operators, Wisconsin liquor store patrons, and natural history museum janitors. The self, meanwhile, navigates outwards from an identity forged in the American Midwest but integrated into Việt Nam.

Christiansen’s poems investigate how the self and society work as accomplices in the actualization of joy and despair. Marked by a deference for whimsy and hallucinatory metaphors, they confront troubling personal and global issues with a wink and a nod to distract the face from grimacing.

Populated with a market’s spread of tropical fruit, fantastic ocean creatures, and geographies of the Mekong Delta, River Octopus seeks to answer what the speaker asks early in the collection: “What if this is the world doing the best it can do?”

ttps://www.uapress.com/2026/08/07/2027-miller-williams-poetry-prize-awarded-to-aris-kian/

Congratulations to FIU MFA alum Rosa Sophia Godshall, who made the shortlist for the ONLY POEMS Poet of the Year Award!

Poet of the Year Award | Previous Winners Discover past winners of the $5000 Poet of the Year Award, including grand prize winners, finalists, and honorable mentions.

Congratulations to current MFA student Joyce Englander Levy for her recognition in this year's CRAFT Award for Excellence! Joyce's lyric essay "Running Out of Bounds to Stop the Clock" was shortlisted for the Creative Nonfiction Prize.

https://www.craftliterary.com/craft-award-for-excellence-2026/

The Slowdown celebrates two exceptional SoFlo poets writing collaboratively, MFA faculty member Denise Duhamel and the late professor emerita from University of Miami, Maureen Seaton:

https://www.slowdownshow.org/episode/2026/07/15/1559-florida-doll-sonnet-by-denise-duhamel-and-maureen-seaton

1559: Florida Doll Sonnet by Denise Duhamel and Maureen Seaton Today’s poem is Florida Doll Sonnet by Denise Duhamel and Maureen Seaton.

MFA faculty member Denise Duhamel will teach a virtual workshop on Hermit Crab & Non-Literary Forms on Saturday, August 8 on behalf of ONLY POEMS!

Details here:

Hermit Crab & Non-Literary Forms ❀ Denise Duhamel In this generative workshop we will consider looking outside traditional forms in order to make poems.

MFA faculty member Julie Marie Wade is the most recent subject of the ARTSPEAK interview series. She discusses her origin story as a writer and teacher and the events that led to her first 14 years here in the creative writing program at FIU.

https://artspeak.fiu.edu/interviews/julie-marie-wade/

Last night's beautiful celebration featuring the winners of FIUs annual Student Literary Awards!

Current MFA student, Amanda Johnson (AJ), has been named a winner of the 2026 AWP Intro Journals Project in poetry! AJ's work was selected from other entries submitted by MFA programs across the country. Her winning poem, "Persephone," will appear in a future issue of the COLORADO REVIEW.

Just announced: winners of the 2026 FIU Student Literary Awards! See them live and in person on April 9.