Meet Our Students

MFA Students

Bree Atkins is an MFA candidate in poetry. She was born and raised in Alabama, completing her Undergraduate degree in Creative Writing at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. She has been published in The Torch, Sanctuary, and Aura Literary Magazines. Her poetry follows themes of loss, queerness, religious deconstruction, and healing. She enjoys spending time with her cat, Clary, frequenting concerts, and binge-watching the same sitcoms over and over and over.

Finnegan Bly is a queer, Korean-American poet and writer from rural, Northern California. Their writing and research interests include Korean adoption and diaspora, rural narratives, and hybrid memoir / (non)fiction. They hold a BA in Literature/Writing from UC San Diego and are an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at Louisiana State University.

Sarah Brockhaus is an MFA student at Louisiana State University and has a bachelor’s degree in English from Salisbury University. She is a co-editor of The Shore Poetry. Her work has been nominated for the Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize. Her poems are published or forthcoming in American Literary Review, North American Review, The Greensboro Review, Permafrost, and elsewhere.

Kyler Patrick Carter (he/him) is a writer, director, and producer from modest New Jersey. A spinner of stories from the moment he could string together sentences, Kyler's writing investigates bodies, religion, transition, and what we do with the passage of time. He graduated from Pace University with his BA in Sociology-Anthropology, and is now pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing from Louisiana State University. When he isn't on the phone with family or scribbling in a notebook, he can be found curled up with thick socks and a good book.

Šari Dale is a third-year MFA candidate from a resource town in Northern Canada. She received her BA in English & Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia Okanagan and has been copywriting + creating websites since. Her interests include moose, monster trucks, and reality TV. Šari's work has been published in Event, The Malahat Review, and Grain among others. Her first collection of poetry, Para-Social Butterfly, was released with Metatron Press in 2022.

Jasper Graydon is a first year MFA student in poetry at Louisiana State University and a very silly goose. They have a B.A. in Japanese and a B.A. in English with a Creative Writing focus from Ohio State University. Their current poetic fixations include queer experience, injustice, and the juxtaposition of the natural with the metropolitan. They are obsessed with stories of all varieties and can often be found reading novels, watching films, and playing narrative focused video games. Do not talk to them about corn; do share your worst dad jokes.

Camille Hardee is a first-year MFA candidate at LSU, where she previously received her BA in English. She loves to cook, take walks, play The Sims 4, and listen to music at inadvisable volumes. Her writing investigates the human experience through quiet voices of both the present and the past. Her work has been published in The Delta Journal.

Xavier Hawkins is a MFA candidate hailing from Hampton University, born in Memphis, TN. He is a poet with an affinity for flash fiction who focuses on relatability and capturing moments. He is a recipient of the United Negro College Fund’s Mellon-Mays Research Fellowship and studies the relationship between music and literature (particularly within August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle plays). As a trombonist and melody enthusiast, he enjoys making music and playing with words. A few of his poems can be found in the Hampton Renaissance Literary Journal, and much more remains to come!

A third-year MFA candidate at LSU, Caldwell Holden is a writer, bartender, and social artist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received his BA in Literature from Bennington College where he studied “Immersion Based Storytelling.” He has also studied in Siena, Italy, completed a writing residency in Oatmeal Creek, TX, and traveled the US living out of his jeep. His fiction has appeared in SHANTIH Journal and Atticus Review. His journalism has appeared in 90.5 WESA and Stylo24. You can learn more about him and his work here.
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Dalton Wayne Hoover is a second-year MFA candidate at LSU, where he specializes in creative nonfiction. He is an Army Infantry veteran, a culinary school dropout, an amateur outdoorsman, and a professional troublemaker. Not surprisingly, he writes about food, conservation, music, the veteran experience, and the conversation between all of these things. When not behind the keyboard, he can be found wrangling his wild pack of hunting dogs, attempting to be a worthwhile husband and father, and kicking out the jams with his band, Dalton Wayne and the Warmadillos. Find him on Spotify/iTunes/Amazon Music and at daltonwh23@gmail.com.

Justin Howerton is a writer from Memphis, TN. Though his first love will always be poetry, Justin dabbles in everything from nonfiction to screenwriting. His feature length script, Clearing the Trace, was a finalist in the 2024 Del Shores Foundation Writers Search. Recent poems can be found in Foglifter and Bicoastal Review. He’s at work on a novel.

Brett Hymel Jr. writes stories for bugs: sick, dirty, nasty. Louisiana by birth. Florida 'til death. Frequent migraines by the grace of God. Rider of the tired elementary teacher to jaded writer pipeline. Featured in Subtropics, Black Warrior Review, Prime Number Magazine, Puerto del Sol, and elsewhere. Work supported by the Indiana University Writers' Conference. Send threats via
www.bretthymeljr.com.
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Jalen Jones is a Black and Filipino writer from Los Angeles. His work has been supported by the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Kenyon Review Workshop, the Tin House Workshop, and the Lambda Literary Retreat. A winner of the David Madden MFA Award and Five Minute Lit’s Fall Contest, Jalen’s writing can be found in Electric Literature, The Offing, Foglifter, and elsewhere. He is the Social Media Editor for Electric Literature, the Editorial Assistant for the Southern Review, and this is his third year in the MFA. He’s also directed the Delta Mouth Literary Festival, and once, Emma Stone generously stepped on his foot. You can reach him via jalen-jones.com or on Instagram @jalen_g_jones.

Jasmine Knowles is a poet and multidisciplinary learning artist originally from Chicago, IL, raised in Northwest Indiana. She has received support from the Hurston/Wright Foundation, Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA), and the Periplus Collective. Her work can be found in Obsidian, Honey Literary Magazine, and the V is for Voices! campaign and performance project curated by Aja Monet. She writes to free her voice.

Sirong (Dahlia) Li is a writer from Xishuangbanna in Southern China. She holds a BA in Philosophy from UC Berkeley and is currently pursuing an MFA at LSU. She serves as associate fiction editor for New Delta Review and contributes to the Delta Mouth Literary Festival. Her work has received the AARC-PACH Creative Project Award, a full scholarship to the Tin House Summer Workshop, and the Romulus Linney Award for Playwriting. She has also been twice nominated for the Tobias Wolff Award in Fiction, and her fiction has appeared in The Writing Disorder. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, playing the harp, and dancing—both hip-hop and classical Chinese styles.

Jenna Mark is a second-year MFA candidate from Houston, Texas. She earned her B.S. in Plant and Environmental Soil Science with an emphasis in Soil and Water from Texas A&M University. Her work focuses on the intersection between fantasy and science fiction with environmental science and agriculture. She aims to write stories that not only entertain but also educate readers of all ages on topics of environmental importance while inspiring people to be more environmentally conscious. She is combining her dreams of writing and sustainability into one with eco-storytelling. When she isn’t writing or having fun with soils, Jenna can be found either with a book in hand or at a concert.

Manuela Silvestre Martínez has trouble sticking to a single genre or language. Originally from Dominican Republic, she’s held 25 addresses in the last 23 years, and done work for almost as many industries. She graduated with honors from New York University, earning a B.A. in English Literature despite spending most of her time on Latino Studies and Creative Writing. Her obsessions include loops, conviviality, and redemption.

Manuela Silverstre

Bunny / Teddy Morris is a tired fetishist and an MFA candidate in poetry at LSU. He has served as both a visual art and a poetry editor for New Delta Review and as an experimental/hybrid works editor with Miracle Monocle in his hometown of Louisville, KY. Its work revolves around the disintegrating boundaries between suffering and the erotic, sexy cyborgs after disease & disability, and being trans or whatever. His recent work can be found in The Spectacle, Death Rattle Literary, and is forthcoming in Bayou Magazine. Check out his other work & collabs & say hi esp if ur a weirdo @ https://bunnymorris.wixsite.com/poetry.

Carolina Murriel is a writer, ceramic artist, journalist, educator and death doula in New Orleans. She navigates her experience with immigration and mental illness through essays, poetry and sculpture. Through her art and deathcare practice Barro y Luna, she works with clay and storytelling as transformative mediums and is currently recording Latin elders' oral histories for community preservation. Caro came to ceramics and death work through her reporting on immigration, criminal justice and prison abolition, which led her to study with the Trauma Research Foundation. Her work is informed by 10+ years in local and international radio, print and digital newsrooms. She is the lead story editor for Pizza Shark, her award-winning podcast studio that works toward radical inclusivity in media through traumainformed storytelling. Their work has won Webbys, Shortys, iHeartRadio Podcast Awards, and nominations for Peabody Awards, Ambies, People’s Choice Podcast Awards and more.

Naomi Claudette Ortiz is an MFA student in poetry. She grew up in Spring Branch, Texas before completing her undergrad in literature at UAB. She writes about identity, culture, and relationships. In her free time, she is an avid Formula 1 fan and beach volleyball enjoyer.

carter rekoske is a second year student from southeast tennessee who enjoys poetry. he is grateful for all that disentangles him from linear time, including, but not limited to, long dreamy naps, basketball, the mountains, video games, poems, friends, and caffeine. you can find his poems in the atlanta review, sinking city, common ground review, and elsewhere.

Michael Romack is an MFA candidate at Louisiana State University, focusing in Poetry. Raised in McComb, Mississippi, he received his BA in English with Licensure from the University of Southern Mississippi. A lover of a long road trip, his interests include photography, travel, late night conversations at Waffle House, the precious things on our shelves, and his long quest to taste and rank every kind of root beer.

Brooke Stanish is a writer from Sunrise, Florida and an MFA candidate at Louisiana State University. She writes poetry and fiction that engage with the terrains of memory, philosophy, and the inner life, exploring the ways in which language and art can provide embodied encounters with meaning. Her poems, stories, and essays can be found in America, The Windhover, Time of Singing, Cantos, Living Waters Review, and other publications.

Mary Thames is an MFA candidate at LSU with a focus on creative nonfiction. She grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and spent the last five years in New Orleans. She writes about old ponies, karaoke, pomegranates, and whatever other unassuming memories peek their heads from behind the curtain. She hopes to craft stage sets for each to come fully to life.

Sarah Weinstein is a first-year MFA candidate from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. With experience in writing and directing films, she enjoys crafting fiction that explores the dramatic. She heavily focuses on wild leading women and indulges in themes of freedom, entrapment, love, and sexuality. She likes iced coffee.