Ashland University MFA Program

The Ashland University MFA program is very pleased to be able to report that we have three new poets joining our faculty team. Tess Taylor, Aria Aber, and Vanessa Angélica Villareal have agreed to join our  poetry  faculty. These are all wonderful  poets  and educators and we encourage you to get to know their work if you’re not already aware of it. Aria Aber Aria Aber was raised in Germany. Her debut book  Hard Damage  (University of Nebraska Press, 2019) won the 2018 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. Her poems are forthcoming or have appeared in  The New Yorker, Kenyon Review, The Yale Review, The New Republic,  and elsewhere. She was the 2018-2019 Ron Wallace Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Books by Aria Aber: Hard Damage  (University of Nebraska Press, 2019). Tess Taylor Tess Taylor is the author of five acclaimed collections of poetry, and her criticism and non-fiction appear widely. Critic Stephanie Burt called  Work & Days , her second book “our moment’s

Get excited! The Ashland University 2020 MFA Summer Residency is going virtual this year. From  July 13 - 31st , we’re hosting workshops, readings, panels, craft classes, open mics, and more--all from the safety and comfort of your home. Stay tuned for schedule updates and registration links! Students and faculty share a laugh at last year's residency Visiting Writers Jericho Brown , Visiting Writer in Poetry Poetry Reading:   Tuesday, July 21, 7:30pm EST Craft Class:  Wednesday, July 22, 5pm EST Jericho Brown is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Brown’s first book,  Please  (2008), won the American Book Award. His second book,  The New Testament  (2014), won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was named one of the best of the year by Library Journal, Coldfront, and the Academy of American Poets. He i