unc chapel hill mfa creative writing

Grad Interest: Creative Writing

Holly thompson.

2022, BA English, Belmont University

2024, MA English, Wake Forest University

Holly (she/her/hers) is a Ph.D. student and Teaching Fellow in the Department of English and Comparative Literature, with a focus in Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy. Her primary interests are in disability studies, the rhetoric of health and medicine (RHM), health humanities, and composition pedagogy.

Recently, Holly’s research has focused on the discursive construction of psychiatric diagnoses and neurodivergent identities. Her first refereed article, forthcoming in the Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies , investigates so-called “Aspergian” positionalities as ideal products of the technocapitalist dystopia in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy.

In composition studies, Holly focuses on writing transfer, writing in the disciplines (WID), and writing about writing (WAW). She has a particular interest in the interpersonal dynamics of writing instructors and students, with a focus on the impact of these dynamics on student perceptions of competence and confidence in writing tasks. Through her work as a Writing Center tutor in her Master’s program, Holly developed specialties in working with students who self-identified as neurodivergent and/or learning disabled. As a Teaching Fellow, Holly strives to use those pedagogical strategies to create learning opportunities that are accessible and equitable for a diverse population of students.

Publications:

• Thompson, Holly. “‘Demi-autistic, genetically speaking’: Margaret Atwood’s  Oryx and Crake  and the ‘Aspergian’ Loop.”  Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies . In press.
• Erika Lindemann Fellowship, 2025
• Gordon A. Melson Outstanding Master’s Student Award, Wake Forest University, 2024
• Richter Scholarship Travel Fund, Wake Forest University, 2023
• James and Sarah King Writing Award, Belmont University, 2022

Office: Dey 339

Research Interests

Creative Writing | Digital Humanities | Digital Rhetorics | Disability Studies | Genre Theory | Literature, Medicine and Culture | Pedagogy | Rhetoric, Composition and Literacy | Science Writing | Social Justice | Writing In The Disciplines

2022, BA English, University of Richmond

I am interested in global modernism, especially transatlantic literary experiments in the early twentieth century and its transformation in the latter half of the century.

American Literature to 1900 to the present | British Literature from 1900 to the Present | Creative Writing | Critical Race Studies | Critical Theory and Cultural Studies | Feminist Theory And Gender & Sexuality Studies | Literature and Philosophy | Modernism | Queer Theory | Social Justice

2021, MA English, Winthrop University

2020, BA English, Winthrop University

Faith Rush is a PhD student and Teaching Fellow in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is a two-time graduate of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. During her time there, she became interested in 19th and 20th-century American Literature with an emphasis on Black Southern writers. Faith’s research utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to analyze literature’s role in forming and reforming the Black identity. Unpacking well-known and lesser-known works by Black authors, she argues for their insertion into the racialized American literary canon.

Her current research interest is the first-known African American novelist Hannah Crafts and her autobiographic novel  The Bondwoman’s Narrative . She hopes to further comprehend Crafts’s literary contributions to American literature and advocate for her placement within academic discourse.

• Lift Up. (Rock Hill: The Anthology: Winthrop University Arts & Literary Magazine, 2021).
• Mama Said. (Rock Hill: The Anthology: Winthrop University’s Arts & Literary Magazine, 2021).
• Death of Divorce. (Rochester Hills: Oakland Arts Review, 2020).
• Songs for the People: Music’s Recreation of the Black Identity in the Works of Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin. (Rock Hill: Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors, 2020).

Office: Dey 121

African American Literature | American Literature from 1789 to 1900 | American Literature to 1900 to the present | Creative Writing | Critical Race Studies | Critical Theory and Cultural Studies | Literature and Education | Literature and History | Social Justice | Southern Literature | The Novel | Transatlantic Studies | Women Writers

Kyle Cunningham

2018, BA English, University of Florida

Kyle Cunningham is a doctoral student at UNC Chapel Hill. His research explores the intersections of platform studies, fan studies, and narrative and literary theory, focusing on how communities reproduce themselves through digital communication infrastructures. He is particularly interested in tracing the organizational logics and discursive practices of online communities that develop around decentralized, peer-produced narratives and hermeneutic practices.

Curriculum Vitae / Resume

Aesthetics | Contemporary American Literature | Creative Writing | Critical Theory and Cultural Studies | Digital Humanities | Digital Rhetorics | Feminist Theory And Gender & Sexuality Studies | Film and Media Studies | Genre Theory | Media Studies | Narrative Theory | Philosophy Of Language | Visual Culture and Arts

Xochi-María Ramos-Lara

2023, B.A. Gender Studies / English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

xochi-maría ramos-lara (she/they) is a doctoral student in english and comparative literature. her main research interest focuses on the (lacanian) subjectivity of gay latinx poets as they wrote during the american aids epidemic of the 80s and 90s, taking into account the presence of the hiv virus itself as an important character. besides this, x. is interested in non-white marxist critiques of the state, hegemonic ideologies, and culture; anti-white violent resistance via brown power (ex. the palestinian intifadas); queer performances of subversion in the american drag and ballroom scenes; and the power dynamics of bareback subculture in gay pornography.

outside of the academy, x. loves writing poetry, collective education on critical ethnic studies, participating in local political action, and going to gay clubs as a form of praxis.

• “i planted some lavender in my front yard saturday morning,” SAGE , 2024.
• “afuera,” Screen Door Review , 2023.
• “white mother,” Carolina Muse: Literary & Arts Magazine , 2023.

African American Literature | Comparative Literature | Contemporary American Literature | Contemporary Multiethnic American Literature | Creative Writing | Critical Race Studies | Critical Theory and Cultural Studies | Feminist Theory And Gender & Sexuality Studies | Latina / Latino Literature | Literature and History | Literature and Philosophy | Literature of the Americas | Performance Studies | Philosophy Of Language | Poetry and Poetics | Post-Colonial Literature and Theory | Queer Theory | Social Justice | Visual Culture and Arts | Women Writers

Joshua Cody Ward

2022, MA English, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

2016, BA Religious Studies, Wingate University

A North Carolina native, Joshua Cody Ward joined the program in Fall 2022. His field is Modern and Contemporary American literature broadly (1900-Present), and specifically Literature of the American South, the Appalachian South, and African American Literature. His research interests include the archive, textual studies, editorial scholarship, intertextuality, and the Novel, though he is also an avid scholar of Cormac McCarthy and of Thomas Wolfe. His prospective dissertation,  Articulating Appalachia , argues that definitions of the region and its people are co-constructed across the 20th c. through both cultural representation (literature, film, music) and Regional and National projects for economic and social uplift.

He is currently a Digital Content Coordinator for the Latina/o Studies Program, a Senior Coordinator for the Critical Speakers Series, and a Board Member (2023-2026) for the Thomas Wolfe Society. He is an occasional Reviewer for the The Cormac McCarthy Journal . As a junior scholar, his work has been accepted or published in several journals and essay collections, and he has presented his work at over 20 academic conferences.

• “Darkness on the Edge of Town: Beat Subject Formation, Black Ontology, and Fugitivity as Gnosis in Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree.” In  This Country’s Hard on People: Cormac McCarthy and American Identity , edited by Vernon Cisney. Forthcoming.
• “Weird Object Relations, Ecology, and Apocalypse in Cormac McCarthy’s  The Passenger  and  Stella Maris .” In  New Perspectives on Cormac McCarthy: Encountering  The Passenger  and  Stella Maris, edited by Jonathan Elmore and Rick Elmore. Forthcoming.
• “A Literary Ménage à Trois: An Analysis of the Elizabeth Lemmon Collection on Thomas Wolfe, 1934-1935.” Forthcoming.
• “Publishing the Black Arts Movement: Editors, Anthologies, and Canonization.”  South  Atlantic Review,  vol. 88, no. 2-3, 2023, pp. 157-170.
• “From Commas to Cosmos: The Pervading Influence of Thomas Wolfe on Cormac McCarthy.”  The Thomas Wolfe Review , vols. 44 & 45, nos. 1 & 2, 2020 & 2021, pp. 8-25.
• [album] The Boron Heist.  Ridin’ Rough.  Mystery School Records, April 6 2019.
• “Light and Darkness, Sight and Blindness: Religious Knowledge in Cormac McCarthy’s  Outer Dark. ”  Wingate Research Review,  issue 8, Fall 2016, pp. 87-106.
• “Raison d’être.”  Wingate University Counterpoint,  Spring 2013, p. 9.
• “On Testing.”  Wingate University Counterpoint,  Spring 2013, p. 23.
• Graduate Teaching Fellow,  Fall 2022-Present, UNC Chapel Hill, English and Comparative Literature Department.
• Travel Grant,  Fall 2023, UNC Chapel Hill, English and Comparative Literature Department.
• Emerging Scholar Award,  Summer 2023, UNC Chapel Hill, Southern Futures program.
• John R. Bittner Student Literary Prize , May 27 th  2023, Thomas Wolfe Society Conference.
• LSP Teaching Fellowship , Spring 2023, UNC Chapel Hill Latina/o Studies Program.
• Graduate Student Transportation Grant,  Spring 2023, UNC Chapel Hill, Graduate School.
• Languages & Literatures Graduate Student Paper Award Recipient,  February 23 rd  2023, 44 th  Annual SWPACA Conference.
• 2021 Graduate Student Essay Award Recipient,  November 12 th  2022, SAMLA 94.
• Travel Grant,  Fall 2022, UNC Chapel Hill, English and Comparative Literature Department.
• The Julian D. Mason Award  for Excellence in Graduate Studies ,  April 29 th  2022, UNC Charlotte, English Department.
• Graduate Teaching Assistantship , Fall 2020-Spring 2022, UNC Charlotte, English Department.
• Wittliff Collections William Hill Research Award , 2021-2022, Texas State University, For archival research conducted July 2021 in the Cormac McCarthy Papers and Woolmer Collections.
• Anne Newman Graduate Student Travel Grant , Fall 2021, UNC Charlotte.
• Excellence in Philosophy  Award, April 24 th  2016, Wingate University, Religious Studies Department.
• G. Byrns Coleman Award for Excellence in Religious Studies , April 24 th  2016, Wingate University, Religious Studies Department.
• University Honors , April 24 th , 2016, Wingate University.

Office: Dey Hall 341

African American Literature | American Literature from 1789 to 1900 | American Literature to 1900 to the present | Contemporary American Literature | Creative Writing | Critical Race Studies | Critical Theory and Cultural Studies | Film and Media Studies | Genre Theory | Latina / Latino Literature | Literature and Philosophy | Literature and Science | Modernism | Posthumanism | Science Fiction | Southern Literature | The Novel

Andreley Bjelland

2020, MA English, Texas Christian University

2019, BA English, Texas Christian University

Andreley Bjelland is a PhD candidate and teaching fellow. Her research interests include crime, gender, and religion in the early modern period. Her dissertation explores representations of children and crime in early modern English literature, drama, pamphlets, and ballads.

Teaching Awards

• PIT Journal and Conference Curricular Innovation Award, UNC Department of English and Comparative Literature, 2024
• Erika Lindemann Award for Demonstrated Excellence in Teaching, UNC Department of English and Comparative Literature, 2023
• Off-Campus Dissertation Research Fellowship, UNC Graduate School, 2024
• Medieval and Early Modern Studies Small Research Grant, UNC MEMS, 2023
• Druscilla French Graduate Student Excellence Award, UNC Graduate School, 2021

British Literature from 1485 to 1660 (including Milton) | British Literature from 1660 to 1789 | Creative Writing | Depictions Of The Child | Drama | Early Modern Literature And Culture | Feminist Theory And Gender & Sexuality Studies | Literature and Religion | Pedagogy | Travel Writing | Women Writers | Writing In The Disciplines

Izzy G. T. Howard

2020, BA English, Trinity College Dublin

Izzy (they/them) is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. They study the relationship between the soul and body in medieval literary, aesthetic, and dramatic representations of Creation. Their dissertation, Made A Living Soul: Genesis and the Creation of the Soul in Medieval Devotional and Mystic Literature  examines ideas of the soul as developed in early medieval Scholastic exegesis, and how these understandings of the soul are complicated and affirmed in medieval devotional and mystic texts.

In their research on the medieval soul and body, Izzy examines the language used to structure the corporeal, physical self and the sensing, feeling, and cognative self alongside theories of queer embodiment, affect, and representations.

Their broader interests include manuscript studies, medieval philosophy and theology, poetics, and literary criticism.

With H.M. Cushman “Bodies on Display” in A Cultural History of Trans Lives in the Middle Ages (300-1445). Bloomsbury. Forthcoming.

Latina/o Studies Teaching Fellowship, UNC Latina/o Studies Program, 2022

Donald Howard Travel Scholarship, New Chaucer Society, 2024

Trans Travel Fund, Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship, 2023

CARA Summer Scholarship, Medieval Academy of America, 2022

Internal:   

Graduate Student Excellence Award, UNC Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2024

Joseph Breen Award, UNC-Chapel Hill Dept. of English & Comparative Literature, 2023

Research Grant, UNC-Chapel Hill Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2023

Travel Award, UNC-Chapel Hill Graduate and Professional Student Government, 2023

Travel Grant, UNC-Chapel Hill Dept. of English & Comparative Literature, 2022, 2024

First Class Honours in English Studies, Trinity College Dublin, 2020

Office: Dey Hall 342

Aesthetics | British Literature from 1485 to 1660 (including Milton) | British Literature from its beginning to 1485 | Comparative Literature | Creative Writing | Critical Theory and Cultural Studies | Digital Humanities | Drama | Early Modern Literature And Culture | History of the Book | Literature and Philosophy | Literature and Religion | Performance Studies | Philosophy Of Language | Poetry and Poetics | Queer Theory | The English Language

Colin Dekeersgieter

2012, B.A. English, University of Vermont

2014, M.A. Modern Literature, CUNY, Graduate Center

2017, M.F.A. Creative Writing, Poetry, New York University

Colin Dekeersgieter studies modern poetry, poetics, and aesthetics with a focus on domesticity. His work has appeared in the North American Review , Greensboro Review,  Green Mountains   Review , and elsewhere.

• Opium and Ambergris (Kent State University Press, forthcoming 2024)
• Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, selected by Marilyn Chin
• Goldwater Fellowship, New York University
• Global Research Initiative Fellowship, New York University

Aesthetics | American Literature from 1789 to 1900 | American Literature to 1900 to the present | Creative Writing | Literature and Philosophy | Modernism | Poetry and Poetics | Queer Theory

2010, MA English, DePaul University

2008, BA English, Birmingham-Southern College

Originally from LaGrange, GA, Paul is primarily interested in American literature from 1865 to the present and its intersections with the health humanities, especially literary trauma studies. He is primarily interested in the ethical and political implications of depictions of trauma in literature and other media, especially acts of violence and atrocity for both perpetrators and survivors. In addition to his scholarly work, he also teaches sections of ENGL 105 and ENGL 105i: Writing in Health and Medicine, has tutored for the athletic department, has served for several years as the Fiction Editor for The Carolina Quarterly , and currently serves as the Co-Director for UNC’s Literature, Medicine, and Culture Colloquium (LMCC), https://lmcc.web.unc.edu/ . He also writes original pieces of fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and drama as well as scripts for promotional videos and short narrative or documentary films.

• Smith, Jonathan and Paul Blom . “Those Who Don’t Return: Improving Efforts to Address Tuberculosis Among Former Miners in Southern Africa.” NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy , vol. 29, no. 1, May 2019, pp. 76-104.
• Blom , Paul . “ ‘It wasn’t any good diving unless you had a big hammer’ : Psychoanalyzing Hemingway’s ‘After the Storm.’” The Sea in the Literary Imagination: Global Perspectives , edited by Ben P. Robertson, Ekaterina V. Kobeleva, Shannon W. Thompson, and Katona D. Weddle. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Jan. 2019.
• Blom , Paul . “‘ A trap of our own making ’: Mark Twain and the Mechanized Warfare of King Arthur’s Court.” War, Myths, and Fairy Tales , edited by Sara Buttsworth and Maartje Abbenhuis . New York: Palgrave Macmillan, Jan. 2017.
• See also https:// paul eblom.com/research-and-other-works/publications/ .
• Member of Peer Mentoring Committee (PMC) for graduate student instructors, UNC-Chapel Hill , Dept. of English and Comparative Literature , Writing Program , 2023 – 2024
• ENGL 105 Programmatic Assessment Professional Development Award recipient , UNC-Chapel Hill , Dept. of English and Comparative Literature , Writing Program , 2023
• UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Program Professional Development Award Recipient, 2021
• UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Program Professional Development Award Recipient, 2020
• UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Program Professional Development Award Recipient, 2019
• GPSG Travel Award recipient for travel to preside over a panel at MLA’s Annual Convention, 2023 in San Francisco, CA in Jan. 2023, Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG) at UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 2023
• Departmental Travel Grant Award recipient for travel to preside over a panel at MLA’s Annual Convention, 2022 in Washington, DC in Jan. 2022, Department of English and Comparative Literature at UNC-Chapel Hill , Chapel Hill, NC, 2020
• Departmental Summer Fellowship Service Award to provide administrative support at the Digital Literacy and Communications Lab , 2020
• Departmental Travel Grant Award Recipient for travel to present at annual MELUS Conference in New Orleans, LA, April 2020
• Recipient of multiple grants for “Popular Narratives and the Experience of War,” UNC-Chapel Hill, from The Graduate School; Humanities for the Public Good; The College of Arts & Sciences, Division of Fine Arts & Humanities; The College of Arts & Sciences, Division of Social Sciences & Global Programs; Carolina Veterans Resource Center; Department of English and Comparative Literature; Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense; Department of History; and Center for the Study of the American South, 2019

Office: Greenlaw 509

American Literature to 1900 to the present | Contemporary American Literature | Creative Writing | Critical Theory and Cultural Studies | Digital Humanities | Digital Rhetorics | Disability Studies | Film and Media Studies | Literature and Science | Literature, Medicine and Culture | Modernism | Pedagogy | Social Justice