Featured Students & Alumni

Poems, Stories, & Other News

2026

Three NEOMFA alumni were among the recipients of this year’s $5,000 Ohio Arts Council (OAC) Individual Excellence Awards. Winners in playwriting included Thomas W. Hayes and Brandon North. Winners in poetry included Amanda Stovicek D’Alessandro.

Ali Black, Virginia Konchan, and Kristen Tetzmann were featured in the Cleveland Poetry Festival from April 21 through 25.

Matthew Breit read with Michelle Duke and Alexandra Salata in February in the Un-Formal event at Visible Voice Books in Cleveland.

Pamela Anderson won the 2026 Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize (Emerging) for Grabbing the Beast by the Throat, a manuscript that will be published through Michigan State University Press in 2027. 

El Bentivegna published the poem "january" in February in Vinegar Press.

Ali Black was nominated for the 57th NAACP Image Awards in the category of Outstanding Literary Work - Poetry for her full-length collection We Look Better Alive. The awards ceremony aired on BET and CBS on February 28.

Willow Campbell reviewed the Gendertrash From Hell zine anthology in Cleaver, and published the flash fiction piece "Paperwhites" in March in Cleveland Review of Books.

Lindsay Collier published the poem "Bird (abandoned) theory" in The Words Faire.

Julia Cilano was named co-editor of Crayfish Magazine.

Emily Dressler published the fiction pieces "Hear Me Out" at Villain Era and "Swimming With The Sharks" at Literary Garage.

Mish Gajewski-Zambataro received a Pushcart Prize nomination from Weird Lit Magazine for her piece “Yellow Feather,” and published a new story entitled "Where Will We Go?" in Edge City #2.

Carrie George received a Best of the Net citation for her nonfiction essay “Reduction,” originally published in Crayfish Magazine.

Ashton Leigh published the poem "I Do" in Issue 02 of Flag Magazine.

Anastasios Mihalopoulos co-launched a new literary journal, The Ammonite Review.

Corey Miller published the poem "Contrapuntal in Which My Jailed Father and Adopted Grandfather Eat Music" in Issue 60.2 of Puerto del Sol.

Gianna Somrak read in the poetry event on April 8 at Mac's Backs bookstore in Cleveland Heights.

Julianne Metzger Taylor published one flash fiction piece "Wax" in Navy Pen Issue 003 and another "Fish Out of Water" in April in The Raven Review.

2025

Ali Black was awarded a Cleveland Arts Prize in the category of Emerging Artist Award in Literature, with an honorarium of $10,000.

Tyisha Blade was named Print Journalist of the Year by the Greater Cleveland Association of Black Journalists for her work on The East Clevelander Magazine.

Willow Campbell​''s flash fiction piece "In The Darkness I Let My Face Flicker" was published in Embodied Resistance, a juried artist book ​from BHB Press​, while "White Cold Winter" was published by Your Impossible Voice. 

Jon Conley published the chapbook Deadheading with Community Mausoleum.

Mish Gajewski-Zambataro received a Best of the Net nomination from Weird Lit Magazine for her story “Yellow Feather,” and published “The Champion” in the Fall issue of The Dodge and “On Wildfire” in the October 19 issue of After The Storm.

Carrie George won the Flume Press Chapbook Contest for her work Unbecoming.

Eliese Colette Goldbach’s debut memoir, Rust: A Memoir of Steel and Grit, was adapted for the stage by playwright George Brant at Dobama Theatre in Cleveland Heights.

Noor Hindi co-edited the poetry collection Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry, which was long-listed for the Palestine Book Awards.

Madeline C. Lanshe published a children's book entitled Floppy's Home: Bats Just Want Friends Too with illustrator Francesca Papini.

Anastasios Mihalopoulos won the Black Lawrence Fellowship for New Immigrant Authors, presented by Black Lawrence Press.

Corey Miller published the poems “My Mentor Sends Me To Nikki Giovanni” in Issue 28.11 of Trampoline, “Burning Plastic Factories” in Issue 19 of MudRoom, and “Gas Guzzler Ghazal” in Issue 4 of Wildscape Literary Journal.

Benvolio Nichols launched a nonfiction podcast entitled Kings on the Aux and presented a paper in the Graduate Conference "Liberatory Practices for Worlds in Crisis" at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Clover O'Mordha placed four poems in the Spring issue of Dreginald: "like the diaphora mendica," "la fantaisie noir," "I. morningstar," and "III. apocalypse."

Alex Puncekar released It's In the Vents!, a space horror, letter-writing roleplaying game. 

Alexandra Salata published "This is the End" in Witness;  "Obliteration” in Bellingham Review; "About a Parking Lot" in Find Your Ontological Center; and "Three Stories" in Coma.

2024

Five NEOMFA alumni were among the recipients of this year’s $5,000 Ohio Arts Council (OAC) Individual Excellence Awards: Michael Credico, Carrie George, Isaiah Hunt, Logan Cutler Smith, and Meghan Louise Wagner. Find more info at OAC.gov.

El Bentivegna published the poem “Lanternfly Cento” in HAD, and hosted a workshop entitled "American Sentences: An Exercise in the Concise" in Lit Youngstown’s Fall Festival.

Mansa L. Bey served as lead facilitator of Veterans’ Voices, presented by Literary Cleveland.

Tyisha Blade became the founding editor-in-chief of The East Clevelander magazine.

Lindsay Collier worked on the Akron Zoo’s “Wildlife Illuminated” event, in which two of her poems were used as prompts for visitors to create their own pieces.

Mish Gajewski-Zambataro's flash fiction piece “Us of the House” was published in the August 14 edition of JMWW. 

Noor Hindi is editing a Palestinian poetry anthology with George Abraham that is scheduled for release with Haymarket Books in 2025.

Eric Mansfield has had eight productions of his plays in the last two years, from Akron’s Rubber City Theatre to Salem State University in Massachusetts. He also has been honored with a second-place Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

Anastasios Mihalopoulos's  poem “Odysseus’ Apology to Anticlea” was published in Issue 37 of LIT; his poem “On Nostalgia” was published in July by Pithead Chapel, and his poem “Mosaic with Water” was published in June by Cider Press Review.

Mitchell Ryan Monahan published the essay "Words of Tongue & Pen" in the Summer issue of Timber Journal.

Alexandra Salata published the story “Starship 2000” in Puerto del Sol and the story "Roadkill" in Black Warrior Review.

Cheyenne Shaffer's story "Dioses de Cosas Pequeñas" was published in the Mexican magazine Colectivero. It was the Spanish translation of a flash fiction piece, "Gods of Small Things," originally published in Factor Four Magazine.

Cait Young’s poem “Broken Sonnet After a Girl Tells Me to Write More Poems About Tomatoes” was selected as one of the 2024 AWP Intro Journals Project poetry winners, and will be published by Puerto del Sol. Other recent publications include “Exodus” in new words {press} and “Heirloom” in West Trade Review.

2023

Christopher R. Alonso’s “Nectarivores” was published in Guernica in September 2023. He also was a 2023 Periplus Fellow. 

Jon Conley’s chapbook House Hunters International: Sonnets was published in June by Seven Kitchens Press.

Matthew Dettmer had two prose poems published: “Floaters” in the Fall issue of Red Noise Collective and “Windows” in the October issue of Palisades Review.

Samantha Imperi’s poems “To my daughter, on sexual education” and “To my son, on consent” were published in June by Great Lakes Review.

Alexandra Salata had a short story entitled “PathQuest” published in July in Timber Journal.

Sony Ton-Aime was appointed as Executive Director of Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures, after publishing the chapbook LaWomann with Ironworks Press.

2022

Sam Allard launched the Cleveland Newsletter with Axios after ten years with Scene magazine.

Christopher R. Alonso was awarded a Tin House First Book Summer Residency.

Samantha Imperi’s poem “To my daughter, on shaving” was published in August by Lighthouse Weekly, and her poem “To my child, on God” was published in October by The Dewdrop.

Amanda Stovicek D’Alessandro and Matthew Meduri received 2022 Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council.

2021

Jon Conley’s short story “So Far Freddy” was published in the Winter issue of The Hunger.

Carrie George’s poem “Self Portrait with what I’ve found on the forest floor” was published in the Spring issue of The Indianapolis Review.

Noor Hindi was a Reveal Investigative Fellow at The Center for Investigative Reporting and a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow with the Poetry Foundation.

Edward Jackson’s short story “He Will be Home for the Holiday” was published in the 2021 issue of Salmon Creek Journal.

Couri Johnson won the Wild Women Story Contest with her short story, “The Girl Who Visited the Alligator Queen.”

Joseph Lewis’ short story “The Last Golden Hour” was published in Novel Noctule.

DT McCrea’s poem “Created Myth” was published in March in Hobart After Dark.

William R. Soldan’s short story collection Houses Burning and Other Ruins was released in May by Shotgun Honey Press.

2020

Ali Black’s essay “Too Close to Home” was published in March by The Rumpus.

Sarah Dravec’s poem “The Bird in the Ambulance” was published in the July issue of Radar Poetry.

Noor Hindi’s poem “Fuck Your Lecture on Craft, My People Are Dying” was published in the December issue of Poetry.

DT McCrea’s poem “a tired king constructs a shopping mall that is filled with existence” was published in the November issue of Gordon Square Review.

Kacie Prologo’s short story “It Aint Charity Puts Food on the Table” was published in the March issue of Scribble.

Meghan Louise Wagner’s short story “Lucky Piggy” was published in the December issue of Shirley.

2019

Dominic Dulin’s poem “Richard Wright’s Haiku and the Blindman as a Subject” was published in Issue 42.2 of Frogpond Haiku.

Noor Hindi’s essay “American Beings” was published in October by the Adroit Journal.

Caroline Knecht’s short story “Karina” was published in December on hobartpulp.com.

Joelle Lambert’s short story “What We Do To Ants” was published in the Fall issue of You Impossible Voice.