Recent Graduates

NEOMFA graduates at May 2026 reading.

Mansa Lamont Bey
Poetry | Cleveland State University
Class of Spring 2026

Mansa Lamont Bey is an American poet and writer from Cleveland, Ohio. His artistic stance centers on the experience and expressions of identity and indigeneity. Bey's passion for the literary and performance arts all converge to display a body of work that is emblematic of the connection between the cosmos and community. As a Combat Veteran, Mansa found his love for poetry as a soldier at war during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Since returning home from  the Army, Mansa honed his craft as a Poet and Writer transforming his therapeutic release and hobby into a profession. Over the years, Mansa has learned to incorporate his love of poetry into his approach towards community service. His work has appeared in various local publications, and community-based anthologies. He also facilitates creative writing workshops for Veterans and community.

Journey with my Circle Seven is a poetic testimony of my spiritual awakening and artistic refinement, where each poem serves as a measure of insight into my journey of personal discovery and the mastery of self. Divinely prepared by Prophet Noble Drew Ali, the Holy Koran, also affectionately known as “The Circle Seven” suffices as a spiritual text in being my guide and muse for personal transformation, moral instruction, and historical identity where each poem is inspired.

Tyisha Blade
Creative Nonfiction | Cleveland State University
Class of Spring 2026

Tyisha Blade is a writer, journalist, and creative storyteller based in East Cleveland. She is the founder of The East Clevelander Magazine, a publication she launched in 2023 to challenge negative narratives and highlight the richness of her community. With a passion for amplifying underrepresented voices, her work spans culture, community, and storytelling that centers impact. Her professional experience includes producing and writing for local media outlets such as 19 News, Ideastream, TV20 and Cleveland Magazine. Recognized for her excellence, she was named 2025 Print Journalist of the Year by the Greater Cleveland Association of Black Journalists. She was also recognized in Who’s Who in Black Cleveland in 2024 and 2025. Through her work, Tyisha remains committed to reshaping narratives, fostering connection, and creating spaces where stories from East Cleveland and beyond can thrive.

Butterfly: This thesis project is a deeply personal collection of essays that explores how childhood trauma can manifest and evolve into adulthood, shaping identity, relationships, and emotional well-being over time. The work follows Tyisha Blade’s journey as she confronts and unpacks the lasting impact of her early experiences, offering an unfiltered look into her most vulnerable moments. The collection delves into her ongoing fight with severe anxiety and her battle with depression, illustrating not only the weight of these struggles but also the complexity of navigating healing and self-understanding. With honesty and emotional depth, these essays invite readers into a space of both pain and resilience, revealing how past wounds continue to echo in the present while also highlighting the strength it takes to face them. Ultimately, the project serves as both a personal reckoning and a broader reflection on survival, growth, and the enduring process of reclaiming one’s voice.

Kate Christie
Creative Nonfiction | The University of Akron
Class of Fall 2025

Kate Christie is a writer who calls Northeast Ohio home. She has kept a daily journal for over twenty years, cultivating a narrative voice that spills over into her memoir and essayistic writing. She grew up in a big homeschooling family and attended The University of Akron to study English and French, taking a few gap years before joining the NEOMFA program in 2022. She enjoys cooking allergy-friendly recipes, playing strategy board games, and hiking with her husband in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Not Your Mother’s Book is one woman’s memoir of growing up in a Christian, conservative, homeschooling subculture. In between narratives that trace the changes in her family’s worldview during the 1990s and 2000s, she returns to scenes from the present day that show the lasting impact of those formative years. The theme of motherhood is woven throughout as the author details her mother’s role in raising her in these beliefs, and her own ongoing battle with infertility. This memoir is both a journey through the irrevocable past and a meditation on the future as she wrestles with old convictions, pursues a new experience of the Christian faith, and attempts to start a family of her own.

Lindsay Collier
Poetry | Kent State University
Class of Spring 2026

Lindsay Collier is a graduate candidate in poetry at Kent State University. During her time in the NEOMFA program she had the opportunity to work as a graduate assistant, a graduate fellow at the Wick Poetry Center, a consultant at the Writing Commons and an acquisition intern at the Kent State University Press. She also wrote for or edited various literary magazines: Haymaker Literary Journal, Rubbertop Review, Luna Negra, The Burr, A Magazine, Fusion Magazine, HerCampus and The Kent Stater. She is the recipient of the Maj Ragain Poetry Scholarship. She has forthcoming publication in Barbar and has previous publications in The Words Faire, Poets Choice and Ashbelt. When she is not reading or writing, Lindsay can be found running down various Akron sidewalks, shredding carrots for homemade carrot cake, or attempting to befriend birds and neighborhood cats.

afterfruit is a meditative collection of poems by Lindsay Collier, which reminds readers to remain curious about the interconnectedness between humans and nature. With poems enthralled in the beauty of the mundane and cyclicality in nature, Collier’s poems reside in the everyday—staring out windows, chewing on mulberries, peeling oranges to share—highlighting that the smallest moments may be most impactful. Collier explores various forms, fracturing the page with contrapuntal poems, ekphrastic poems and research-driven prose to reveal that grief, longing, and absence should be appreciated. Often reflecting on childhood innocence, the unflinching perseverance of womanhood, and how our environment impacts our beliefs (and how humans impact this very environment), these poems experiment in capturing the collective discoveries within a person’s life. afterfruit is a collection that blends abundant natural imagery with everyday situations addressing the complex beauty that can be discovered in the imperfect world around us.

Michelle Michiko Duke
Poetry | The University of Akron
Class of Spring 2026

Michelle Michiko Duke is a half-Japanese, half-white writer living in Ohio. She writes about identity and being a healthcare worker. Her favorite place in the whole wide world is The Blue Lagoon. She hopes to go back to Japan soon and study Japanese for an extended period of time.

Code Lavender, a hybrid poetry and creative nonfiction collection, explores the complicated experiences of the author, an ICU nurse, and the many struggles of being a healthcare worker in America.

Mish Gajewski-Zambataro
Fiction | Cleveland State University
Class of Spring 2026

Mish Gajewski-Zambataro (she/her) lives in the Lake Erie watershed and writes ecofiction. Her stories have been published or are forthcoming in The Dodge, Edge City, Iron Horse Literary Review, Faultline, Gramarye: Journal of the Chichester Centre for Fairy Tales, Fantasy, & Speculative Fiction, and elsewhere. She is a 2026 Best of the Net and Pushcart nominee, a finalist in Ninth Letter's 2024 Regeneration Literary Contest, and a winner of the 2026 AWP Intro Journals Project. As of fall 2026, she will be an English PhD candidate at Case Western Reserve University.

Mish's thesis includes the first half of a speculative post-collapse novel, The Hushlands, and a chapbook of short ecofiction. The Hushlands follows two inhabitants of a post-collapse Great Lakes society. One lives and works within a walled city overseen by a weapons technology conglomerate. He operates a drone that’s main purpose is the containment of climate migrants. The other lives in that city’s unprotected outskirts near a lake that most consider “dead.” She performs regularly as a contortionist for debauched tourists from the city, supplementing her income with sporadic agricultural work in greenhouses owned by the conglomerate. She has never entered the walled city, but as events lead her there, her understanding of the city, its society, and the world at large begins to unravel, culminating in rupture.

Julie Goldstein
Poetry | The University of Akron
Class of Spring 2026

Julie Goldstein is a writer, artist, and educator. She is the former Director of Education at the Ingenuity Festival in Cleveland. Jullie has designed and conducted writing classes and workshops at Mount Holyoke College, Siegal College, the Arthritis Foundation, and elsewhere. Julie was the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Poetry Prize while a student at Smith College. She holds a Master’s degree in Expressive Arts Therapy and has worked extensively with inner city teens and with children who are considered at risk.

Another Historical Account explores girlhood, family history, illness, and motherhood. It traverses, among other places, early adulthood in California and teenage life in New York. A multi-genre work, Another Historical Account weaves together poetry, fiction, and experimental forms.

Eric Mansfield
Playwriting | Kent State University
Class of Spring 2026

Eric Mansfield is a former Emmy Award-winning TV Journalist (WKYC-Cleveland), retired U.S. Army Officer and veteran, current PR professional, and Dramatists Guild member who is continuing his passion for storytelling through playwriting. He received the 2023 Jean Kennedy Smith National Playwriting Award for his original play, Baron of Brown Street, from the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.  Eric has written more than 20 plays that have been performed across Ohio, New York, Los Angeles and South Korea. Eric typically writes modern dramas, and his recognition includes “Best New Play by a Local Playwright” from the Cleveland Critics Circle and the “Arts Alive Award for the Emerging Artist” by Summit Artspace. In 2025, Kent State produced Eric’s TRIAL BY FIRE as part of its May 4 education programming. His plays are published by Next Stage Press and Ghostlight Productions and can be found both online and at the Drama Book Shop in New York City. Find more at ericmansfieldwrites.

Executing Eve (full-length stage play): It’s 2034 and Governor Kaiser has returned Ohio to town square hangings as part of his new speedy-and-public execution policy for convicted killers. That means a midnight death in the Medina town square is just hours away for Eve, who was found guilty of poisoning the judge she believes is responsible for her sister’s death after he rejected her pleas to approve an abortion during a high-risk pregnancy. With large crowds gathering outside the jail and little hope of an 11th hour reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court, Eve plays the one card she has up her sleeve in hopes of saving her life while also using what may be her final hours to face the choices that have made her the face of futuristic American justice. 

Lindsey Maple
Fiction | The University of Akron
Class of Spring 2026

Lindsey is a fiction writer born and raised in Akron, OH. She’s currently working on revising material from her thesis Girl Art and works as the Associate Editor of Rubbertop Review. When she’s not writing, Lindsey is probably listening to Taylor Swift, hanging out with her dog Bella, and drinking red wine.

Girl Art is the exploration of girlhood and all its forms. It’s a flash fiction collection that follows different women struggling with love, friendship, hatred, religion, and jealousy and welcomes the dark side of womanhood. Humor filled and action packed, Girl Art addresses the things we are often too ashamed to admit and encourages chaos, selfishness, smoking cigarettes, and taking up space.

Sean Miller
Fiction | Cleveland State University
Class of Fall 2025

Sean Miller is a human being, more or less, wandering the streets of Cleveland in desperate need of a job.

The Dead Don’t Raise Themselves is a tale of Druid magick and necromancy. A story of cannibalism, talking ghosts, and telepathic bonds to animal companions. The narrative follows Ashe, a poor pickpocket who spends her days pilfering pennies from priests and peasants, and her cat, Flick, as they navigate the struggles of poverty living in the seedy village of Crow’s Hollow. Then one day Ashe is kidnapped and dragged into the forest by a hooded sorcerer and her black bear companion and tasked with the abominable mission of stealing a soul. Ashe and Flick, eventually intrigued by their captors, turn from hostages to companions as the four of them find themselves placed in a puzzle of missing Druids, flesh-eating chimeras, and a ghost who has no idea he’s dead.

Olivia Mirmohamed
Poetry | Kent State University
Class of Fall 2025

Olivia Mirmohamed is a creative writer from Newark, Ohio. She likes to write poetry and short fiction about dreams, bad moods, and ghosts. One of her great pleasures is walking in circles. You can often find her daydreaming. Her poems are scattered around her wobbly desk and in places like CrayfishMag, Sad Girl Diaries and Ashbelt. She lives in Kent, Ohio with her cat, Oat.

My Name Is Called is a collection of poetry that explores themes of mental space, vibrancy, dullness, sleep and wakefulness. Throughout the collection a speaker emerges who traverses many realms (liminal and otherwise), navigating the challenges of extreme emotional states, high and low. Constantly moved and influenced by the world, often desirous and confessional, the speaker is inspired by their physical and mental environment. The collection is interested in the page as a place for gathering, recollection, association and concerned with the fleeting nature of memory and consciousness. My Name Is Called is ultimately examining an ever changing spirit.

Robert Monroe
Poetry | Kent State University
Class of Spring 2026

Robert Monroe grew up in Silver Lake, swimming and biking and enjoying nature. He went to Western Reserve Academy, and from there to Harvard, as an undergrad and Ph.D. He spent time in Paris and several years in Ireland, winning awards for poetry, fiction, film, and music. His mentors include Seamus Heaney, Brendan Kennelly, and William Alfred. He has recently finished a novel, as well as his poetry thesis, and is finishing a screenplay on W.B. Yeats and his circle. He is also at work on a memoir about his friendship with his uncle, Bob Monroe, a pioneer in the field of consciousness studies and a founder of the Monroe Institute. Robert offers workshops using the binaural beat sound patterns that his uncle pioneered. Robert graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and has taught widely. He is very grateful to everyone he has learned from and with in this program.

Le Vin du Souvenir explores poetically several areas of the author’s experience, ranging in settings from Ohio to Iowa to Massachusetts to Ireland and France. It evokes the qualities of different formative experiences, mixing meaning making with a sense of mystery. Some daydreams, some walks through cities and nature, and fond memories of friends and parents and childhood provide a sequence of poems that mixes the pleasures of memory with philosophical and autobiographical savoring. The word green appears often, and food is served. It considers several highlights of this region, from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park to E.J. Thomas Hall, and memories of John Seiberling. Music is a theme, and portraits of artists including Brian Wilson, Orson Welles, and Charlie Chaplin. Influences include W.B. Yeats and Mary Oliver. Rivers appear, including the Cuyahoga, Liffey, and Charles. Animals abound and thrive. There are bright beginnings, and reconsiderations, and some alliteration. Occasional wit.

Sam Omori
Fiction | Cleveland State University
Class of Spring 2026

Sam is a fiction and poetry writer from Rocky River, OH. He enjoys finding stories in the everyday and the mundane. He gleans inspiration and humor from watching ducks at the park.

Scrupulosity or Interesting Characters with Consequences is a collection of short stories that explores themes of connection and reciprocity in an imperfect world, in an imperfect meat suit. The work considers the intrinsic flaws in communication and existential circumstance, and the beauty that underlies the intersection of struggle and intention. Above all, the collection attempts to give human nature the benefit of the doubt, as tiresome as it may sometimes be. 

Kristen Tetzmann
Poetry | Cleveland State University
Class of Spring 2026

Kristen Tetzmann is a poet and painter from Wisconsin. She works as an editorial assistant at the Cleveland State University Poetry Center and as a bookseller at Mac’s Backs. Her work has appeared in Bodega Magazine, Furrow, and elsewhere. She knows how to say “watermelon” in twenty-six languages.

Fissioning the nuclear family by way of classic sitcom, Cold Open transforms media, culture, and sound into a palimpsest that plays and splays against the frame of a “real life.” Backlit by the artificial glow of performance and entertainment, readers become witnesses, drawn into questioning who the real audience is meant to be. Spotlighting the stark, high-stakes slapstick of the domestic sphere, violence and isolation leak through every pore and rotting floorboard of this fictional household. Through off-screen drama, recursive motifs, callbacks, laugh tracks, rhyme, and puns, looping narratives of sacrifice, mental illness, and chronic pain take center stage—offering a glimpse of the machinery behind a fractured family unit.

Benjamin Tudor
Fiction | Cleveland State University
Class of Spring 2026

Ben Tudor is originally from Tucson, AZ, where he attended the University of Arizona. He is married and has an amazing sixteen-year-old daughter. He did his MA at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and is excited to complete his MFA.

The novel Red Nights is a fusion of genres: 80s-90s medical thrillers and erotic thrillers, hard sci-fi, horror, and the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Set in San Francisco, this book introduces the reader to Carrie-Anne Kane, a neurologist in training who also happens to have suffered from debilitating sleepwalking all her life. The reasons for her sleepwalking, the terrible things that she has done and that have happened to her while sleepwalking, are all part of a mystery that she discovers and pursues, with the aid of the San Francisco Chronicle film critic, Calvin Martin, whom she finds herself uncontrollably drawn to.