Meet the 2022 faculty
Ashley C. Ford (Special Guest)
Ashley C. Ford is the author of the New York Times Bestselling memoir, Somebody’s Daughter, published by Flatiron Books on June 1, 2021. Ford is the former host of The Chronicles of Now podcast, co-host of The HBO companion podcast Lovecraft Country Radio, seasons one & three of MasterCard’s Fortune Favors The Bold, as well as the video interview series PROFILE by BuzzFeed News, and Brooklyn-based news & culture TV show, 112BK. She currently lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, poet and fiction writer Kelly Stacy, and their chocolate lab Astro Renegade Ford-Stacy.Ford has written or guest-edited for The Guardian, ELLE Magazine, BuzzFeed, OUT Magazine, Mailchimp Presents, Slate, Teen Vogue, New York Magazine, Allure, Marie Claire, The New York Times, Netflix Queue, Domino, Cup of Jo, and various other web and print publications. She’s taught creative nonfiction writing at The New School and Catapult.Co, and had her work listed among Longform & Longread’s Best of 2017.
While working as an executive for Matter Studios, Ford focused on developing web series and documentaries. She was also the host of the first season of Audible’s literary interview series, Authorized. She has been named among Forbes Magazine‘s 30 Under 30 in Media (2017), Brooklyn Magazine‘s Brooklyn 100 (2016), Time Out New York’s New Yorkers of The Year (2017), and Variety’s New Power of New York (2019).
José Vadi (Nonfiction Class)
José Vadi is an award-winning essayist, poet, playwright and film producer. He is the author of Inter State: Essays from California. José received the San Francisco Foundation’s Shenson Performing Arts Award for his debut play “a eulogy for three” produced by Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s Living Word Project. He is the author of SoMa Lurk, a collection of photos and poems published by Project Kalahati / Pro Arts Oakland. His work has been featured by the Paris Review, The Atlantic, Catapult, Stranger’s Guide, the PBS NewsHour, the San Francisco Chronicle, Free Skate Magazine, Quartersnacks, and Pop-Up Magazine. Nicky Beer (Poetry Class)
Nicky Beer is a bi/queer writer, and the author of The Octopus Game (Carnegie Mellon, 2015) and The Diminishing House (Carnegie Mellon, 2010), both winners of the Colorado Book Award for Poetry. Her awards include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a MacDowell Fellowship, a fellowship and a scholarship from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, a Mary Wood Fellowship from Washington College, a Discovery/The Nation Award, and a Campbell Corner Prize. Her poems have been published in Best American Poetry, Poetry, The Nation, The New Yorker, The Southern Review, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. She is an associate professor at the University of Colorado Denver, where she co-edits the journal Copper Nickel. Her third book of poems, Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes, will be published by Milkweed Editions in 2022.Shruti Swamy (Fiction Workshop)
The winner of two O. Henry Awards, Shruti Swamy’s work has appeared in The Paris Review, the Kenyon Review Online, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. In 2012, she was Vassar College’s 50th W.K. Rose Fellow, and has been awarded residencies at the Millay Colony for the Arts, Blue Mountain Center, and Hedgebrook.She is a Kundiman fiction fellow, a 2017 – 2018 Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University, and a recipient of a 2018 grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation. Her book A House Is a Body was shortlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection, and her novel The Archer was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel prize.
Melissa Febos (Memoir Workshop)
Melissa Febos is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, WHIP SMART (St. Martin’s Press 2010), and the essay collection, ABANDON ME (Bloomsbury 2017), which was a LAMBDA Literary Award finalist, a Publishing Triangle Award finalist, an Indie Next Pick, and was widely named a Best Book of 2017. Her second essay collection, GIRLHOOD, a national bestseller, was published by Bloomsbury on March 30. A craft book, BODY WORK, will be published by Catapult on March 15, 2022.The inaugural winner of the Jeanne Córdova Nonfiction Award from LAMBDA Literary, her work has appeared in publications including The Paris Review, The Sun, The Kenyon Review, Tin House, Granta, The Believer, McSweeney’s, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Elle, and Vogue. Her essays have won prizes from Prairie Schooner, Story Quarterly, The Sewanee Review, and The Center for Women Writers at Salem College. She is a four-time MacDowell fellow and has also received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, The Barbara Deming Memorial Foundation, The BAU Institute at The Camargo Foundation, The Ragdale Foundation, and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, which named her the 2018 recipient of the Sarah Verdone Writing Award.
She co-curated the Mixer Reading and Music Series in Manhattan for ten years and served on the Board of Directors for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts for five. The recipient of an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, she is an associate professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program.
Safiya Sinclair (Poetry Workshop)
Safiya Sinclair was born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She is the author of the memoir How to Say Babylon, forthcoming from Simon & Schuster. She is also the author of the poetry collection Cannibal, winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Metcalf Award, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry, the Phillis Wheatley Book Award, and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. Cannibal was selected as one of the American Library Association’s Notable Books of the Year, and was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award, as well as being longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize.Sinclair’s other honours include a Pushcart Prize, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, fellowships from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, Yaddo, MacDowell, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The Nation, Poetry, Kenyon Review, the Oxford American, and elsewhere.
She received her MFA in poetry at the University of Virginia, and her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. She is currently an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Arizona State University.
Peter Kispert (Fiction Class)
Peter Kispert is the author of the debut story collection I Know You Know Who I Am (Penguin Books, February 2020), an Elle Magazine Best Book of the Year and O, The Oprah Magazine Best LGBT Book of the Year. His fiction and nonfiction has appeared or is forthcoming in OUT magazine, GQ, Esquire, them, Playboy, Electric Literature‘s Recommended Reading, The Carolina Quarterly, Poets & Writers, and elsewhere. He received an MFA from Indiana University, where he was a fiction fellow, taught undergraduate fiction writing workshops, and served as editor-in-chief of Indiana Review. Peter currently serves as an assistant editor at American Short Fiction. He lives in New York.
IUWC has a long history of hosting highly accomplished faculty.
2021
Ross Gay
ZZ Packer
Maggie Smith
Jaquira Díaz
Brando Skyhorse
Tiana Clark
Hannah Bae
Joseph Cassara
Shawna Ayoub
2020
Cancelled due to COVID-19
2019
Héctor Tobar
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Meghan Daum
Lilliam Rivera
Jan-Henry Gray
Patrick Coleman
2018
Ada Limón
Kiese Laymon
Matthew Klam
Alison Gaylin
Jason Adam Katzenstein
Chanelle Benz
Ife-Chudeni A. Oputa
2017
Chris Abani
Morgan Parker
Mary Robinette Kowal
Alexander Weinstein
Amy Kurzweil
Rickey Laurentiis
2016
Wesley Chu
Gabrielle Calvocoressi
David Crabb
Dana Johnson
Amelia Martens
Walton Muyumba
Salvatore Scibona
2015
Lynda Barry
Lou Berney
Gabrielle Calvocoressi
Dan Chaon
Adrian Matejka
Alissa Nutting
John-Paul Zaccarini
2014
Jami Attenberg
Sally Ball
Jim Elledge
T.M. McNally
Christine Sneed
Stephen Motika
2013
Arthur Phillips
Cathy Bowman
Scott Hutchins
Nathaniel Perry
Alix Lambert
Lloyd Suh
2012
Lynda Barry
Dan Chaon
Jean Thompson
Erin Belieu
Jenny Browne
Lou Berney
James Canary
2011
Tony Ardizonne
Lynda Barry
Dan Chaon
Gary Ferguson
Jill Godmilow
Patrick Rosal
Julia Story
2010
Josip Novakovich
Meg Wolitzer
Eileen Myles
Samrat Upadhyay
Ed Pavlic
Mia Leonin
Micah Ling
Dan Barden
2009
Julia Glass
Manuel Munoz
Aracelis Girmay
Alyce Miller
Tom Chiarello
Danit Brown
David Trinidad
2008
Donald Antrim
Karen Joy Fowler
Jean Valentine
Kevin Prufer
Tony Ardizzone
Alison Umminger
Ross Gay
Anne-Marie Oomen
2007
Khaled Mattawa
Matthew Klam
Catherine Bowman
Nicholas Dawidoff
Crystal Wilkinson
Adam Langer
Heather McHugh,
Lee Martin
2006
Amy Bloom
Richard McCann
David Kirby
Barbara Hamby
Dana Johnson
Mark Wunderlich
Tyehimba Jess
2005
Tony Ardizzone
Mark Axelrod
Carol Bly
Cynie Cory
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Ruth Ellen Kocher
Yusef Komunyakaa
David Lazar
David Leavitt
Brian Leung
Martha Rhodes
Maura Stanton
2004
Thomas Glave
Patricia Henley
Li-Young Lee
Alyce Miller
Jean Thompson
Terrance Hayes
Brigit Pegeen Kelly
Michael Martone
Maureen Seaton
Karen Volkman
2003
Aimee Bender
Marilyn Chin
Elizabeth Dewberry
Amy Locklin
Clint McCown
David Wright
Robert Olen Butler
Alison Hawthorne Deming
Brenda Hillman
A. Loudermilk
Achy Obejas
Kevin Young
2002
Mark Doty
Molly Giles
Andrew Hudgins
Paul Lisicky
Manuel Luis Martinez
Michael Martone
Erin McGraw
Reginald McKnight
Roger Mitchell
Lucia Perillo
Karen Volkman
2001
Barrie Jean Borich
John Dufresne
Jim Grimsley,
Alyce Miller
Ernesto Quiñonez
Jean Valentine
Cindy Chinelly
Beth Ann Fennelly
Shirlene Holmes
Susan Mitchell
Alan Shapiro
2000
Jonis Agee
Tony Ardizzone
Jim Elledge
Kate Daniels
C.J. Hribal
Timothy Liu
Beckian Fritz Goldberg
John Keene
Susan Neville
Kevin Stein
Michael Martone
Romayne Rubinas
1999
Catherine Bowman
Rodney Jones
Allison Joseph
Jesse Lee Kercheval
Brad Leithauser
Manuel Luis Martinez
Mary Jo Salter
Barbara Shoup
Jon Tribble
Charles Harper Webb
1998
Carol Anshaw
Pinckney Benedict
Catherine Bowman
Ralph Burns
Gerald Costanzo
Amy Gerstler
John McCluskey
Jay Meek
William O’Rourke
Lucia Perillo
Sharon Solwitz
1997
Marianne Boruch
Catherine Bowman
Richard Katrovas
Yusef Komunyakaa
Alyce Miller
Susan Neville
Barbara Shoup
Joan Silber
Arthur Vogelsang
David Wojahn
Al Young
1996
Ralph Burns
Jim Elledge
Reginald Gibbons
Brigit Pegeen Kelly
John McCluskey
Susan Neville
Frances Sherwood
Gerald Stern
Brian Swann
Roberta Swann
Jean Thompson
David Wojahn
1995
Ralph Burns
Bernard Cooper
Martin Espada
Thomas Gavin
John McCluskey
William Matthews
Frances Sherwood
Maura Stanton
Jean Thompson
C.D. Wright
Al Young
Paul Zimmer
1992
Ralph Angel
Tony Ardizzone
Robert Boswell
Lynn Emanuel
Mark Halliday
Heather McHugh
Reginald McKnight
William Matthews
Donald Revell
Gladys Swan
Jean Thompson
David Wojahn
1991
Deborah Digges
Alan Dugan
Richard Jackson
David Bradley
Susan Dodd
Ellen Lesser
Ira Sadoff
1990
Marvin Belle
Ralph Burns
Reginald Gibbons
Dewitt Henry
Lynda Hull
Reginald McKnight
Judy Troy
Joan Silber
Brian Swann
Roberta Swann
David Wojahn
Richard Yates
1989
Brian Swann
Andre Hudgins
Joan Silber
Charles Johnson
Joseph Parisi
Dewitt Henry
Cornelia Nixon
Dean Young
Roberta Swan
Joan Aleshire
Sherod Santos
Ellen Lesser
Briana Swan
1988
David St. John
Joy Williams
David Huddle
Stephen Dunn
Stuart Dybek
Susan Mitchell
1987
Brian Swann
Rochelle Distelheim
Arthur Vogelsang
David Jauss
Howard Norman
Roger Mitchell
Charles Baxter
Sena Naslund
Brenda Hillman
Vern Rutsala
Patricia Hampl
1986
Maura Stanton
Steven Axelrod
John Calvin Batchelor
Richard Cecil
Jean Thompson
Ellen Bryant Voigt
Sandra McPherson
Stanley Plumly
Pam Service
Brian Swann
Rochelle Distelheim
Andre Dubus
1985
Carol Bly
Lisel Mueller
Dave Smith
Rochelle Distelheim
Alvin Greenberg
Denise Levertov
Susan Neville
Scott Sanders
Sam Smiley
Maura Stanton
Brain Swann
Robley Wilson
1984
E.M. Broner
Hayden Carruth
Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
James Hazard
John McCulsky
Mary Oliver
Grace Paley
Scott Sanders
Sam Smiley
Mona Van Duyn
Robert Wilson
1983
Tim Cahill
Stanley Elkin
Douglas Hofstadter
Carolyn Kizer
Ursula LeGuin
Roger Mitchell
Thomas Rabbitt
Mary Robison
Scott Sanders
Sam Smiley
Dave Smith
1982
Willis Barnstone
Raymond Carver
George Garrett
James Hazard
Shirley Kaufman
Emily Cheney Neville
Scott Sanders
Cynthia Propper Seton
Clancy Sigal
William Stafford
Maura Stanton
Alberta Turner
1981
E.M. Broner
R.V. Cassill
James Hazard
Galway Kinnell
Carolyn Kizer
Paul Metcalf
Lisel Mueller
Scott Sanders
Clancy Sigal
Robley Wilson
1980
Alan Dugan
George Garrett
James Hazard
Paul Metcalf
Marge Piercy
Francine du Plessix Gray
Scott Sanders
Clancy Sigal
Mary Ellen Solt
Brian Swann
Diane Wakoski
Kathleen Wiegner
Maia Wojciechowska
1979
Rhoda A. Weyr
Richard Kostelanetz
1978
Ursula LeGuin
Mary Fornes
Ishmael Reed
Ed Stern
1977
Herbert Gold
Jim Hougan
Philip Levine
Grace Paley
Muriel Rukeyser
Megan Terry
Roger Zelazny
1976
John Arden
Richard Kostelanetz
Dan Georakas
Leonard Michaels
John Woods
Sol Yurick
Roger Zelazny
1975
Madeleine L’Engle
Paul Darcy Boles
Mary Daniels
Philip Hamburger
Jack Matthews
Roger Mitchell
Tad Mosee
Harry Mark Petrakis
1974
Norma Ainsworth
Doris Betts
Stephen Birmingham
BJ Chute
Richard Dunlop
Arthur Gregor
Tad Mosel
Arturo Vivante
1973
Elizabeth Spencer
A.E.Hotchner
Stanley Elkin
Doris Betts
Arthur Gregor
Emily Cheney Neville
Eileen Jensen
John Brady
1972
Fred Mustard Stewart
Gerold Frank
Doris Betts
Jack Matthews
Sandra Hochman
Lloyd Alexander
Paul Darcy Boles
Charles and Bonnie Remsberg
1971
Anton Myrer
Elizabeth Spencer
Gay Talese
Gwendolyn Brooks
Madeleine L’Engle
Will Stanton
William Barry Furlong
Gretchen Cryer
1970
Noel B. Gerson
Harry Mark Petrakis
Martin L. Gross
Selden Rodman
Maia Wojciechowska
Robert Canzoneri
Richard Dunlop
Peter Masterson
1969
Anton Myrer
Stephen Birmingham
Philip Hamburger
John Ashbery
Maia Wojciechowska
Sam Smiley
Hal Higdon
John Weston
1968
Douglass Wallop
Jesse Hill Ford
William K. Zinsser
Lionel Wiggam
Jean Poindexter Colby
Arturo F. Gonzalez Jr.
Sam Smiley
Ilka Chase
1967
Jerome Weidman
Elizabeth Enright
Gerold Frank
Gwendolyn Brooks
Richard Atcheson
Beatrice Schenk De Regniers
Malcolm Foster
1966
Arthur Hailey
William Peden
Bruce and Naomi Bliven
Gwendolyn Brooks
Madeleine L’Engle
Robert Meredith
Lillian Pompian
1965
David Westheimer
Harry Mark Petrakis
Jhan & June Robbins
Lionel Wiggam
Madeleine L’Engle
Robert Meredith
Lillian Pompian
1964
Anya Seton
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Ernest Havemann
Lionel Wiggan
The Spewacks
Keith Robertson
Harry Mark Petrakis
Lillian Pompian
1963
John Brooks
James Reid Parker
Maurice Zolotow
Lionel Wiggam
Tad Mosel
Keith Robertson
Bernard Sabath
Lillian Pompian
1962
Gladys Schmitt
Robert Murphy
Berton Roueche
Tad Mosel
Lionel Wiggam
Charlotte Zolotow
Bernard Sabath
Mary Corey
Willie Snow Ethridge
William Raney
1961
Nathaniel Benchley
Elizabeth Janeway
William Jay Smith
Charlotte Zolotow
Richard Gehman
Howard Rodman
Bernard Sabath
1960
Frances Gray Patton
David Wagoner
Mark Harris
Jean Lee Latham
Richard Gehman
Howard Rodman
1959
Nancy Wilson Ross
Stanley Young
Maurice Zolotow
Jean Lee Latham,
Ernest Kinoy
Winfield Townley
1958
Elizabeth Enright
John Selby
Maurice Zolotow
Peggy Bacon
Michelle Cousin
Reed Whittemore
1957
Jean Poindexter Colby
Walker Gibson
Don Congdon
Henry La Cossitt
Michelle Cousin
Jessamyn West
1956
Helen Eustis
Henry La Cossitt
Erik Barnouw
Howard Nemerov
Ruth Krauss
1955
Louise Bogan
Caroline Gordon
William Hodapp
Bruce Bliven, Jr.
Beatrice Creighton
1954
Elizabeth Yates
J.F. Powers
Robert Coughlan,
Richard Wilbur
Paul Pickrel
1953
John Selby
Elizabeth Enright
John Malcolm Brinnin
Frances Gray Patton
Oliver Jensen
1952
Nelson Algren
John Ciardi
Victoria Lincoln
Isabel McLennon McMeekin
Richard H. Rovere
1951
Peter Taylor,
Glenway Wescott
Richard Eberhart
John Bartlow Martin
Marjorie Flack
1950
Merle Miller
Louise Bogan
John Crowe Ransom
Lillian Smith
Caroline Gordon
Allen Tate
Gertrude Blumenthal
Walter S. Campbell
1949
Andrew Lyttle
Harry Shaw
Stephen Spender
Jeannette Covert Nolan
Glenway Wescott
Karl Detzer
Arch Oboler
1948
John Frederick Nims
John R Tunis
Jessamyn West
Lillian Hellman
John Horne Burns
Kenneth Fearing
Rolfe Humphries
William E Wilson
Irving Stone
1947
Carl Carmer
David L Cohn
Howard Fast
Brendan Gill
Horace Gregory
Ralph Humphries
Randall Jarrell
Meridel Le Sueur
John R Tunis
Ann Weil
Marya Zaturenska
1946
Robert Hillyer
Don Herold
MacKinlay Kantor
Mari Sandoz
Mary Jane Ward
Marion Boyd Havighurst
Walter Havighurst
John R Tunis
1945
Horace Gregory
Boyden Sparks
James T Farrell,
Richard A Cordell
Jeanette Covert Nolan
AC Spectorsky
Ruth Suckow
1942
Carl Carmer
John T Frederick
Katherine Anne Porter
David Daiches—Elliot Prize
Jeanette Covert Nolan
John Crowe Ransom
1941
Sally Benson
Carl Carmer
Nannine Joseph
Herbert J. Muller
Jeannette Covert Nolan
Kerker Quinn
John Crowe Ransom
Irwin Shaw
S. Stephenson Smith
Marguerite Young
1940
John Gould Fletcher
Jesse Stuart
Will David Howe
Jessica Mannon
Karl W. Detzer
Maxwell Aley
Jeanette Covert Nolan
Margaret Weymouth Jackson
Miriam Mason Swain