MFA in Creative Writing Faculty

Hal Ackerman

Instructor, Writing for Stage & Screen
ackermanh@queens.edu

• Former co-chair of the Screenwriting Program at UCLA.
• His play, Testosterone: How Prostate Cancer Made a Man of Me, received the William Saroyan Centennial Prize for Drama and won Best Script at the 2011 United Solo Festival.
• He has sold material to all the broadcast networks and major studios.
• His book Write Screenplays That Sell…The Ackerman Way is now in its third printing.

Khris Baxter

Instructor, Writing for Stage & Screen
baxterk@queens.edu

• Screenwriter, producer, and the founder of Lost Mountain Entertainment.
• Developed and financed a wide range of projects in partnership with Cross Creek Pictures and Echo Lake Entertainment.
• Co-produced “Above the Shadows,” which won the Audience Award at the 2019 Brooklyn Film Festival.
• Teaches Writing for Film & TV at Dickinson College.
• Serves as a judge for the Virginia Film Office’s annual screenwriting competition.

Peter Behrens

Instructor, Writing for Stage & Screen
behrensp@queens.edu

• Screenwriter, essayist, and fiction writer.
• Author of four books of fiction, including “The Law of Dreams,” which won the Governor-General’s Award and has been published in nine languages.
• His stories, essays, and reviews appear in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NPR’s All Things Considered, and many anthologies.
• Former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and former fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Cathy Smith Bowers

Instructor, Poetry
bowersc@queens.edu

• Poet Laureate of North Carolina from 2010-2012.
• Her poems appear widely in publications such as The Atlantic Monthly, The Georgia Review, Poetry, The Southern Review, and The Kenyon Review.
• Author of five collections of poetry.

Morri Creech

Associate Professor, Poetry
Writer in Residence, Queens University of Charlotte
creechm@queens.edu

• Author of four collections of poetry, one a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
• His poems appear in Poetry, The New Criterion, The New Republic, The Southwest Review, The Hudson Review, Crazyhorse, Critical Quarterly, Sewanee Review, Southern Review, and  elsewhere. 
• He has received the Stan and Tom Wick Award, a Ruth Lilly Fellowship, and a fellowship from The Louisiana  Division of the Arts.

David Christensen

Instructor, Writing for Stage & Screen
christensend@queens.edu

• Executive producer at the National Film Board of Canada where he oversees a slate of documentary, interactive, and animation productions made nationally and internationally.
• Two Oscar-nominated films and multiple premiers at Berlin, Sundance, Toronto, and New York film festivals.

Ann Cummins

Instructor, Fiction
cumminsa@queens.edu

• Author of a story collection and novel.
• Recipient of a Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship.
• Stories appear in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Antioch Review, The Best American Short Stories, and The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories.

Jonathan Dee

Instructor, Fiction
deej@queens.edu

• Author of eight novels.
• His novel “The Privileges” was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize and winner of the 2011 Prix Fitzgerald and the St. Francis College Literary Prize.
• A former contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, a senior editor of The Paris Review, and a National Magazine Award-nominated literary critic for Harper’s.
• Received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Kristin Dombek

Instructor, Nonfiction
dombekk@queens.edu

• Author of “The Selfishness of Others: An Essay on the Fear of Narcissism,” which has been translated into multiple languages, and “How to Quit,” forthcoming soon.
• Essays appear in The New Yorker, Vice, The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, London Review of Books, n+1, The Financial Times, The Paris Review, and Best American Essays.
• Recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Rona Jaffe Foundation.
• Has taught at Queens College/CUNY and Princeton.

Shelley Evans

Instructor, Writing for Stage & Screen
evanss@queens.edu

• Has written teleplays for ABC, CBS, Showtime, USA Network, Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, and Lifetime Television.

Elizabeth Gaffney

Instructor, Fiction
gaffneye@queens.edu

• Author of two novels.
• Has also translated three novels and a memoir from German.
• Resident artist at Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and the Blue Mountain Center.
• Former staff editor at The Paris Review, and currently serves as the editor-at-large of A Public Space.

Myla Goldberg

Instructor, Fiction
goldbergm@queens.edu

• Bestselling author of four novels, including “Bee Season,” which was a New York Times Notable Book and winner of the Borders New Voices Prize. It was adapted to film and widely translated.
• Has also published an essay collection, a children’s book, and short stories that have appeared in Harper’s.
• Teaches also in the fiction programs at Sarah Lawrence and NYU.

Emily Fox Gordon

Instructor, Nonfiction
gordone@queens.edu

• Author of a novel, a collection of personal essays, and two memoirs, one of which was a New York Times Notable Book.
• Her work appears in Boulevard, Salmagundi, The American Scholar, and Southwest Review, and has been anthologized in the Anchor Essay Annual.
• Has taught writing workshops at Rice University, the University of Houston, The New School, the University of Wyoming, and the MFA program at Rutgers/Camden.
• Recipient of two Pushcart Prizes.

Trish Harnetiaux

Instructor, Writing for Stage & Screen
harnetiauxt@queens.edu

• Her play “Tin Cat Shoes” premiered in 2018 kicking off Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks (Playwrights Horizons Superlab).
• Three other plays have been published by Samuel French.
• Executive producer on the off-beat comedy series “Driver Ed” which premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival.
• She has been a resident at MacDowell, Yaddo, The Millay Colony, and SPACE at Ryder Farm.

Marcus Jackson

Instructor, Poetry
jacksonm@queens.edu

• Author of two poetry collections.
• His poems appear in The New Yorker, Harvard Review, The New York Times, and The Cincinnati Review.

Fred Leebron

Program Director, Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing
Instructor, Fiction
leebronf@queens.edu

• Former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford and Fulbright Scholar.
• Author of five books of fiction, including “Six Figures,” which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and became a feature-length film.
• Co-editor of “Postmodern American Fiction: A Norton Anthology;” and co-author of “Creating Fiction: A Writer’s Companion.”
• Recipient of an O. Henry Award, a Puschart Prize, a Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown Fellowship, and two fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Ada Limón

Instructor, Poetry

• Author of six books of poetry, including “The Carrying,” which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry.
• Her book “Bright Dead Things” was named a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
• Currently the Poet Laureate of the United States and a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellow.

Rebecca Lindenberg

Instructor, Poetry
lindenbergr@queens.edu

• Author of two poetry collections, including the winner of the 2015 Utah Book Award.
• Awarded an Amy Lowell Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Grant, a Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown Fellowship, and a residency grant from the MacDowell Arts Colony.
• Her poetry, lyric essays, and criticism appear in The Believer, Poetry, McSweeney’s Quarterly, American Poetry Review, Conjunctions, and Iowa Review.

Rebecca McClanahan

Instructor, Poetry and Nonfiction
mcclanahanr@queens.edu

• Author of eleven books, including “In the Key of New York City: A Memoir in Essays” and “Word Painting: The Fine Art of Writing Descriptively,” which sold nearly 50,000 copies.
• Her work has appeared in Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, Kenyon Review, Georgia Review, and in anthologies published by Simon & Schuster, Beacon, Norton, and Bedford/St. Martin.
• Her awards include two Pushcart prizes, the Glasgow Award in Nonfiction, the Wood Prize from Poetry Magazine, and the N.C. Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education.

James McKean

Instructor, Poetry and Nonfiction
mckeanj@queens.edu

• Author of three books of poems and two books of essays.
• His poetry and nonfiction appear in Poetry, The Atlantic Monthly, The Georgia Review, The Southern Review, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, The Best American Sports Writing, and Poetry Northwest, and have been featured in Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry.

Orlando Menes

Instructor, Poetry
meneso@queens.edu

• Author of five poetry collections.
• His poems appear in Poetry, Ploughshares, Harvard Review, The Antioch Review, Hudson Review, Shenandoah, Callaloo, and The Southern Review.
• Editor of “Renaming Ecstasy: Latino Writings on the Sacred.”
• Has published translations of poetry in Spanish, including My Heart Flooded with Water: Selected Poems by Alfonsina Storni.

Daniel Mueller

Instructor, Fiction
muellerd@queens.edu

• Author of three short story collections.
• His work appears in The Missouri Review, The Iowa Review, Story Quarterly, Story, The Mississippi Review, Henfield Prize Stories, and Playboy.
• He is the director of the Creative Writing program at the University of New Mexico.

Brighde Mullins

Instructor, Writing for Stage & Screen
mullinsb@queens.edu

• Her plays have been developed and produced in New York, Dallas, Salt Lake City, London, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
• Recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Playwriting, a Whiting Foundation Award, a United States Artists Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
• She has held residencies at Lincoln Center, New York Stage and Film, MacDowell, and Yaddo. She is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop and has been a Core Member of the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis.
• Has taught at Harvard, Brown, and the University of Southern California.

Naeem Murr

Instructor, Fiction
murrn@queens.edu

• Author of three novels The Boy, which was a New York Times Notable Book, The Genius of the Sea, and The Perfect Man, which was awarded The Commonwealth Writersʼ Prize for the Best Book of Europe and South Asia. His work has been translated into many languages.
• His new novel, Bye-Bye Palestine, will be published by Norton in 2025.
• Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, and a PEN Beyond Margins Award. 
• Has been a writer-in-residence at the University of Missouri, Western Michigan, and Northwestern University.

Jenny Offill

Instructor, Fiction
offillj@queens.edu

• Author of three novels, including “The Department of Speculation,” named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by the New York Times, and shortlisted for the Pen/Faulkner Award and the L.A. Times Fiction Award.
• Co-editor of two anthologies: “The Friend Who Got Away” and “Money Changes Everything.”

David Payne

Instructor, Fiction
payned@queens.edu

• NY Times Notable author of five novels and a memoir.
• His work appears in The New York Times, Libération, The Washington Post, and The Oxford American.
• Has taught at Bennington, Duke, and Hollins.

Susan Perabo

Instructor, Fiction
perabos@queens.edu

• Author of two story collections and two novels.
• Her fiction appears in Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize Stories, New Stories from the South, One Story, The Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, and The Sun.
• She is a Writer in Residence and professor of English at Dickinson College.

Jon Pineda

Instructor, Nonfiction and Poetry
pinedaj@queens.edu

• Author of multiple books of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction, two of which won the Library of Virginia Book of the Year Award.
• He is a professor of English at William and Mary College in Virginia.

Robert Polito

Instructor, Poetry and Nonfiction
politor@queens.edu

• Author of numerous books of poetry and nonfiction, including “Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson,” which received the National Book Critics Circle Award.
• Editor of the Library of America volumes “Crime Novels: Noir of the 1930s & 1940s” and “Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s,” as well as “The Selected Poems of Kenneth Fearing.”
• His poems and essays appear in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, Best American Poetry, Beast American Essays, and Best American Film Writing.
• Recently served as President of the Poetry Foundation.

Patricia Powell

Instructor, Fiction
powellp@queens.edu

• Author of three novels. 
• The recipient of a PEN New England Discovery Award and a Lila-Wallace Readers Digest Writer’s Award.
• Has taught at Harvard University, U-Mass, MIT, and Mills College.

Steven Rinehart

Instructor, Fiction
rineharts@queens.edu

• Author of a story collection and a novel.
• The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the James Michener Center, and the Virginia Center for the Arts.
• Writes and ghostwrites for a former US President, Fortune 100 CEOs, entrepreneurs, and social activists.
• He teaches at the Gallatin School of NYU.

Laura Ruby

Instructor, Fiction
rubyl@queens.edu

• Author of 12 books of fiction.
• A two-time National Book Award Finalist, and an Edgar Award Nominee.

Elissa Schappell

Instructor, Fiction
schappelle@queens.edu

• Author of two books of fiction, including “Use Me,” a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award, a New York Times “Notable Book” and a Los Angeles Times “Best Book of the Year.”
• Co-editor of two essay anthologies: “Money Changes Everything” and “The Friend Who Got Away”
• Her fiction and nonfiction appear in One Story, McSweeney’s, BOMB, Interview, the KGB Bar Reader, The Paris Review, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Elle, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Real Simple.
• She has taught at NYU, Texas State, and Columbia University.

Dana Spiotta

Instructor, Fiction
spiottad@queens.edu

• Author of five novels, which have won the St. Francis College Literary Prize and have been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award.
• Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters John Updike Prize in Literature.
• She also teaches at Syracuse University.

Maxine Swann

Instructor, Fiction
swannm@queens.edu

• Author of three books of fiction.
• Awarded an O. Henry Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and her work has been included in The Best American Short Stories of 1998 and 2006.

Héctor Tobar

Instructor, Fiction and Nonfiction
tobarh@queens.edu

• Author of five books of fiction and nonfiction, published in ten languages, including the New York Times bestseller “Deep Down Dark,” which was adapted into a feature film.
• Work appears in Best American Short Stories, L.A. Noir, The New Yorker, and The Los Angeles Times, and he is currently a contributing writer for the New York Times opinion pages.
• He is an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine.

Ashley Warlick

Instructor, Fiction
warlicka@queens.edu

• Author of four novels.
• Recipient of an NEA Fellowship and the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship.
• Her work appears in The Oxford American, McSweeney’s, Redbook, and Garden and Gun.
• She is a partner at M. Judson, Booksellers and Storytellers in Greenville, SC.