Our graduate Emilie Lygren is publishing her MFA thesis with Wayfarer Books.

In the month of December, Soul Bone℠ offers two public events, both marked on our calendar Welcome! All events are free, online, open to the public.

StarWound present ‘Interiors Project’

The Anglophone Music Group “StarWound” flies from Greece and performs in six cities in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa, presenting new songs in collaboration with prominent poetry professors, students of the universities and poets of the local communities. They are also stopping at M.I.U. to work with our MFA students and undergraduate English and Cinematic Arts and New Media Students for a lyric workshop, plus they are offering a concert at Café Paradiso in Fairfield, Iowa, on Friday October 25 starting at 7:30 PM CT.

Congratulations to our new graduating crop of students of Fall ‘23, Spring ‘24, and Fall ‘24. We are so proud of you for your accomplishment and will miss you in our MFA. Please stay connected and join us for our festivals. We can’t wait to hold your books in our hands.

For anyone not able to get into this almost sold out event, please contact us at soulboneliterary@gmail.com or English@miu.edu and we’ll provide the direct link for you! Thank you for your interest in our events.

Emily Lygren, freshly graduated from MIU’s MFA in Creative Writing, is offering a workshop named Gathering Stones: Writing Poetry by the River through S. F. State University, the Sierra Nevada Field Campus.

Our next festival and residency are about to start! Click here to register.

A series of poetry workshops with Kai Black. Information on the poster.

Happy Solstice from our MFA and Soul Bone!

Happy Holiday Season from our MFA and from Soul Bone to you!

Congratulations to our Fall ‘22 graduates!

English department reading with faculty and staff, Thursday December 7 and 7 PM CT in the Fairfield Food Collective, 400 N. 2nd Street, here in Fairfield, Iowa.

Emilie Lygren publishes in Wild Roof Journal.

Come and join us for “The Soul Ajar: Writing, Creativity & Healing with Poet and Professor Nynke Passi, Thursday, July 6, at 7 PM CST (online webinar) offered through the U of TX Rio Grande Valley.

You are all welcome to join us for our MFA Graduation Reading at Café Paradiso in Fairfield, Iowa. Eventlink: https://fb.me/e/1fNNPkOnY

Congratulations, Emlie, for publishing in Verse-Virtual!

Congratulations, Elaina, for being included in Yonic Poetics.

English dept. news: Mel McCuin’s Class is presenting on Thursday, April 27, at the Wege Center for the Arts from 7 - 9 PM CT.

Emilie Lygren publishes her poem “Gathering Stones” in The Green Shoe Sanctuary.

Congratulations to our MFA student Kai Black for publishing in Angel Rust Magazine!

You are warmly and joyfully invited to:

Blue Light at the Gallery
Friday, January 6, 2023 – 6 pm Pacific Time  / 8 pm Central Time / 9 pm Eastern Time

On this evening Blue Light at the Gallery is hosting a poetry reading with:

Mermer Blakeslee
Dorianne Laux
Nynke Salverda Passi

WELCOME TO OUR SOUL BONE LITERARY FESTIVAL FALL ‘22.
FREE WITH ZOOM REGISTRATION VIA EVENTBRITE (FULL SCHEDULE FORTHCOMING)

Kai Black publishes another poem, this time in WordPeace.

Volume 2: LIGHTBEARERS WAYFINDERS, edited by MFA Publishing Practicum Class.

Our third semester student Kai Black published two poems in Bristlecone Firesides. Kai is a dual genre student in our program, emphasizing poetry and speculative fiction.

Jennifer Espinoza, our poetry mentor who will be multi-genre mentor next semester, is featured by the Academy of American Poets! Congratulations, Jennifer.

Elaina Whitesell published poems in New Limestone Review and Aien Buddha Zine. Elaina Whitesell received her bachelor of arts from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. She is a third semester student in our MFA program and a poetry editor for Cleaver Magazine.

Future Library: Contemporary Indian Writing, a new Red Hen anthology edited by Anjum Hasan and Sampurna Chattarji, includes work from our MFA faculty Sasha Kamini Parmasad.

Our student Emilie Lygren’s book of poetry, What We Were Born For, published by Blue Light Press, was one of the Young People’s Poet Laureate Picks by Naomi Shihab Nye in February, 2022.

Our student Elaina Whitesell is a poet and musician. Together with her partner she forms Magenta Moon, which was featured on DOPECAUSEWESAID.