On Friday, October 14th, UW Creative Writing Program students, faculty, and fans gathered at the new 8 Bytes Cafe for the second reading of the semester. Three 2nd year students read through some serious pinball machine static. A lot of fried delicacies were consumed.

Bethann Merkle, 2nd year in nonfiction, read from a section of her thesis, which explores hunting, landscapes, and food systems.

Lilly Schneider, 2nd year fiction writer, read a story, “BYOB,” that’s forthcoming in Willow Springs lit mag.

Kat Williams read a bit of short fiction, currently titled “I’ll Give You What You Want If You Ask for It Enough.”

Each semester, the Creative Writing Program hosts a student reading series. In the fall series, 2nd year MFA students read from some of their latest work, which for many includes bits and pieces of what will become their theses in the spring.

The first reading of the fall semester went down at Night Heron Books on September 21st. Emily Pifer, Ammon Medina, and Alec Osthoff read to a full house on a Friday night that delivered Laramie’s first snow of the season!

Emily, 2nd year in nonfiction, read from her thesis-in-progress, Body of Work.

2nd year Poet Ammon read from an essay that features the re-appropriated poems of Pablo Neruda.

And Alec, 2nd year fiction, read from his novel-in-progress, Sawtooths.  He also read his poem, “Western Interior,” that inspired him to write the novel.

Huge shout-out to Lilly Schneider for her lovely locks in the foreground of most of the pictures taken at the event!

On Thursday, September 22nd, two University of Wyoming Creative Writing alumni poets, Katie Schmid and Brock Jones, visited campus for a lunch with current MFA students and a public reading at Night Heron Books and Coffeehouse. Both poets read to a full house, with audience members sitting on the floor next to shelves of used books, and even a few folks listening from the stairwell.

Brock read from his acclaimed chapbook, Cenotaph, a series of poems that are part memory, part inquiry into the aftermath of war.The chapbook won the Miller Williams Poetry Prize, selected by poet Billy Collins.

Katie read from sections of her chapbook, Forget Me/Hit Me/Let Me Drink Great Quantities of Clear, Evil Liquor, which won Split Lip Press‘s Chapbook Prize.

She stunned us with sections that explore the intensity of childhood, missing fathers, and masculinity. A review of her chapbook can be found at The Rumpus.

Current MFA students were impressed and heartened by the successes Katie and Brock have experienced since their tenure in the program.