The fall 2023 semester is underway at WVU, with the start of a promising new school year here in Morgantown. The WVU English Department is thrilled to welcome nine new MFA students to the program, all of whom have come to the program from different corners of the world. You can learn more about these talented writers below.
FICTION
- Camille Gazoul (she/her) is a fiction writer originally hailing from the Detroit area. She previously studied Anthropology in her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. Camille just moved to Morgantown from Austin where she spent her time swimming, reading, eating, and going to the movies.
- Terra Rogerson (she/her/hers) graduated from West Virginia University with a B.A. in English, and did subsequent graduate work at Texas State University and Florida State University. Her focus is fiction, particularly genre fiction, and she has published five books with Harlequin romance under the name Margot Radcliffe. Her romance podcast, Guys Read Romance, has been listed in the top ten romance novel podcasts. She also finds carrots suspicious.
- John Fox (they/them; he/him) is a librarian from Morgantown, WV. They have B.A.’s in History and English from WVU. They want to learn, write, and explore all that there is to do, but are currently focusing on blackness in Appalachia. When asked about what they do in their free time, they laughed in overachiever fashion, before relenting and saying they can usually be found getting overly attached to an emotionally intelligent children's cartoon or reading (usually horror, sci-fi, or fanfiction). They would also like to point out that they've been compared to a Saturday Morning cartoon villain.
NON-FICTION
- Matt Eidson is a writer from Kansas City, Missouri. He graduated from the University of North Dakota with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English. When not reading or writing, Matt can be found running, watching comedy specials, and zoning out to punk music.
- Oliver Brown is an Oregonian. Formerly a touring musician, he's spent the past several years teaching high school social studies. His creative non-fiction features malaise, transgression, philosophy-in-practice, and a narrator as unreliable as himself.
- M. S. Reagan (they/them) is an MFA candidate (creative nonfiction) from Pittsburgh. They hold a BS in Creative Writing from Slippery Rock University, and have poetry published in Appalachian Heritage. When not writing, Reagan enjoys hiking with their mixed breed dog Sam and exploring wild and wonderful West Virginia.
POETRY
- Ella Wisniewski is a poet from Magnolia, Delaware. She is a recent graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where she studied English with a concentration in creative writing. She enjoys cooking, swimming, and traveling. Ella recently adopted a cat named Cowboy and she dreams of one day Amtraking across the United States.
- Winner Olubunmi is a poet from Ogbomosho, Oyo State, Nigeria. She belongs to the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria. She is currently enrolled in WVU’s MFA poetry program. Winner had her undergraduate studies at Bowen University, Iwo, where she studied English. Apart from writing poems, she enjoys playing chess, watching movies and cooking.
- Penny Lane (she/her) is a poet currently pursuing her MFA in Poetry. She holds a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Nevada, Reno. She was the recipient of UNR's DQ Award for Poetry in 2018, and was a finalist in 2022's Desert Pavilion Chapbook Series. She is a Northern Nevada native and is excited to explore a new wild landscape. She currently lives in a "cozy" 1-bedroom apartment with her pitbull Kissin' Kate and all her ghosts.