graduate
PhD student Emilka Jansen receives Vanderbilt Award for Doctoral Discovery
Apr. 17, 2026—PhD student Emilka Jansen has been awarded the Vanderbilt Award for Doctoral Discovery. Granted by the Graduate School, Vanderbilt Awards for Doctoral Discovery (VADD) are designed to help graduate students with outstanding potential to accelerate progress on their research, proceed to candidacy, and/or complete their dissertation research in a timely manner. Awarded funding can be used...
MFA alum Edgar Kunz named Guggenheim Fellow
Apr. 17, 2026—MFA alum Edgar Kunz (’15) was named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow. Edgar Kunz is the author of two books: Fixer (Ecco, 2023), a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection, and Tap Out (Ecco, 2019), which the Washington Post called “a gritty, insightful debut.” Kunz has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, Hawthornden Foundation,...
Melissa Range to join Vanderbilt Reading Series – April 16
Apr. 9, 2026—VU Literary Prize Winner Melissa Range will join the Vanderbilt Reading Series, after publishing her new collection of poems, Printer’s Fist, with Vanderbilt University Press in April 2026. The Reading Series and The Press will co-host the event. Thursday, April 16 Alumni Hall 202 – 23rd Ave N, Nashville, TN 6:00 Literary Salon & Reception...
Second-year MFA student Lana Reeves announces book deal
Apr. 6, 2026—Penguin Random House will publish second-year MFA student Lana Reeves‘ debut poetry collection KAMA’ĀINA in 2027. Lana hails from O’ahu, Hawai’i and received her BA with honors from Harvard University, where her thesis, under the direction from former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, was certified summa cum laude. Learn more about Lana and her work...
Creative Writing Program to host reading of MFA graduates – April 23
Apr. 6, 2026—On Thursday, April 23, the Creative Writing Program will celebrate our graduating cohort with a reception and reading of new work, featuring Langston Cotman, Kumari Devarajan, Ajla Dizdarević, Sydney Mayes, Athena Nassar, and Iman Saleem. Thursday, April 23 Alumni Hall 202 Memorial Hall 6:00 PM Reception 7:00 PM Reading Open to the public ...
Lecturer Jordan Ivie to present in department Works in Progress Series – April 8
Mar. 5, 2026—Wednesday, April 8 4:10 – 5:00 PM Divinity 127 “A sonne be gotten, not begotten:” Birth, Succession, and the Transformation of Motherhood in the 1596 Faerie Queene” Jordan Ivie This presentation is part of the Department of English Works in Progress Series with support from...
MFA alums Max McDonough and Kiyoko Reidy to join reading series – April 2
Mar. 5, 2026—Thursday, April 2 6:30 PM Literary Salon 7:00 PM Reading 8:00 PM Book Signing Vanderbilt Special Collections Library 1101 19th Ave South Nashville, TN 37212 Max McDonough’s debut poetry collection, Python with a Dog Inside It, won the St. Lawrence Book Award from Black Lawrence Press. His...
Shelby Johnson to deliver Drake Lecture – March 20
Mar. 3, 2026—Friday, March 20 10:00 – 11:00 AM Divinity 127 “Dreaming Sacagawea” Across the thousands of pages that comprise the eighteen modern volumes of Lewis and Clark’s journals (1803-1806), Sacagawea appears in just a hundred passages. Although she may be the most documented Indigenous woman of the early 19th century, few of these entries referred to...
Keegan C. Finberg to deliver Drake Lecture – February 27
Feb. 27, 2026—Friday, February 27 2:00 – 3:00 PM Divinity 127 “Reproduction and Generality: Feminist Diets in Poetry by Bernadette Mayer, Adrian Piper and Eleanor Antin” This talk will examine feminist performance art and poetry that experiments with food intake to consider effects of the political economic welfare conditions of the 1970s. Speaking directly to the tightening...
Poet Prageeta Sharma to join Vanderbilt Reading Series – February 19
Jan. 28, 2026—Thursday, February 19 Book-signing, 6:30 PM Reading, 7:00 PM Vanderbilt Special Collections Library 1101 19th Ave South Nashville, TN 37212 Prageeta Sharma is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently, Onement Won (Wave Books, 2025) and Grief Sequence (Wave Books, 2019). Her honors and awards include a 2025 NEA Creative...