Meet Our Students
MFA Students
Sarah Brockhaus is an MFA candidate in poetry at LSU. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and graduated
from Salisbury University in Maryland with a B.A. in English. She is a co-editor for
The Shore Poetry and a reader for Poet Lore. She is a two-time Best of the Net nominee and her poems can be found in places such
as Sugar House Review, North American Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Jabberwock Review, and Cider Press Review.
Kyler Patrick Carter (he/him) is a writer, director, and producer from modest New Jersey. A spinner of stories from the moment he could string together sentences, Kyler's writing investigates bodies, religion, transition, and what we do with the passage of time. He graduated from Pace University with his BA in Sociology-Anthropology, and is now pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing from Louisiana State University. When he isn't on the phone with family or scribbling in a notebook, he can be found curled up with thick socks and a good book.
Šari Dale is a second-year MFA candidate from a resource town in Northern Canada. She received
her BA in English & Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia Okanagan
and has been copywriting + creating websites since. Her interests include moose, monster
trucks, and reality TV. Šari's work has been published in Event, The Malahat Review, and Grain among others. Her first collection of poetry, Para-Social Butterfly, was released with Metatron Press in 2022.
Xavier Hawkins is a MFA candidate hailing from Hampton University, born in Memphis, TN. He is a poet
with an affinity for flash fiction who focuses on relatability and capturing moments.
He is a recipient of the United Negro College Fund’s Mellon-Mays Research Fellowship
and studies the relationship between music and literature (particularly within August
Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle plays). As a trombonist and melody enthusiast, he enjoys
making music and playing with words. A few of his poems can be found in the Hampton Renaissance Literary Journal, and much more remains to come!
A second-year MFA candidate at LSU, Caldwell Holden is a writer, bartender, and social artist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received
his BA in Literature from Bennington College where he studied “Immersion Based Storytelling.”
He has also studied in Siena, Italy, completed a writing residency in Oatmeal Creek,
TX, and traveled the US living out of his jeep. His fiction has appeared in SHANTIH Journal and Atticus Review. His journalism has appeared in 90.5 WESA and Stylo24. You can learn more about him and his work here.
Dalton Wayne Hoover is a first-year MFA candidate at LSU, where he specializes in creative nonfiction.
He is an Army Infantry veteran, a culinary school dropout, an amateur outdoorsman,
and a professional troublemaker. Not surprisingly, he writes about food, conservation,
music, the veteran experience, and the conversation between all of these things. When
not behind the keyboard, he can be found wrangling his wild pack of hunting dogs,
attempting to be a worthwhile husband and father, and kicking out the jams with his
band, Dalton Wayne and the Warmadillos. Find him on Spotify/iTunes/Amazon Music and
at daltonwh23@gmail.com.
Justin Howerton is a first-year MFA candidate primarily interested in poetry. Born and raised in
Memphis, he received his BA from Lewis & Clark College in Oregon and promptly returned
to the South. He writes about the pull of memory, the lies we wish were true, and
the magic of cars. His recent work can be found in The West Trade Review among other places.
Brett Hymel Jr. has "that dog" in him. Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!
Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! He prefers cats. Read him in The Emerson Review and Hunger Mountain, and add him on Instagram: @bretthymel.
Kayla Jackson is a multi-medium visual artist, classically trained vocalist, emcee, writer, spoken
word poet, and educator from New Orleans, Louisiana. Kayla received her Master’s degree
in English Literature from Tulane University, where she was the co-Founder and co-Captain
of their slam poetry team, Rhyme Verses Rhythm, who placed 7th in the International
Collegiate Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) competition. Currently, Kayla is
working toward her first music EP, her second collection of poetry and is attending
Louisiana State University as a Creative Writing MFA candidate.
A native of Louisiana, Matty Carville Joel is a MFA candidate at LSU, with a focus on creative nonfiction. A graduate of Hobart
and William Smith Colleges, Matty has worked for the Seneca Review, LSU Press, and The Southern Review and served as a speechwriter in the Mayor's Office at New Orleans City Hall. Since
2018, Matty has also served nationwide as a certified full spectrum doula, childbirth
educator, and advocate for accessible, comprehensive reproductive healthcare for all.
In her free time, Matty is an avid aquarist and lives with her husband, two dogs and
cat in Baton Rouge. You can reach her anytime at mattycarvillejoel@gmail.com.
Jalen Giovanni Jones is a Creole, Black and Filipino writer from Los Angeles. Like all Angelenos, Jalen
has had his fair share of celebrity sightings. He has worked for the Oscars, directed
an Emmy Award winning PSA, and once, Emma Stone generously stepped on his foot. Jalen
serves as the fiction editor for the New Delta Review, was the director of the 2024 Delta Mouth Literary Festival, and is a staff writer
and editor for Mixed Asian Media. Jalen’s creative work has been published in The Offing, has won the David Madden MFA Award for Fiction, and has been supported by the Tin House Workshop and the Lambda Literary Retreat. You can contact him through email at jalenjones@yahoo.com.
Milagro Jones is a formerly incarcerated, formerly homeless single father. He is an alumni of the
AmeriCorps program Public Allies and the National Youth Forum on Homelessness. Milagro
Jones received his Associates degree in English from Los Angeles Trade Technical College.
He transferred to UCLA where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in English with a concentration
in Creative Writing. Milagro Jones’ work has appeared in Kweli Journal.
Jasmine Knowles is a poet and multidisciplinary learning artist originally from Chicago, IL, raised
in Northwest Indiana. She has received support from the Hurston/Wright Foundation,
Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA), and the Periplus Collective. Her work can be found
in Obsidian, Honey Literary Magazine, and the V is for Voices! campaign and performance project curated by Aja Monet. She writes to free her voice.
Sirong (Dahlia) Li is a writer from Xishuangbanna in Southern China. Having received her BA in Philosophy
from UC Berkeley, she is now pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at LSU. She was the
recipient of the 2022 AARC-PACH Creative Project Award, and her short stories were
double finalists for the Tobias Wolff Award in 2022. In her free time, she likes to
hike, play the harp, and dance (jazz-funk and classical Chinese).
Jenna Mark is a first-year MFA candidate from Houston, Texas. She earned her B.S. in Plant and
Environmental Soil Science with an emphasis in Soil and Water from Texas A&M University.
Her work focuses on the intersection between fantasy and science fiction with environmental
science and agriculture. She aims to write stories that not only entertain but also
educate readers of all ages on topics of environmental importance while inspiring
people to be more environmentally conscious. She is combining her dreams of writing
and sustainability into one with eco-storytelling. When she isn’t writing or having
fun with soils, Jenna can be found either with a book in hand or at a concert.
Manuela Silvestre Martínez has trouble sticking to a single genre or language. Originally from Dominican Republic,
she’s held 25 addresses in the last 23 years, and done work for almost as many industries.
She graduated with honors from New York University, earning a B.A. in English Literature
despite spending most of her time on Latino Studies and Creative Writing. Her obsessions
include loops, conviviality, and redemption.
Halley McArn is an MFA candidate at Louisiana State University with a focus on creative nonfiction.
Originally from the northeast, she worked for several years as a caseworker and database
designer for education nonprofits. She’s served as the Nonfiction Editor for the New Delta Review and as an editorial assistant at Speculative Nonfiction. You can find her work in Bright Wall/Dark Room.
Bunny / Teddy Morris is a tired fetishist and an MFA candidate in poetry at LSU. He has served as both
a visual art and a poetry editor for New Delta Review and as an experimental/hybrid works editor with Miracle Monocle in his hometown of Louisville, KY. Its work revolves around the disintegrating boundaries
between suffering and the erotic, sexy cyborgs after disease & disability, and being
trans or whatever. His recent work can be found in The Spectacle, Death Rattle Literary, and is forthcoming in Bayou Magazine. Check out his other work & collabs & say hi esp if ur a weirdo @ https://bunnymorris.wixsite.com/poetry.
Carolina Murriel is a writer, ceramic artist, journalist, educator and death doula in New Orleans.
She navigates her experience with immigration and mental illness through essays, poetry
and sculpture. Through her art and deathcare practice Barro y Luna, she works with
clay and storytelling as transformative mediums and is currently recording Latin elders'
oral histories for community preservation. Caro came to ceramics and death work through
her reporting on immigration, criminal justice and prison abolition, which led her
to study with the Trauma Research Foundation. Her work is informed by 10+ years in
local and international radio, print and digital newsrooms. She is the lead story
editor for Pizza Shark, her award-winning podcast studio that works toward radical
inclusivity in media through traumainformed storytelling. Their work has won Webbys,
Shortys, iHeartRadio Podcast Awards, and nominations for Peabody Awards, Ambies, People’s
Choice Podcast Awards and more.
Carter Rekoske (he/him) is an incoming MFA candidate from southeast Tennessee focused primarily
on poetry. He is grateful for all that disentangles him from linear time, including,
but not limited to, late night baja blasts, looking up at the sky, playing basketball,
poems, and long dreamy naps. He won the Dan Veach prize in the Atlanta Review, Bryan College's poetry award twice and their philological award once, and has been
published in Common Ground Review, Sinking City, Listening, and elsewhere.
Sunny Rosen (she/her) is your friendly neighborhood bisexual anticapitalist and an LSU MFA student
in fiction. Originally from Newark, Delaware, she lived in New Zealand and Florida
before landing in Baton Rouge. Her most recent publication with Taco Bell Quarterly is a nominee for this year's Best of the Net awards, and she has won a David Madden
MFA Award for Fiction and an Elda Wollaeger Gregory Poetry Award. Sunny also works
as a copywriter and publicity coordinator for LSU Press and The Southern Review, and she served as the fiction editor of New Delta Review. You can find her on Twitter @sunnyraeanna.
Brooke Stanish is a writer from Sunrise, Florida and an MFA candidate at Louisiana State University.
She writes poetry and fiction that engage with the terrains of memory, philosophy,
and the inner life, exploring the ways in which language and art can provide embodied
encounters with meaning. Her poems, stories, and essays can be found in America, The Windhover, Time of Singing, Cantos, Living Waters Review, and other publications.
Rose Marie Torres is a third-year MFA candidate at LSU with a focus on everything and nothing. A graduate
of the University of Texas at Austin, Rose has previously worked at UT's University
Writing Center and a frozen yogurt shop. Her writing hopes to slow time and explore
how it feels to be a young Latina who yearns for home within any space she persists.
She enjoys green tea.
Alejandra Vansant is from the Eastern Shore of Virginia, but currently lives and walks around in Baton
Rouge, Louisiana. She has served as a poetry editor for New Delta Review, and her work can be found in Tilted House, Volume Poetry, Alabama Literary Review, and many homemade books and zines.
