CUNY Academic Commons

Kimiko Hahn Named Poet Laureate of New York State The New York Writers […] “”

Publication Day for MFA Alum Jay Boss Rubin Today is the publication day for Jay Boss Rubin’s translation of one of the novels by esteemed Tanzanian author Euphrase Kezilahabi, the classic Swahili novel Rosa Mistika, by Euphrase Kezilahabi, now available through Yale University Press. First published in 1971 and censored by the Tanzanian government for its controversial content, Rosa Mistika tells the story of teenage Rosa as she departs from Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria and enters the mainland of her young adulthood. The novel is at once tragic, humorous, and poignant, and brims with beautiful sentences and thought-provoking questions about agency and authority.  Rubin was first introduced to Rosa Mistika in 2001 as an undergraduate student of Swahili. He decided to attend the Queens College MFA Program so that he could work with MFA faculty member Annmarie Drury, who herself had translated Kezilahabi’s book of poetry, Stray Truths, which was published by University of Michigan Press in 2015. Today’s publication is the culmination of years of Jay’s work, both during and after studying translation here at Queens College. It just goes to show you what happens when you combine your passions with the right MFA program! Copies are available now through Yale University Press, so what are you waiting for? Go read this […] “Publication Day for MFA Alum Jay Boss Rubin”

Kimiko Hahn in WaPo When […] “Kimiko Hahn in WaPo”

Summer Advising Enjoying summer is part of what being a college student is all about!  Even while you may be away from campus, thinking about the kind […]

Graduation Reading | May 29 Thursday, May 29QC Art Center GalleryRosenthal Library, 6th floorApproximately 1pm Come say goodbye with us to the class of 2025! These readings are always a little bittersweet: we are thrilled to celebrate how far our students have come, the hard work they’ve been able to put into their writing, and the bright futures they are going to have, but it also means not seeing them around campus anymore. Fortunately, we decided to host a grand reading to distract you all while we cry a little bit–join us in the QC Art Center Gallery, on the 6th floor of the Rosenthal Library, on the afternoon of Commencement, May 29th. Starting about half an hour after the English Department’s ceremony in Goldstein Theatre, we’ll walk over to the library for a late lunch and readings by our four graduating students: Nina Dalleyhood Maddy Holden Yasir Khairzada and Amani Muthana These newly-crowned MFAs are going to read from their theses, and their thesis advisors are going to say a few kind words about them. Everyone is welcome to attend–you can come cry with us (in a good […] “Graduation Reading | May 29”

Queens Review Launch | May 25 This Sunday is the launch of issue 2 of The Queens Review! Join TQR at Unnameable Books in Brooklyn on May 25th at 7pm for readings by: Karl Michael Iglesias Marcus Iwama Ivy Raff Elan Maier The Queens Review is a journal based in Queens: a borough with a multiplicity of cultures, languages, and experiences. Rather than present a single unified voice, we aim to express the varied landscapes around us as well as our own internal terrain. Founded by students and faculty of the Queens College MFA in Creative Writing and Literary Translation, The Queens Review is interested in work that pushes boundaries –– on an emotional level as well as a linguistic one –– poems, stories, translations, and fragments that scatter, ground, croon, and […] “Queens Review Launch | May 25”

A Small Press Brainstorm – 5/30/25 Our team at Brainstorm had a brainstorm of its own: invite small presses to take center stage. Independent publishing is where real literary work comes out to play. Writing can truly be experimental, or groundbreaking, or daring if it doesn’t have to fit into the existing catalogue of a Big 5 publishing house. Indies get to stand up for the work they believe in. No wonder many writers get their start in small presses! Brainstorm, a reading series organized by grad students from the Queens College MFA Program in Creative Writing & Literary Translation, is starting off their commitment to integrate small presses into the reading series by inviting Ghostbird Press to the stage. On Friday, May 30th, you can catch Ghostbird authors Richard Prins (the most recent winner of the Birdhouse Prize), John Reid Currie, along with a special appearance by Ghostbird Founder, Peter Vanderberg. Will they regale you with their ghostly birdsong? Will they talk about the ins and outs of independent publishing? Most importantly, will you be there to add your voice? We hope to see you at […] “A Small Press Brainstorm – 5/30/25”

A Reading by Richard Prins: Winner of the Birdhouse Prize Monday, May 5, 2025 • 7 pmRosenthal Library, Tanenbaum Room, 300iLive and in-person! Join us for our last Writers at Queens event of the semester, as we celebrate Richard Prins on his winning the Birdhouse Prize from Ghostbird Press. You may remember that over the past year Richard has also been included in The Best American Essays 2024 and won an NEA Fellowship, so we’re overjoyed to celebrate this great year with Richard! Richard will read from his prize winning chapbook of poems, We May Eat Fruit, before he sits down with Ghostbird publisher, Peter Vanderberg, and Professor Roger Sedarat for a rousing discussion on going from manuscript to publication. Ghostbird Press is a small, independent chapbook press that publishes collaborations of writing and visual art. Peter Vanderberg, also a QC MFA alum, offers the annual Birdhouse Prize to graduating QC MFA students, resulting in a gorgeous full-color chapbook for the winner, which just goes to show you the power of the QC MFA communi […] “A Reading by Richard Prins: Winner of the Birdhouse Prize”

Fall 2025 Pre-Registration English majors, English-Education majors, English minors, and writing minors may pre-register for English classes(up to three) for the next […]

Kathleen Ma: Hoyt Jacobs Poetry PrizeCongratulations to Kathleen Ma, who has just been selected for the Hoyt Jacobs Poetry Prize by Alice Quinn, former Executive Director of the Poetry Society of America! Alice Quinn is the former Director of the Poetry Society of America and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts. She was poetry editor at The New Yorke from 1987-2007 and at Alfred A. Knopf, Publishers, from 1976-1986. She is the editor of Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments by Elizabeth Bishop, and she is currently at work editing Bishop’s journals and notebooks. Quinn had this to say about Ma’s prize-winning packet of poems: The element of play and surprise is sometimes underestimated in creative work, but it is nonetheless a large part of what draws readers to reread something that has affected or moved or startled them, and I found myself rereading Kathleen Ma’s sequence of poems over and over because I was charmed by swerves and turns of phrase and by her sense of play. It may be that she has surprised herself writing these poems because she set out to hone her skills as a translator. But whatever means to the avenue, she seems delighted to be on this path. Why does the sentence “Breakfast will no longer be served in the bicycle factory.” delight? Why does the gleam that shows up several times in this packet gleam? Perhaps because it leads to a summary statement as memorable as this: “A red gleam swarms the rehearsalon the street    where we are enablingan afternoon to grow from its roots until the end of time!” And the ebullience of this formulation will stay with me, too: “Ah!the meeting of the meetingof the meeting.” “With enormous greed I/ want it all” Ma writes in another poem. Life and literature is ready for your appetite! Bravo for the way you are seeing things aslant and initiating your readers. The Hoyt Jacobs Memorial Poetry Prize is an annual poetry prize given in honor of MFA alumnae Hoyt Jacobs, who died on January 17, 2015. The prize is open to all Queens College MFA students currently enrolled in the program. A prize of $1,000 is awarded to the best poems submitted. You can read more about the unique chances our students get access to during the program on our Opportunities page: Cong […] “Kathleen Ma: Hoyt Jacobs Poetry Prize”

zakia henderson-brown wins The 2025 Alice James Award Editor’s Choice Yesterday, we found out […] “”

Check out the Latest Issue of English Matters!Each year, the English Department creates a new issue of English Matters, our annual magazine where we bring you news from the department, […]

A Mini QC MFA Reunion! Tak […] “A Mini QC MFA Reunion!”

Feb 18: Veronica Schanoes & Alaya Dawn Johnson reading in Brooklyn February 18 at 7 pmBarrow’s Intense Tasting Room86 34th Street, Brooklyn, NY Two English Department faculty members, Veronica Schanoes a […]

Alaya Dawn Johnson: Brooklyn Books & Booze February 18 at 7 pmBarrow’s Intense Tasting Room86 34th Street, Brooklyn, NY MFA faculty member Alaya Dawn Johnson will be taking part in one of the city’s most fun reading series, Brooklyn Books & Booze. The series takes place in the tasting room of Barrow’s Intense ginger liqueur distillery on the third Tuesday of each month. For more information, and to see the full lineup for February 18th, please visit the Bro […] “Alaya Dawn Johnson: Brooklyn Books & Booze”

Mosab Abu Toha & Ammiel AlcalayWednesday, February 12, 2025, 8:00 pmThe Parish Hall at St Mark’s ChurchTickets: $10/Free on YouTube QC MFA faculty member Ammiel Alcalay will be appearing at the St. Mark’s Poetry Project this March! Mosab Abu Toha and Ammiel Alcalay’s poetry bring new meaning to the act of witnessing, writing with and for the dead, summoning the living in a call to imagine anew—form an image of another world lying below the rubble of this world’s unending devastation. Since 1966, The Poetry Project has expanded access to literature, education, and opportunities for sharing one’s creative work in a counter-hierarchical, radically open space and community. Premised on the vision that cultural action at the local level can inspire broader shifts in public consciousness, The Project is committed to developing and collaborating on replicable program models that challenge persistent social narratives, especially through the verbal reframing made possible in poetry.  This event will also be livestreamed for free on the Project […] “Mosab Abu Toha & Ammiel Alcalay”

ABORTION STORIES, Launch Event & Conversation Tue, Mar 4, 20256:00 PM–8:00 PMThe Skylight Room (9100)CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave, NYC.Free and open to all. Registration required. Penguin Classics presents ABORTION STORIES, a one-of-a-kind, intersectional volume of abortion representation in American literature before Roe v. Wade that compellingly proclaims: when abortion is illegal, people’s lives are always more precarious and limited. Head to the CUNY Grad Center for a conversation with Karen Weingarten (Editor), Rebecca Traister (Foreword), and Renee Bracy Sherman (Afterword) who will discuss these stories, poems, essays, and memoirs that reflect a range of representations and responses to abortion. The conversation will be moderated by Professor Vanessa Pérez-Rosario (Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center). This event is free and open to all, please register to attend. Copies of the book will […] “ABORTION STORIES, Launch Event & Conversation”

Mar 4: Abortion Stories: Book Launch & Conversation Tue, Mar 4, 20256:00 PM–8:00 PMThe Skylight Room (9100)CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave, NYC.Free and open to all. Registration r […]

A Nicole Cooley Double Feature – 1/30 & 1/31 Tonight kicks off two nights of Nicole Cooley readings–a double feature, if you will!  The first is tonight at NYU’s Lillian Vernon Writer’s House, to celebrate the launch of Dear Yusef: Essays, Letters, and Poems, For and About One Mr. Komunyakaa, a superb anthology celebrating the legacy of Yusef Komunyakaa. You can catch Nicole along with Anne Marie Macari, Jeffrey McDaniel, Yesenia Montilla, John Murillo, and Nicole Sealey tonight at 7 pm if you’re in the city.  Tomorrow, you can also hear Nicole read from her latest book, Mother Water Ash, as part of the Brainstorm Reading Series, which is organized by alumni and students from the Queens College MFA Program in Creative Writing & Literary Translation out of the delightful Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn.  If you’re in New York City, don’t miss out—hop on the train […] “A Nicole Cooley Double Feature – 1/30 & 1/31”

QC MFA Virtual Open House – February 19 Wednesday, February 19 […] “”