The Michener Center for Writers is excited to welcome guest faculty members Kristen Arnett and Cecily Parks for the Fall 2026 semester.

Join us for a reading of their works, followed by a Q&A and reception at the Texas Union Theater on the University of Texas campus on Wednesday, September 30^th at 6:00pm.

For additional details and to RSVP visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2001074032298. We hope to see you there!

About the Authors:

Kristen Arnett is the author of the novels Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One (Riverhead Books, 2025) which was a finalist for the Southern Book Prize, was shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize, and was awarded a silver medal from The Florida Book Awards, With Teeth (Riverhead Books, 2021) which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction, and the New York Times bestselling debut Mostly Dead Things (Tin House, 2019) which was also a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction and was shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Her upcoming short fiction collection, Party at the End of the World, will be published by Riverhead Books in Summer 2027.

Dr. Cecily Parks is the author of three poetry collections: The Seeds (Alice James Books, 2025), O’Nights (Alice James Books, 2015), and Field Folly Snow (University of Georgia Press, 2008). The recipient of the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award, she is the guest editor of Best New Poets 2025 and editor of the anthology The Echoing Green: Poems of Fields, Meadows, and Grasses (Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets, 2016) . Her poems appear in The New Yorker, A Public Space, The Nation, The New Republic, and several editions of The Best American Poetry.

MCW ‘23 alum, Carrie R. Moore, was awarded the New York Public Library’s 2026 Young Lions Fiction Award, which celebrates fiction by writers 35 and under.

Congratulations, Carrie!

For more information visit: https://lithub.com/carrie-r-moore-has-won-the-2026-young-lions-fiction-award/

The Michener Center for Writers is thrilled to congratulate our Director, Bret Anthony Johnston, on being named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow!

From ghf.org: “Fellows’ projects grapple with timeless themes and timely issues. They explore the promise and perils of artificial intelligence, propose life-changing advancements in medical technology, unearth the historical roots of contemporary crises, and forge new directions in artistic expression.”

For more information, visit The Guggenheim Fellowship’s website: https://www.gf.org/stories/announcing-the-2026-guggenheim-fellows.

The Michener Center for Writers is thrilled to congratulate alumni Megan Kakimoto (MCW ’23) and Carrie R. Moore (MCW ’23) on being named honorees for The National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Awards.

For more visit The National Book Foundation’s site: https://www.nationalbook.org/the-national-book-foundation-announces-2026-5-under-35-honorees/.

Congrats, Megan and Carrie!

The Michener Center for Writers is excited to welcome 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner, poet Marie Howe, to the Harry Ransom Center on April 2, 2026 at 6:00pm. Marie will read a sample of her work from New and Selected Poetry (2024) followed by a reception, signing, and book sales.

RSVP through The Harry Ransom Center. 

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More About Marie Howe:

Marie Howe received the 2015 Academy of American Poets Fellowship and seven as the New York Poet Laureate from 2012-2014. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, AGNI, Ploughshares, Harvard Review, and The American Poetry Review, among others. The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Academy of American Poets, she currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York City.

Congratulations to Michener Center for Writers alum, Zachariah Ezer (MCW ‘23), for being awarded one of the 2026 Inaugural State of the Art Prizes from Creative Capital.

For the first time in Creative Capital’s 25-year history, the inaugural State of the Art Prize will provide a $10,000 unrestricted grant to 53 individual artists, one in every state, as well as Guam, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. With this new grant, Creative Capital extends its democratic, national, open call to serve more artists at the grassroots level and to foster creativity and innovation in a broad range of rural, regional, and urban communities. More details and complete list of winners available: https://tinyurl.com/yvwvvzth 

Chronicle of Drifting is the debut poetry collection by Japanese poet Yuki Tanaka, exploring themes of rootlessness, belonging, and surrealism through dreamlike imagery inspired by Japanese traditions like tanka and haiku. The book features a restless, wandering voice that moves between different personas and locations, blending the inner and outer worlds in a surreal, often poignant, and sometimes humorous way, with a focus on “lightness” and fluid movement. 

Congrats, Yuki!

 

Join us at the Ransom Center on Thursday, January 22nd for a reading with MCW’s spring Guest Poetry Faculty, Daniel Khalastchi and Guest Fiction Faculty, Kevin Powers! Register here to attend!