Our Faculty
Faculty
![Portrait of Lan Samantha Chang](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__768_x_768/public/2024-02/Lan_Samantha_Chang.jpg?h=b1193686&itok=Jgy9m6Xc)
Lan Samantha Chang
Title/Position
Program Director
Elizabeth M. Stanley Professor in the Arts
Fiction | Lan Samantha Chang is the author of a collection of short fiction, Hunger, and three novels, Inheritance, and All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost, and The Family Chao ...
![Portrait of Shane Book](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__1024_x_1024/public/2024-03/shane-book.jpeg?h=7c98cd5f&itok=5ZM55o-Y)
Shane Book
Title/Position
Visiting Associate Professor
Spring 2024
Poetry | 2024 Shane Book grew up in Canada and Ghana. His first volume of poetry, Ceiling of Sticks (University of Nebraska Press, 2010) won the ...
![Portrait of Jamel Brinkley](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__1024_x_1024/public/2024-02/Jamel_Brinkley.jpg?h=42bd4b2b&itok=0IByGtWd)
Jamel Brinkley
Title/Position
Assistant Professor
Fiction | Jamel Brinkley’s short story collection, A Lucky Man, won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and was a finalist for ...
![Portrait of Kevin Brockmeier](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__768_x_768/public/2024-03/kevin-brockmeier.jpeg?h=a34768c8&itok=uuLr99Tu)
Kevin Brockmeier
Title/Position
Visiting Professor
Spring 2024
Fiction | 2017, 2019, 2022, 2024 In addition to his latest book, The Ghost Variations: One Hundred Stories, Kevin Brockmeier is the author of the novels ...
![Portrait of Ethan Canin](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__1024_x_1024/public/2024-02/canin_ethan.jpg?h=f0d1704d&itok=Uxt05m-T)
Ethan Canin
Title/Position
F. Wendell Miller Professor of English and Creative Writing
Fiction | Ethan Canin is the author of seven books of fiction, among them the novels, A Doubter's Almanac, America, America and Carry Me Across ...
![Portrait of Kate Christensen](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__1024_x_1024/public/2024-03/kate-christensen.jpeg?h=5450d095&itok=6Ct2X_au)
Kate Christensen
Title/Position
Visiting Professor
Fall 2023, Summer 2024
Fiction | 2013, 2023 Kate Christensen is the author of eight novels, including the upcoming, Welcome Home, Stranger (HarperCollins, Dec 2023); The Great Man ...
![Portrait of Charles D'Ambrosio](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__768_x_768/public/2024-02/Charles_DAmbrosio.jpg?h=0c390b47&itok=G32YERhm)
Charles D'Ambrosio
Title/Position
Professor
Fiction | Charles D'Ambrosio is the author of two books of fiction, The Point and Other Stories and The Dead Fish Museum, and two collections ...
![Portrait of Tom Drury](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__1024_x_1024/public/2024-03/tom-drury.jpeg?h=35ff3574&itok=dbe1Aq2n)
Tom Drury
Title/Position
Visiting Professor
Fall 2024
Fiction | 2019-2024 Tom Drury is the author of Pacific, The End of Vandalism, Hunts in Dreams, The Driftless Area, and The Black Brook. His novels ...
![Evan James headshot](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__1024_x_1024/public/2024-03/Evan%20James.jpeg?h=6b9bf2e9&itok=IZMApdUi)
Evan James
Title/Position
Visiting Associate Professor
Summer 2024
Fiction | Summer 2024 Evan James is the author of I’ve Been Wrong Before: Essays and Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicombe: A Novel. Evan is an award-winning ...
![Portrait of Mark Levine](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__1024_x_1024/public/2024-03/mark-levine.jpeg?h=e13e3223&itok=n-ezTxNs)
Mark Levine
Title/Position
Professor
Poetry | Mark Levine is the author of five books of poems, most recently Sound Fury (2022), as well as Debt (1993), Enola Gay (2000), The Wilds (2006) ...
![Portrait of Margot Livesey](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__1024_x_1024/public/2024-03/margot-livesey.jpeg?h=96d5081b&itok=-4vGALfj)
Margot Livesey
Title/Position
Professor
Fiction | Margot Livesey is the author of nine novels, most recently, The Boy in the Field, published by HarperCollins in 2020, as well as ...
![Portrait of Claire Lombardo](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__768_x_768/public/2024-03/claire-lombardo.jpeg?h=679eb168&itok=4mmZHMAn)
Claire Lombardo
Title/Position
Visiting Assistant Professor
Summer 2024
Fiction | Summer 2023, 2024 Claire Lombardo's debut novel, The Most Fun We Ever Had, was an instant New York Times bestseller and ...
![Portrait of Carmen Maria Machado](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__1024_x_1024/public/2024-03/carmen-maria-machado.jpeg?h=4910b686&itok=lb6FA6AI)
Carmen Maria Machado
Title/Position
Visiting Associate Professor
Spring 2025
Fiction | 2025 Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection ...
![Sarah Thankam Mathews](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__1024_x_1024/public/2024-03/sarah-thankam-mathews.jpg?h=43f991c4&itok=JIf9ynbs)
Sarah Thankam Mathews
Title/Position
Visiting Assistant Professor
Spring 2024
Fiction | 2024 Sarah Thankam Mathews is the author of All This Could Be Different, which was shortlisted for the the Discover Prize, the Aspen Words ...
![Portrait of Tracie Morris](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__1024_x_1024/public/2024-03/tracie-morris.jpeg?h=35638163&itok=twvR16DV)
Tracie Morris
Title/Position
Professor
Poetry | Tracie Morris is a writer/editor of several books and is a poet, professor, performer, voice teacher and theorist. She has presented her work ...
![David Owen headshot](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__768_x_768/public/2024-03/Photo%203%20%28previous%20batch%29.jpg?h=ab5684e2&itok=z63R02fv)
D. Wystan Owen
Title/Position
Visiting Assistant Professor
Spring 2024
Fiction | 2024 D. Wystan Owen is the author of Other People's Love Affairs: Stories (Algonquin Books), named a Best Book of 2018 by Amazon and The Washington ...
![Portrait of Hai-Dang Phan](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__768_x_768/public/2024-03/hai-dang-phan.jpeg?h=030ff73f&itok=u5Zv95MG)
Hai-Dang Phan
Title/Position
Visiting Associate Professor
Summer 2024
Poetry | Summer 2023, 2024 Hai-Dang Phan is a poet, translator, and essayist. He is the author of the poetry collection Reenactments (Sarabande, 2019) and ...
![Sanjena Sathian](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__768_x_768/public/2024-02/Sathian%20headshot%206.23.22%20-%20thumbnail.jpg?h=235b68b1&itok=KqwuYSfn)
Sanjena Sathian
Title/Position
Visiting Associate Professor
Summer 2024
Fiction | Summer 2024 Sanjena Sathian is the author of the critically acclaimed novel GOLD DIGGERS (Penguin Press), which was named a Top 10 ...
![Portrait of Elizabeth Willis](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__1024_x_1024/public/2024-03/elizabeth-willis.jpeg?h=268a7ffa&itok=S85KjUEM)
Elizabeth Willis
Title/Position
Professor
Poetry | Elizabeth Willis’s most recent book is Alive: New and Selected Poems (New York Review Books, 2015), which was a finalist for 2016 Pulitzer ...
![Portrait of Wendy Xu](/sites/writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/files/styles/square__1024_x_1024/public/2024-03/wendy-xu.jpeg?h=6f9dc2b1&itok=SuN9Tgy-)
Wendy Xu
Title/Position
Visiting Assistant Professor
Spring 2024
Poetry | 2024 Wendy Xu is a poet, editor, and professor, most recently the author of The Past, published by Wesleyan in September 2021. Phrasis ...
Every year The Writers' Workshop invites distinguished writers to teach workshops and seminars for the graduate program. These faculty also work with students as thesis advisors and often become long-term friend, mentors, and resources.