MFA Faculty
Keith Kopka
Program Director / Poetry Faculty
Keith Kopka is the recipient of the Tampa Review Prize for his collection of poems, Count Four. He is also the author of the critical text, Asking a Shadow to Dance: An Introduction to the Practice of Poetry.
Erin Belieu
Poetry Faculty
Erin Belieu is the author of five poetry collections, all from Copper Canyon Press. Her latest collection is Come-hither Honeycomb. She is the co-founder of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, and founder of the literary resistance network Writers Resist.
Laurie Foos
Fiction Faculty
Laurie Foos is the author of five novels including Ex Utero, Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist, and Before Elvis There Was Nothing. Her work has been adapted for the stage and translated into more than a half a dozen languages.
Kevin Prufer
Poetry Faculty
Kevin Prufer is the 2026 Texas Poet Laureate. His newest poetry collection, The Fears, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2023 and received the 2024 Rilke Prize. His new novel Sleepaway was published in 2024 by Acre Books and declared a "small press gem" by the Los Angeles Times. He is also the author of several other books of poetry, including The Art of Fiction (2021), How He Loved Them (2018), Churches (2014), In a Beautiful Country (2011), and National Anthem (2008), all from Four Way Books.
Joseph Earl Thomas
Nonfiction / Fiction Faculty
Joseph Earl Thomas is the author of Sink, a memoir (Grand Central Publishing, 2023), longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and shortlisted for the Patrick Saroyan International Writing Prize; the novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer (Grand Central Publishing, 2024), longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Literary Excellence, finalist for the LA Times Art Seidenbaum Award, winner of the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize; and the forthcoming story collection Leviathan Beach (Grand Central, 2025).