Update on 2024 graduate Bri Gonzalez

Isabel Beeman — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 01:33:02 +0000

Update on 2024 graduate Bri Gonzalez Isabel Beeman Wed, 04/16/2025 - 19:33

Even though Bri only graduated a year ago, they are up to a ton of amazing things! In the same year as their MFA thesis defense, they also published their debut book of poetry, A Wellness Check:

There, in the night sky, projected over city smog and ghost stars—the Rat Signal. Followed by the rev of the Ratmobile’s custom made engine and the inevitable slam of Asylum doors. Bri Gonzalez’s debut collection, A Wellness Check, follows a recently diagnosed speaker under the care of Dr. Ratman—part-time psychologist, part-time vigilante—who ratarangs his patients into submission. Through an amalgamation of hybrid prose, poetry, screenplays, and fragment essays, A Wellness Check jabs at pop culture's use of mental illness as shock value. Here, the joys and pains of clinical illness are interwoven with rat fists, diner coffee, crossword puzzles, plot twists, divinity, and the looming shadows of heroes that want us dead, or worse.

Copies of A Wellness Check can be ordered here: https://www.gameoverbooks.com/store/p/a-wellness-check

Bri Gonzalez is a queer, Chicane poet from San Antonio, Texas. More of Bri’s work can be found or forthcoming in Honey Literary, Crow & Cross Keys, Angel Rust, Talon Review, ERGI Press’ Trickster: An Anthology of Queer Mischief, Devil’s Party Press’ Solstice: A Winter Anthology, and others. Bri is a graduate of the Summer ‘23 Napa Valley Writers’ Conference and will receive their MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado Boulder in Spring 2024. In their free time, they smother their void cat, Dahlia, play excessive amounts of D&D, and swoon over fictional characters. Bri currently teaches at Front Range Community College and is (somehow) editing the behemoth that is their in-progress novel. Check Bri out at bgwriting.org.

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Update on 2016 graduate Loie Rawding

Isabel Beeman — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 18:08:33 +0000

Update on 2016 graduate Loie Rawding Isabel Beeman Thu, 04/10/2025 - 12:08

The 91��ý MFA program is proud to announce that in the fall of 2024, 2016 fiction graduate Loie Rawding launched Fireside Ink Writers Workshop with the mission to foster and support the literary arts community of Boulder County and beyond.

"Our mission is to bring light and warmth to the writing process through affordable workshops & literary events, guided by seasoned writers in a safe environment.

Whether you’re crafting your memoir, drafting a short story or novel, a poetry enthusiast, or simply seeking a structured space to play with words, we’re here to light the way on your writing journey.

We’re proud to partner with the Dairy Arts Center, Boulder’s hub for creativity and connection in the arts community. The Dairy offers world-class performances, exhibits, and educational programs right in the heart of Boulder, Colorado."

Loie has also recently published her short story "Welcome Home" with HYPERTEXT magazine.

Loie Rawding is the author of Tight Little Vocal Cords (KERNPUNKT), a Lambda Literary Most Anticipated Book of 2020 and finalist for the Big Other Book Awards. Other work has appeared in 3:AM Magazine, Sand Literary (Berlin), Heavy Feather Review, Another Chicago Magazine, the Critical Flame and the Wanderer, among others. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Loie received her MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She splits her time between Nashville, TN, where she is a Teaching Artist with The Porch Writers Collective, and the family home on Cliff Island, Maine. For more: www.loierawding.com

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mfa alum

Update on 2024 graduate Bri Gonzalez

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Update on 2016 graduate Loie Rawding

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