Creative Writing at University of North Texas

Ashley Balcazar is a Ph.D. student and Teaching Fellow. She earned her M.A. in Linguistics and her B.A. in Integrative Studies with foci in English, Linguistics, and Sociology and a minor in French at the University of North Texas. Ashley's research in the Master's program focused on the language of sexual violence, dialectical features of African-American English, and computational solutions for textual research. She has taught in the Linguistics department at UNT as an adjunct professor. Ashley has created and authored an online column, Dallas Salsa Examiner, about salsa dancing in North Texas and has written for the Dallas Morning News as a Community Voices columnist. She has also been a contributor for the CBS Digital Arts and Entertainment section. Her academic work has been published in American Speech. She looks forward to shifting from a concentration on the scientific study of language to the creativity of the written word.

Brian Czyzyk is a Voertman-Ardoin Fellow and Ph.D. candidate in Poetry at UNT. He is originally from Traverse City, Michigan and received his MFA at Purdue University. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best New Poets, and recognized by the AWP Intro Journal Awards. You can find his writing in RHINO Poetry, Tampa Review, Gulf Coast, Passages North, POETRY Magazine, and elsewhere.

Danny Daw is a Ph.D. student and Voertman-Ardoin fellow at UNT specializing in poetry. He received both his B.A. in English and MFA in Creative Writing from Brigham Young University. His poems, including haiku and senryu, have appeared or are forthcoming in Inscape, tsuri-dōrō, Trash Panda, Prune Juice, and others. Besides poetry and prose, secondary scholarly interests include film and television, music, and video games. Danny is married to the poet and writer, Alexandra Malouf.

Daniel DeVaughn is a writer and educator from the Ridge and Valley region of Alabama. His poems appear or are forthcoming in Tupelo Quarterly, Poets.org, The Adroit Journal, Southern Humanities Review, Texas University Press's Southern Poetry Anthology, Vol. X: Alabama, and elsewhere. His work has been supported by the University of Oregon, the Vermont Studio Center, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, the Norman Mailer Writers Colony, and the Academy of American Poets. He is Poetry Editor at the American Literary Review as well as a Voertman-Ardoin Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas where he is pursuing a PhD in creative writing.

Anthony Gabriel received his MFA at New Mexico State University, where he was the poetry editor of the lit magazine, Puerto Del Sol. He lives in the Southwest with his wife and two sons. He is originally from the Midwest, which influences and appears often in his poetry. You can find his work in or upcoming in: The Shore, Red Rock Review, Swamp Ape Review, and Beaver Mag.

Sera Harris is a Fiction Ph.D. student at the University of North Texas. Her work focuses on queerness, disability, and worlds that just don't work the way they should. She is currently on a speculative fiction spree, finding small stories in big, fantastic worlds.

Obiageli A. Iloakasia was born and raised in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Memphis. Iloakasia is currently a Voertman-Ardoin fellow and Ph.D. Student at the University of North Texas. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Rumpus, The Lincoln Review, Bellingham Review, Good River Review, 3rd Wednesday, Soundings East, and elsewhere. She was a Senior Poetry Editor for Pinch and served as the Guest Poetry Editor for Issue 24 of The Shallow Tales Review.

Parul Kaushik is a  fourth-year Ph.D. student in Creative Writing (Fiction) at the University of North Texas, where she received the Graduate Fiction Award in 2024 and 2025. She holds an MFA from Pacific University in Oregon, and her writing has been supported by the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Her stories have appeared in The Missouri Review, The Georgia Review, and The Masters Review: New Voices. She has received Honorable Mentions in the 2025 AWP Intro Journals Project and the 2024 Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Competition, and was shortlisted for the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. A bilingual writer who grew up in India and has lived in the U.S. for two decades, she also hosts a radio show in Dallas, balances a career in medicine, and participates in amateur theater and dance. 

Cheyenne LaRoque is a Creative Writing Ph.D. student and a Voertman-Ardoin fellow at UNT. Despite specializing in fiction, she has pushed her creative and scholarly boundaries by building proficiency in all genres. When she isn't busy with school, work, or writing, Cheyenne likes to spend her time playing Dungeons and Dragons or curling up with a good book. She earned her B.A. in Creative Writing and Linguistics from the University of Southern California in 2021 and her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of San Francisco in 2023.

Samiha Matin is a writer of literary and popular fiction, who occasionally dabbles in poetry, nonfiction, and scholarly essays. She holds a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan, and an MFA and M.A. in English Literature from the University of Arizona. Based in Texas, they are currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of North Texas. She also goes by Sami and Sam.

Meg McManama is a Ph.D. candidate in Poetry and a Voertman-Ardoin fellow at UNT. She has an MFA from Brigham Young University where she taught writing. Her work is published and forthcoming in The Pinch, Citron Review, Cimarron Review, and Western Humanities Review and she was editor-in-chief at Inscape: a Journal of Art and Literature. She loves her road bike, garden, the beach, and being with her husband and daughters. https://www.megmcmanama.com/home

Kaili Mora-Duarte is a grad student at UNT and poet from the outskirts of Houston, Texas. He received his undergraduate from University of Houston-Downtown. He enjoys spending time outdoors, writing, listening and playing music, and finding new places to eat.

John Muellner is a Ph.D. candidate in poetry and Voertman-Ardoin Fellow at the University of North Texas. He earned his MFA from New York University where he was a Departmental Poetry Fellow. His B.A. and M.A. come from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, where he grew up. A Pushcart nominee, his work can be read in Denver Quarterly, Emerson Review, Sixth Finch, Sonora Review, Court Green, and elsewhere.

Brad Murff is a Voertman-Ardoin Teaching Fellow and Ph.D. candidate in Creative Writing (Poetry) at UNT. His scholarly interests include early modern drama and Romantic poetry---especially the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Brad is researching Romanticism's evolution from Shakespeare to Ashbery to rock 'n' roll, hip-hop, and beyond. His work has appeared in Apalachee Review.

Bleah Patterson is a queer, Southern poet from Texas. Much of her work explores the contention between identity and home and has been featured or is forthcoming in various journals, including Electric Literature, Pinch, Grist, The Laurel Review, Phoebe Literature, The Rumpus, and Taco Bell Quarterly.

Gabrielle Robbins is a first-year Creative Writing M.A. student and teaching fellow from Mount Pleasant, Texas. She holds an M.Ed. from the University of North Texas and has spent the past five years teaching high school English and coaching state-winning UIL ready-writers. Her focus is creative nonfiction, but she is greatly inspired by all types of writers from various genres, such as Mary Oliver, Emily Dickinson, and Taylor Swift. She loves stories that explore the complicated beauty of girlhood and hopes to do the same in her own work.

Samantha Sorenson is a Ph.D. student and Voertman-Ardoin teaching fellow at UNT specializing in nonfiction. Samantha holds a BA in English Literature and Writing from California State University, Chico and an MFA in Creative Writing from Brigham Young University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Under the Sun, Water~Stone, Sweet, Under the Gum Tree, and Poets.org.

Makenzie Stuart is a first year Master's student studying Creative Nonfiction. They earned their B.A. in English with a focus in creative writing from UNT, where they were the Art Editor for the North Texas Review from 2022-2024. They have a special interest in the intersection of writing, art, and film. When they're not at UNT, they are working in communications and content creation for To Write Love On Her Arms, or enjoying movies, art museums, and spending time with their loved ones.