Sierra Nevada College Brian Turner has spent the last year assembling writing talent to teach in the program which kicks off this January. Eleven writers join Turner as faculty members, each with published works and accolades of their own: Kelle Groom, Nathalie Handal, Lee Herrick, Joanne Meschery, April Ossmann, Gailmarie Pahmeier, Suzanne Roberts, June Sylvester Saraceno, Patricia Smith, Laura Wetherington.

Together they have designed the low-residency MFA in creative writing program as a challenging and inspiring two-year program committed to a student’s art and artistic development. The program is designed to bring writers together in order to foster unique, individual voices within a dialogue of global dimension. Over the course of four semesters and five residency periods, students will focus on their chosen genre – fiction, poetry, or literary nonfiction – while testing the mixed-genre boundaries of artistic form and intent.

Each residency is an eight-day intensive series of workshops, seminars, readings, and more—all intended to expand a writer’s sense of possibility within the written and spoken arts. From the practical need-to-know tricks-of-the-trade to the heights of conceptual nuances, residencies will explore the wide landscape of the writing life. Residencies will take place in early January and early July. Every fifth residency will be located overseas.

Turner this week was selected as the Poet of the Month by Radio 1 in Sweden.

Even though his poetry and essays have been published in the New York Times, National Geographic, Poetry Daily, Georgia Review, Virginia Quarterly Review and other journals, the recognition never gets old, not does the challenge of a being a professional writer.

Turner earned his MFA before serving for seven years in the Army. He is now director of the Low Residency MFA program at the college.