Our students and faculty engage in meaningful scholarship as an essential part of academic life. Together and separately, faculty and students pursue a variety of interests and seek answers to an expansive range of questions. Learn about some of the achievements and interests of our faculty and students on this page. Explore our ongoing initiatives in scholarship and creative artistry for a sense of where you fit in the Department of English at CSU.
Student and faculty scholarly achievements and works of creative artistry
Celebrating recent books by CSU English alumni
Creative & performing arts 2025-2026 scholarship winners announced
Every academic year, the English department’s creative writing program conducts a university-wide competition that seeks to award the best undergraduate work in creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. Congratulations to this year’s deserving recipients!
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English Education faculty, students, and alumni showcase scholarship and teaching innovation at NCTE 2025
We’re so proud of our faculty, students, and alumni for representing the CSU English department and showcasing their scholarship, expertise, and teaching innovation at NCTE 2025.
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New humanities faculty research series highlights talk by Dr. Sarah Cooper
As part of a new series hosted by the Blake Center, Dr. Sarah Cooper presented her in-progress research, “Archived Athletes: The Intersex and Trans Histories of the 1996 Olympics” at the Lory Student Center earlier this month.
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TEFL/TESL graduate program showcases strong engagement at 2025 American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Conference
Dedicated to amplifying the newest scholarship and service in the field of applied linguistics, AAAL provides scholars from around the world a space to share research and relate across disciplines annually. Led by professors Luciana Marques, Tatiana Nekrasova-Beker, and Anthony Becker, CSU’s TEFL/TESL program supported the participation of several current students and alumni at this year’s conference held in Denver.
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Community-engaged exhibition, ‘Knowing Her: Women’s Work & Leadership at CSU, 1925-2025’ inspires conversation and reflection
Produced by professors Suzanne Faris and Tobi Jacobi, ‘Knowing Her: Women’s Work & Leadership at CSU, 1925-2025’ brings together works of art, narrative storytelling, and archival research to reflect the multifaceted experiences and voices of women faculty and staff at CSU.
Read the full storyHighlights and Accomplishments
Grants and Awards
- Professor of creative writing Camille T. Dungy was awarded the 2021 Academy of American Poets Fellowship and a 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship.
- Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, associate professor of English, was awarded a prestigious NEA Creative Writing Fellowship in Prose in 2022. Fellowships of $25,000 each enable the recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel and general career development.
- Dan Beachy-Quick, professor of English, alongside former Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs Kelly Long, received, a Teagle Foundation/National Endowment for the Humanities planning grant (whose mission includes expanding access to liberal arts education). The $250,000 Teagle Foundation Cornerstone/NEH Planning Grant will fund two years of innovation in the undergraduate core curriculum.
- Zach Hutchins, professor of English, received a 2016 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to complete research in early American newspapers about representations of the slave trade.
- Vauhini Vara, visiting professor of English, was named a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her debut novel, The Immortal King Rao.
- Cindy O’Donnell-Allen, professor of English and director of the CSU Writing Project, completed a two-year grant in 2015 from the National Science Foundation to work with the Fort Collins Discovery Museum on improving the science literacy of underserved elementary students in Fort Collins.
- The Center for Literary Publishing and center director Stephanie G'Schwind were awarded a twelfth grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 2023.
- Sasha Steensen, professor of English, was named the 2023 John N. Stern Distinguished Professor. This award is presented annually by the College of Liberal Arts to honor faculty who have demonstrated exemplary accomplishments in all aspects of their professional responsibilities over an extended period of time.
- Lynn Badia, associate professor of English, was awarded a 2023 Ann Gill Faculty Development Award for her projects, “Imagining Free Energy: Fantasies, Utopias, and Critiques of America,” which focuses on how society would be transformed by “limitless” energy, and “A Century’s Quest for Free Energy,” which is an article that examines an FBI file Badia obtained after making a two-year Freedom of Information Act appeal to the FBI.
- Rosa Nam, assistant professor of English Education, was awarded a 2023 Ann Gill Faculty Development Award for her project, “Dual Pandemics and the Racialized Experiences of Asian American Students, Staff, and Faculty at an AANAPISI in the South,” which discusses and analyzes Asian Americans’ experiences in the south post the COVID-19 pandemic in a university setting.
- Tim Amidon, associate professor of English, along with Tiffany Lipsey, received two significant national grants to test the usability of new technology to help firefighters identify undetected medical conditions that could lead to cardiovascular injuries and empower them to develop individual treatment plans that could prolong their time in their career.
Student Research and Creative Writing
Academy of American Poets Prize
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Jake Friedman was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize in 2023 for, "The Colorado River (A to Z)." Read the full poem.
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Tashiana Seebeck was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize in 2024 for, "Ars Poetica at the End of Girlhood." Read the full poem.
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Conrad Schaefer was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize in 2025 for, "Aboretum." Publication is forthcoming, stay tuned!
AWP Intro Journals Project Awards
- In 2022, John Kneisley won in poetry for his poem “Volunteering at an Alzheimer’s Unit."
- In 2020, Esther Hayes received an honorable mention in creative nonfiction for her essay “Lineal Gaps."
- In 2018, Emily Harnden won in creative nonfiction for her essay "9:47" and Catie Young received an honorable mention in poetry for her poem "Headwaters."
- In 2017, Dana Chellman won in creative nonfiction for her essay, "How to Get to Heaven from Colorado."
- In 2016, English had two winners and one honorable mention across all three genres in the Intro Journals Project. We were the only school in the nation to manage such a distinction in the history of the award. Cedar Brant won the poetry category with her poem, “Make Blood.” Nathaniel Barron won the fiction category for the first chapter from his novel-in-progress, From the Watchtower. And Emily Ziffer received an honorable mention in the creative nonfiction category for her nonfiction essay, “Moving Forward, In Russian.”
The Graduate Student Showcase
The Distinction in Creativity award is presented collaboratively by the Graduate School and Office of Vice President for Research. This award recognizes the passion and personal contributions of these talented graduate students, and honors their commitment and efforts in their area of work.
- In fall 2022, Jake Friedman won 1st Place, C Culbertson won 2nd Place, and Chase Cate was named Honorable Mention.
The College of Liberal Arts Awards are presented to graduate students in liberal arts disciplines/departments for high achievements in the creative/performing arts and scholarly/research-based poster presentations.
- In fall 2022, Edward Sarasty Salazar was named a Top Scholar and presented a $500 award.
Celebrate Undergraduate Research and Creativity (CURC)
This annual university-wide competition showcases writing, oral presentations, service-learning, art, and research by CSU undergraduate students.
- In 2023, Cayden Clark-Johnson was awarded Best in Show: Written Work at CURC for his poetry collection, Yellow Planet.