Boise State University’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in creative writing program in the College of Arts and Sciences has received multiple distinctions this fall that are shining a national spotlight on its exceptional faculty, graduates and publications.

Photograph of Mitch Wieland by Cynthia Wieland

Photograph of JR Walsh by Jill Katherine Chmelko

JR Walsh, who graduated from the program this spring and currently works in International Admissions at Boise State, won the 2009 Esquire Fiction Contest. Calling it “a manic, inventive vision of survival,” Esquire’s fiction editors chose Walsh’s short story, “An Insurrection,” out of more than 3,000 entries. Walsh will receive a $2,500 prize, and his piece is featured in the magazine’s current issue. For the full text, visit http://www.esquire.com/fiction. Founded in 1932, Esquire has a rich tradition of publishing talented writers such as Norman Mailer, Tim O’Brien, Tom Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flannery O’Connor, Arthur Miller and Don Delillo.

In other MFA graduate news, Cynthia Hand Struloeff, ’03, sold her first novel to HarperCollins Publishers. Tyler McMahon, ’07, an assistant professor at Hawaii Pacific University, has a story forthcoming in The Antioch Review and was shortlisted for the prize anthology Best of the West 2009, making its list of “Other Notable Western Stories of the Year.” Sayzie Koldys, ’07, has a story cited in “100 Other Distinguished Stories of the Year” in the new edition of The Best American Short Stories.

“It’s a thrill to see what our recent graduates have been accomplishing in the publishing world. They make us proud,” said Mitch Wieland, a member of the MFA faculty and founding editor of the university’s literary journal The Idaho Review.

Wieland authored one of the top 18 stories of the year published in Best of the West 2009. Editors reviewed 250 magazines and journals in making their selections. Wieland’s story is from his recent book, “God’s Dogs: A Novel in Stories,” and it appears alongside the work of famed writers Annie Proulx, Joyce Carol Oates, Louise Erdrich, Dagoberto Gilb, Lee K. Abbott and Antonya Nelson. Another story from “God’s Dogs” made the anthology’s top 25 “Other Notable Western Stories of the Year.” Of Wieland’s work, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Richard Ford said: “Fastidious, trenchant, spare and often eloquent, Mitch Wieland’s stories have great breadth, powerful sympathies, and a renewing comprehension of our human selves which we only find in the best literature.” Visit http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exhorbep.html for more about Best of the West 2009.

Boise State’s Ahsahta Press, a not-for-profit literary publisher that engages MFA students in the daily business of a small press, announced that one of its authors, Kate Greenstreet, was No. 17 on the Poetry Foundation’s list of Contemporary Poetry Best Sellers for the week of Sept. 27. That put her ahead of current U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan and among acclaimed authors Mary Oliver, Billy Collins and Charles Bukowski. The ranking was for Greenstreet’s book, “The Last 4 Things,” which was released by Ahsahta Press Sept. 15. Her first manuscript, “case sensitive,” was published by Ahsahta in 2006 and remains the press’ top-selling publication, appearing at No. 1 on the current Small Press Distribution bestseller list.

To learn more about Boise State’s Master of Fine Arts in creative writing program, visit http://www.boisestate.edu/english/mfa/. For more about Ahsahta Press or to purchase books, visit http://ahsahtapress.boisestate.edu/.

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Media Contact: Erin Ryan, University Communications, (208) 426-4910, erinryan@boisestate.edu

THE NEW U RISING: Boise State University has been selected among the nation’s “top up-and-coming schools” in U.S. News and World Report’s annual “America’s Best Colleges” issue. Recognized for its striking improvements and innovations, Boise State is ranked No. 3 in the West among master’s degree institutions.