English grad students win AWP awards

Photos courtesy of Liz Bolton and KJ Janeschek
Liz Bolton, left, and KJ Janeschek had winning entries in the Association of Writing Programs’ Intro Journals Project Awards.

Two graduate students in the English Department, KJ Janeschek and Liz Bolton, . The awards are given to students currently enrolled in AWP member programs and draw competition from all across the country.

Janeschek, originally from western Michigan, has been enrolled in the master of arts/master of fine arts program with a concentration in poetry since fall 2020. Janeschek’s poem, “I Dream of Dressing Your Altar with Slaughtered Meat,” was selected as a winner in the poetry category and will be published in Mid-American Review. This poem grapples with intersecting feelings of guilt, complicity, and revenge after the end of a close friendship. Janeschek’s other poem, “A Cabin in the Forest,” was also selected as an Honorable Mention.

Bolton, who currently lives in Southeast Alaska and entered �鶹ԭ��F’s MFA program in 2021 after two decades in the entertainment industry, was selected as a winner in the creative nonfiction category. Bolton’s essay, “Starfish: A Paean to Those Who Cannot Breathe,” will be published in Puerto del Sol, a nonprofit literary magazine, and addresses life, death and the ways in which we are all connected. It is one of many pieces that Bolton hopes to incorporate into her thesis, a collection of essays dealing with infant loss.

The �鶹ԭ��F MFA program has found success in the AWP Intro Awards in the past, too. In 2021, Rebecca Wood (MFA ‘21) was an Honorable Mention in fiction for her story, “Ain’t No Glory for Billy.” David Aubuchon (MFA ‘19) was also an Honorable Mention in fiction for his story, “Finding Lula,” in 2019.