Creative Writing MFA Students: Class of 2029
Abby Benson
Abigail “Abby” E. Benson is a fiction writer from Springfield, Missouri. She received her BA and MA and is currently an MFA candidate in creative writing at Missouri State University, where she is also a graduate teaching assistant and assistant fiction editor for Moon City Review. She is working on several novels and a short story collection. Abby lives with her husband and dog in a house overflowing with books.
Mason Blount
Mason Blount is a member of the MFA fiction cohort as Missouri State University. Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, Mason completed his undergraduate degree in English at Furman University, where he was president of the Creative Writing Club and assistant editor of their literary and art magazine, The Echo. He continues his interest in publishing as a member of the editorial board of the Moon City Review, as an aspiring novelist and developmental editor.
Nadia Fletcher
Nadia Fletcher is a Springfield, Missouri native. At Evangel University, she received her BA in English with an emphasis in writing and a concentration in Spanish. Her work has appeared in Evangel University’s Epiphany Fine Arts Magazine. Nadia currently serves as a poetry editor for Missouri State’s Moon City Review. She’s found inspiration in the works of Alejandra Pizarnik and Richard Siken. When she isn’t reading or writing, she’s often spending time with her cat—Stormy, taking long walks or watching films.
Maggie Shay Jordan
Maggie Shay Jordan is a poet and essayist with particular interest in complex familial relationships and tenuous truths. Originally from coastal Florida, Maggie holds a BA in English and recently began her MFA in creative writing at Missouri State. Her work has appeared in publications such as UBalt’s Welter and Viridine Literary, and she currently serves on the editorial team at Moon City Review. Outside of writing, Maggie enjoys street photography, traveling and side quests.
America Marvel
America Marvel is a graduate teaching assistant working toward her MFA in creative writing at Missouri State University. She is also an assistant editor for Moon City Press and was published in Ghost Parachute in 2025. She lives in Springfield, Missouri, where she attempts to grow plants in spite of her dogs, Charlie and Archibald, and the resident hungry woodchuck.
Jordan Ryan
Jordan Ryan is an Ozarks creative writer, teacher, thinker, and MFA student at her alma mater, Missouri State University. An anthropological storyteller, she is as interested in the architecture of life as in the architecture of a sentence. She is drawn to exploring the stories beneath the surface, the contradictions we carry, and the complicated work of becoming ourselves. Jordan serves as assistant editor for Moon City Review and her work is forthcoming in Ghost Parachute.
Alexandra Seeley
Alexandra Seeley is a Midwestern based writer and MFA student in the inaugural poetry cohort at Missouri State University. Her background in interpersonal communication from the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse contributes to the relationally centered nature of her poetry. Her work has been featured in Catalyst and The Infinite Blues Review. In addition to writing and teaching, she serves as an editor for creative nonfiction and poetry at Moon City Review.
Eli Slover
Eli Slover is a poet living in the Ozarks. They hold a BS and MA in English from Missouri State University. Their poetry appears in Frost Meadow Review, Remington Review, Lily Poetry Review, MAYDAY Magazine and elsewhere.
Taylor Ward
Taylor Ward is an author, artist and MFA candidate at Missouri State University from the Midwest whose interests lie in queer, trans and indigenous horror. Taylor has been published in Flash Phantoms, Audience Askew, dogyard, FRUIT Magazine, Lunch Ticket, Molecule and Meow Meow Pow Pow. Taylor serves as an assistant editor for Moon City Review, prose editor for dogyard and editor for FRUIT Magazine.
