Faculty

Dr. Mark Baumgartner, Associate Professor of English
Director of the Creative Writing Minor
BA, 1999, Knox College
MFA, 2005, Bowling Green State University
PhD, 2010, University of Nevada-Las Vegas
Areas of Specialization: Creative Writing--Fiction, Contemporary Fiction and Criticism, American Literature

Dr. Mark Baumgartner's fiction has been published in several literary journals, including The Southern Review, Best of Ohio Anthology, Bellingham Review, Phoebe, and Wisconsin Review, among others. Excerpts of his first novel, Mariah Black, have appeared in Confrontation and Silk Road. A third excerpt of the novel, entitled “The Great Siwash Shoe War,” won the 2014 Fugue prize in short fiction. Dr. Baumgartner has worked as a fiction editor at Witness, Mid-American Review, and River Styx. He is currently Editor of Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature. 

Dr. Jesse Graves, Professor of English
Mockingbird Faculty Editorial Advisor
BA, 1997, University of Tennessee
MFA, 2000, Cornell University
PhD, 2008, University of Tennessee
Areas of Specialization: Creative Writing--Poetry, Contemporary Poetry and Poetics

Dr. Jesse Graves was recently awarded the Philip H. Freund Prize from Cornell University and the James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South from the Fellowship of Southern Writers. His poetry collections include Specter Mountain: Poems (2018, with William Wright), Basin Ghosts (2014), and Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine (2012). You can find out more about Dr. Graves’ work on his website.