Summer Reading from Our Faculty, Students, Staff, and Alumni

Summer reading lists abound and we thought we’d ask various members of our community to share what they’re reading or recently read and enjoyed.

Here is a sampling of different books that have have captured our students’, faculty’s, staff’s and alumni’s imaginations.

Happy reading!

MFA alumnus Ignatius Aloysius recommends Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, collected stories by Sheree Renee Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, et al. and The Home for Wayward Girls a novel by Marcia Bradley.

MFA alumnus Patricia Crisafulli recommends: “Graceland: A Novel – by my good friend, Nancy Crochiere (2023, Avon/Harper Collins). Three generations of women reinvent their pasts, hash out the present and try to navigate into the future … while on the road to find Elvis and what it means to be a family.”

Assistant Director of Graduate Programs, Amy Danzer is reading the reissued edition of Divine Days by Leon Forrest. It was published by “Seminary Co-op Offsets, an imprint of Northwestern University Press… a showcase for outstanding work in literature and the humanities, focusing on new translations, lost classics, out-of-print gems, and works highlighting the rich literary history of the South Side of Chicago.”

Just minted MFA alumnus M.K. Davis is currently reading, with his almost 1-year-old son, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien.

Faculty member Gioia Diliberto recently read and enjoyed The Sun Walks Down by Fiona MacFarlane and Direct Sunlight: Stories by Christine Sneed.

Faculty member Rebecca Morgan Frank is currently reading Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend. (And you can read her poetry round-ups over at Lit Hub.)

Current MFA student Rachel Kennedy is presently reading The Awakening by Nora Roberts.

Current MFA student Maria Lennon recommends Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, an “incredible story about the first college kids to make video games – really great read,” and The Guest by Emma Cline, about which Maria says, “The first 50 pages are perfect.”

Faculty member Naeem Murr is presently reading Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky and On Earth We Were Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong.

Current MFA student Brandy O’Briant is reading Vladimir by Julia May Jonas.

Faculty member Lori Rader-Day recommends Lou Berney’s forthcoming book, Dark Ride (out in September) and read recently Five Decembers by James Kestrel, which she notes are “both great in totally different ways.”

Faculty director Chrsitine Sneed recommends Good Girl by Sarah Tomlinson, a memoir, and They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey, a novel.

MFA alumnus Holly Stovall recommends “Yellowface by R.F. Kuang and Women We Buried, Women We Burned by Rachel Louise Snyder, whose 2019 No Visible Bruises is possibly the most important and most under-read book of the century.