Welcome Our Incoming Fall 2025 MFA class . . .
Aug. 14, 2025
Lydia Babcock (PY) is originally from Toledo, OH, but is enjoying a gap year in Cleveland taking walks to Lake Erie and working as a barista in a bakery. She graduated from the University of Toledo in 2024 with a degree in English creative writing and a minor in theatre arts. Outside of writing, Lydia enjoys working on anything artsy. She is currently absolutely obliterating some paper-based grocery bags to try to make them into paper pulp and, eventually—fingers crossed—actual paper. She is very excited to check out Richmond’s local music scene. Lydia is moving to the city with her partner, Evan, their cat, Alfie, and their dog, George. She can’t wait to meet all of you!
Sara Caskey (CNF/PY) is originally from East Bay, Rhode Island, and graduated from Brown University in 2022 with a B.A. in Literary Arts. While in college, she wrote for an on-campus comedy newspaper called The Noser, played the trumpet, and completed a book of single-line poems for her honors thesis. Sara's spent the last few years as a professional content writer covering everything from celebrity news to the real estate market, but she tends to dwell on subjects like roadkill and reincarnation in her personal work.
Abby Clark (FC) grew up in the Northern Virginia area, where she could be found hunting for gold in the numerous local thrift stores. She graduated with an English degree and Creative Writing minor from William & Mary, and then found she couldn't stop consuming, creating, and thinking about stories. In her work, she enjoys thinking about people and places in transition. In her free time, she loves playing her upright bass, going to the movies, and generally thinking about third spaces.
Luke Gioiosa (CNF/PY) was born in Manhattan and grew up on a farm in Louisa, VA. He likes riding on the train just as much as he likes riding his dirt bike. Luke received an MA in International Affairs from The New School in 2023 after completing Peace Corps service in Mozambique. He has lived on both US coasts, is a great barista who doesn’t do latte art, and enjoys casual strolls. Luke loves to read and write stories about places, people, and the relationships he has with them. When he isn’t writing or reading about crazy or cozy things, you can find him reluctantly weed eating the farm, or patiently waiting on the porch for the great blue heron to do a fly over.
Marianna Dionysiou (FC) is from Cincinnati, Ohio, but spent most of her summers growing up in Cyprus. She graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2023 with degrees in Creative Writing and Rhetoric Professional Writing and has worked as a content writer and novel editor. Her work typically explores Cypriot culture and nostalgia, focusing on fruit, the sea, and sexuality. She has previously been published in Short Vine and was a finalist for the 2025 Plentitudes Prizes fiction award.
Gwen Hall (FC) hails from Bloomington, Indiana, where she lived for 15 years, dragged her feet making friends in the American public school system, and earned degrees in Game Design (Concept Art) and Gender Studies from Indiana University. She’s still coming to terms with the fact that 2020 was half a decade ago, and is finally shedding her identity as a college town “townie.” While avoiding the passage of time and her identity crisis of the week, Gwen explores themes of mismatched girlhood, considers questions and challenges of social accessibility, and rips into the spaces in between -- whatever that means! Gwen believes everyone deserves to grow up and see themselves in a joyful light, wherever that spotlight may lead them. When away from her desk, Gwen watches cartoons and doodles with an iced tea and her ex-street cat, the pampered Peach Mochi Boom Boom Baby IV (Meechie)."
Kristina Hamlett (CNF/PY) is a first-generation American born to Haitian parents in Queens, NY. She earned a B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Religion from Shenandoah University. Kristina's career has focused on advocacy for underserved communities for almost two decades. In 2021, L10 Press published her first collection of poetry and creative non-fiction entitled She Lives Here. She was selected as the poet for the Northern Neck Conservancy and contributed to the anthology Writing the Land: Virginia in 2024. She has had the honor of attending writing and storytelling retreats in Alabama, New Mexico, and California. Kristina lives in Henrico with her husband of twelve years and too many books.
Megan McDermott (PY) has spent over six years serving as an Episcopal parish priest in Amherst, Massachusetts, where, among other things, she regularly led poetry and art-based meditations with a focus on living artists and writers. A graduate of Yale Divinity School and Susquehanna University’s Creative Writing and Religious Studies programs, Megan takes her feminist theological perspective to the page, often exploring women in Scripture and her own experiences as a woman of faith. In the last decade, her poems have found homes with both religious and secular publications and presses. She looks forward to letting creative work take center stage in this next season of life. Outside of writing and ministry, Megan loves performing and studying improv, going to art museums, and drinking copious amounts of tea.engeng
Sara Caskey (CNF/PY) is originally from East Bay, Rhode Island, and graduated from Brown University in 2022 with a B.A. in Literary Arts. While in college, she wrote for an on-campus comedy newspaper called The Noser, played the trumpet, and completed a book of single-line poems for her honors thesis. Sara's spent the last few years as a professional content writer covering everything from celebrity news to the real estate market, but she tends to dwell on subjects like roadkill and reincarnation in her personal work.
Abby Clark (FC) grew up in the Northern Virginia area, where she could be found hunting for gold in the numerous local thrift stores. She graduated with an English degree and Creative Writing minor from William & Mary, and then found she couldn't stop consuming, creating, and thinking about stories. In her work, she enjoys thinking about people and places in transition. In her free time, she loves playing her upright bass, going to the movies, and generally thinking about third spaces.
Luke Gioiosa (CNF/PY) was born in Manhattan and grew up on a farm in Louisa, VA. He likes riding on the train just as much as he likes riding his dirt bike. Luke received an MA in International Affairs from The New School in 2023 after completing Peace Corps service in Mozambique. He has lived on both US coasts, is a great barista who doesn’t do latte art, and enjoys casual strolls. Luke loves to read and write stories about places, people, and the relationships he has with them. When he isn’t writing or reading about crazy or cozy things, you can find him reluctantly weed eating the farm, or patiently waiting on the porch for the great blue heron to do a fly over.
Marianna Dionysiou (FC) is from Cincinnati, Ohio, but spent most of her summers growing up in Cyprus. She graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2023 with degrees in Creative Writing and Rhetoric Professional Writing and has worked as a content writer and novel editor. Her work typically explores Cypriot culture and nostalgia, focusing on fruit, the sea, and sexuality. She has previously been published in Short Vine and was a finalist for the 2025 Plentitudes Prizes fiction award.
Gwen Hall (FC) hails from Bloomington, Indiana, where she lived for 15 years, dragged her feet making friends in the American public school system, and earned degrees in Game Design (Concept Art) and Gender Studies from Indiana University. She’s still coming to terms with the fact that 2020 was half a decade ago, and is finally shedding her identity as a college town “townie.” While avoiding the passage of time and her identity crisis of the week, Gwen explores themes of mismatched girlhood, considers questions and challenges of social accessibility, and rips into the spaces in between -- whatever that means! Gwen believes everyone deserves to grow up and see themselves in a joyful light, wherever that spotlight may lead them. When away from her desk, Gwen watches cartoons and doodles with an iced tea and her ex-street cat, the pampered Peach Mochi Boom Boom Baby IV (Meechie)."
Kristina Hamlett (CNF/PY) is a first-generation American born to Haitian parents in Queens, NY. She earned a B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Religion from Shenandoah University. Kristina's career has focused on advocacy for underserved communities for almost two decades. In 2021, L10 Press published her first collection of poetry and creative non-fiction entitled She Lives Here. She was selected as the poet for the Northern Neck Conservancy and contributed to the anthology Writing the Land: Virginia in 2024. She has had the honor of attending writing and storytelling retreats in Alabama, New Mexico, and California. Kristina lives in Henrico with her husband of twelve years and too many books.
Megan McDermott (PY) has spent over six years serving as an Episcopal parish priest in Amherst, Massachusetts, where, among other things, she regularly led poetry and art-based meditations with a focus on living artists and writers. A graduate of Yale Divinity School and Susquehanna University’s Creative Writing and Religious Studies programs, Megan takes her feminist theological perspective to the page, often exploring women in Scripture and her own experiences as a woman of faith. In the last decade, her poems have found homes with both religious and secular publications and presses. She looks forward to letting creative work take center stage in this next season of life. Outside of writing and ministry, Megan loves performing and studying improv, going to art museums, and drinking copious amounts of tea.engeng