By Francis Von Mann 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 17, 2025) – The University of Kentucky’s Creative Writing Division in the Department of English, part of the College of Arts and Sciences, will mark the 11th anniversary of its Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing with a special Visiting Writers Series event spotlighting three recent graduates whose debut books have already earned national attention. 

The reading will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 29, in the Esports Theater at the Cornerstone. The event is free and open to the public. 

Since its start in 2013, UK’s MFA Program in Creative Writing has become nationally recognized for producing talented writers of fiction, poetry and nonfiction. Faculty and alumni have earned national and international honors, and graduates have gone on to publish books, win major literary prizes and build writing communities across the country. 

The MFA in Creative Writing at UK offers concentrations in fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. Students work closely with faculty mentors and visiting writers to develop their craft and prepare for careers in writing, teaching and publishing. 

UK MFA faculty includes Julia Johnson, Shauna M. Morgan, Hannah Pittard, Erik Reece, Melissa Scholes Young and Frank X Walker.

This fall’s event highlights three of those alumni: 

Erika J. Simpson 

Simpson received her MFA in creative writing from the University of Kentucky in 2021 and was a recipient of the UK MFA Award in Nonfiction. Her essay “If You Ever Find Yourself” was published in Roxane Gay’s The Audacity and featured in Best American Essays 2022, edited by Alexander Chee. “This Is Your Mother” is her debut memoir, and she also writes fiction for the page and screen. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado.  

Allegra Solomon 

Solomon is a fiction writer from Columbus, Ohio and currently living in Lexington, Kentucky. Solomon received her MFA in creative writing from the University of Kentucky in 2022 and was recipient of the UK MFA Award in Fiction. Her debut short story collection “There’s Nothing Left for You Here,” won the Kimbilio National Fiction prize. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and has also appeared in The Georgia Review, TriQuarterly, American Literary Review, New Ohio Review and Lolwe. 

Alfonso Zapata 

Zapata is a poet living in Lexington, Kentucky. He received his MFA in poetry at the University of Kentucky in 2023. He has previously received the 2022 and 2023 UK MFA Poetry Awards and the Jim Lawless IV Poetry Prize. His work has appeared in Sho Poetry Journal, and he is the author of the chapbook “Together Now.” His first full length book “To Pay for Our Next Breath” won the TRP Southern Poetry Breakthrough Prize.