Seattle Pacific University MFA | Creative Writing

A Story About Beauty

By Allison Backous Troy

My father served drinks and sold weed to keep occupied, to blur the sharp edges of boredom and restlessness that had followed him his whole life. Continue Reading …

Teaching and Seeing

By Dyana Herron

Not yet a month into the semester, my students and I move cautiously around one another like two parties in an arranged marriage, still unsure of what kindnesses or cruelties the other is capable. Continue Reading …

The Boy Who Lived Large

By Vic Sizemore

Tyler was sixteen years old. The service was nice. The pastor had lost a six-year-old daughter to asthma, and was particularly tuned in to the family’s pain. Continue Reading …

To See Her More Clearly

By Allison Backous Troy

Who was she to tell me to come home? How did she find out I was gone? What authority did she have to tell me—the one who knew more about being a mother than she did—to stop what I was doing? Continue Reading …

A Heart Exposed

By Jessica Eddings-Roeser

“I’m a writer,” I say. “Oh, that is marvelous,” she says, her blue eyes shining. “With a talent like that you will never be lonely.” Continue Reading …

Poetry as Balance Beam

By Dyana Herron

Flat-chested and well-muscled, with hair pulled back into strict ponytails or buns, the gymnasts looked at once prepubescent and adult. Continue Reading …

The Severe Wind Event

By Vic Sizemore

Strange iridescent-green insects flitted around, bugs who normally live in the tops of those trees where we never see them. Continue Reading …

Photos from Santa Fe!

MFA students, faculty, and staff recently met together for our annual summer residency in New Mexico. Here are a few of our favorite moments. Continue Reading …

Every Damned Tangle and Knot

By David Jacobsen

I open my laptop at night and key green letters across the black sky. Writing has always unfolded this way. Each story starts with a single word. Continue Reading …

Hello

By Elizabeth Myhr

One who is not a writer does not pay attention, or sees and lets go of the gift. The gift’s living nature is to be ever moving. It has the quality of light. Continue Reading …