River and South Review is an online literary journal edited and produced by the students of the Maslow Family
Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University. The online journal publishes
new, emerging and seasoned writers.
Etruscan Press is a non-profit literary publishing company with a distinctive history, including
three National Book Award finalists in poetry. Housed in the Creative Writing offices
on the Wilkes campus, Etruscan offers graduate assistantships and internships in publishing
to our graduate students. In 2021 it was named by AWP as one of the four best small
presses in the country.
SenArt Films is an independent film company whose films include the Academy Award-winning Fog of War. In 2009, Robert May, the company's executive producer, moved SenArt's offices into
the Creative Writing building, and nine Creative Writing graduate assistants and interns
spent the next five years researching, filming, and assisting Mr. May in the making
of the powerful film Kids for Cash.
The James Jones First Novel Fellowship is a $12,000 annual prize awarded to an emerging writer to support a first novel
in progress. Kaylie Jones, James Jones's daughter, brought this fellowship to Wilkes
in 1991. Creative Writing students serve as paid readers and screen entries for this
annual competition, which in 2021 received over 700 submissions.
Kaylie Jones Books, an imprint of Akashic Books, was founded in 2012 by author and faculty member Kaylie Jones. Tired of seeing good,
even great books rejected by the publishing world, she started her own imprint. Supported
by Wilkes graduate assistants and interns, the company already has found success,
publishing two dozen high-quality books, some by alums of the CW program.
Blue Moon Plays was founded by playwright and faculty member Jean Klein. This online publishing company
offers a wide range of play scripts to a national audience. The program offers graduate
internships and assistantships to support this company's development. Havescripts is a partner imprint that publishes scores of plays and musicals for student actors.
Organizations and Publications
All MFA students must complete a six-month internship. Based upon that experience
and fueled by their own entrepreneurial spirit and passionate commitment to writing,
the following organizations and companies were founded by Wilkes alums:
Since our founding in 2005, the Creative Writing program at Wilkes has proudly sponsored
the annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference. We also proudly
sponsor Hippocamp: A Conference for Creative Nonfiction Writers, and [margins], a
new conference organized by Suzi Q. Smith and Viniyanka Prasad, promoting voices from
underrepresented communities and diverse backgrounds.
