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Fiction | MFA in Creative Writing - Low Residency | April Ayers Lawson is the author of Virgin and Other Stories, which was named a Best Book of the Year by The Irish Times and Vice, and a Best Foreign Book of the Year by Spain’s Qué Leer Magazine.  Virgin and Other Stories has been (or will be) translated into German, Spanish, Norwegian, and Italian.  She has received The Plimpton Prize for Fiction, as well as a writing fellowship from The Corporation of Yaddo.   Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, Die Welt, ZYZZYVA, and Oxford American, among others, has been cited as notable in Best American Short Stories, featured by Huffington Post, and anthologized in The Unprofessionals: New American Writing from The Paris Review.  Her nonfiction has appeared in Der Spiegel, Granta, Vice, and Neue Zürcher Zeitung Magazine, and been named a Most Popular Read of the Year by Granta.  She has taught in the creative writing programs at Emory University and the University Of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and now teaches at Clemson University. Mentor.  Workshops and classes in fiction. Statement: “The most important thing your writing can be is interesting.  And by that I mean interesting to you, because when you’re deeply engaged in the process, the work sparks alive.  This level of engagement involves writing into places you didn’t expect and opening to the risk of surprise.

Fiction | MFA in Creative Writing - Low Residency | Sequoia Nagamatsu is the author of the national bestselling novel, How High We Go in the Dark (William Morrow, 2022), a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and the story collection, Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone (Black Lawrence Press, 2016), silver medal winner of the 2016 Foreword Reviews Indies Book of the Year Award.

Professor of Communication | Communication, Media & Design Arts | youngam@plu.edu | 253-536-5165 | Dr.

Associate Professor of English | Department of English | jamesja@plu.edu | 253-535-7217 | Jenny James was born and raised in Michigan, the home of the Great Lakes and the Michigan Wolverines.

Lecturer - Composition | Music | dsonntag@plu.edu | 253-535-7602 | Raised in Minnesota and Wisconsin, Dawn Sonntag received a D.M.A.

Professor of Theatre | Theatre & Dance | smithtt@plu.edu | 253-535-7323 | Tom Smith is a playwright, director and improviser.  His plays are published by Samuel French, Playscripts, and YouthPLAYS, among others.  Monologues from his plays appear in five collections of works, and his short plays have been produced internationally.  His work has been enjoyed by audiences in cities across the U.S., including Seattle, Kansas City, San Francisco, and Chicago, as well as in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.  Tom is also the author of The Other Blocking: Teaching and Performing Improvisation(Kendall Hunt) and articles and reviews for Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, The Players Journal, and several resource books.  Tom graduated from Whitman College with a BA in Dramatic Arts and Secondary Education certification, and earned his MFA in Directing from University of Missouri-Kansas City.  He is a proud member of the Dramatist’s Guild and Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. .

Executive Director, Professor of Hispanic and Latino Studies, Program Director PLU Gateway Program in Oaxaca | Wang Center for Global and Community Engaged Education | williatr@plu.edu | 253-535-7577 | Tamara R.

Professor of Chemistry | Department of Chemistry | waldowda@plu.edu | 253-535-7533 | Application of Ring Opening Metathesis Polymermization to Polymer Battery Electrolytes and other membranes Use of macro and microphase separation techniques in energy related materials Statics and kinetics of phase separation in multi-component polymer blends both in bulk and as thin films Physical characterization technique include: light scattering optical and atomic force microscopy neutron scattering Monte Carlo techniques Use of metathesis, anionic, and controlled radical synthetic techniques to produce new materials for macro and microphase separation applications Polymer/structure relationships studied via spin-lattice relaxation measurements of local segmental dynamics in polymers Promoting the teaching and learning of research in an undergraduate setting via incorporation of research activities in traditional courses development of Internet resources for undergraduate research an active and externally funded local undergraduate research program Incorporation of information technology in lecture and laboratory settings .

Professor of Chemistry* | Department of Chemistry | fryhlecb@plu.edu | 253-535-7530 | Craig Fryhle began his career at PLU  in 1986 working on organic synthesis targets related to natural products and potential mechanism-based enzyme inhibitors of the shikimic acid pathway.   He has mentored undergraduate  researchers in these areas who have gone on to careers in academia, industry and other pursuits.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Education | Music | justin.lader@plu.edu | 253-535-7602 | Justin Lader received his PhD in music and human learning from The University of Texas at Austin, Master’s degree in viola performance with emphasis in string pedagogy from the University of Oregon, and Bachelor’s of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory.