English & Creative Writing Legacies
Includes: BA in English, MFA in Creative Writing, and English Faculty
A self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” Audre Lorde was a graduate of both Hunter High School (1951) and Hunter College (1959). She went on to serve as Thomas Hunter Distinguished Professor (1981–82), and as a member of the Hunter English Department faculty until 1986. The Hunter College “Audre Lorde Award,” a prize for excellence in poetry and prose, is given in her honor.
Celebrated novelist Chang-rae Lee was the first director of the Creative Writing MFA program at Hunter College, from 1999 to 2002. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Lee emigrated to the United States when he was three, and his work often explores themes of immigration, assimilation, and the modern Asian and Asian-American experience.
Critically acclaimed author Gary Shtyngart has gained international recognition for his satirical and humorous works of fiction. Born in 1972 in Leningrad, USSR (now Saint Petersburg, Russia), Shtyngart immigrated to the United States with his family in 1979.
Janice Y. K. Lee is the author of two novels, The Piano Teacher and The Expatriates. Both set in Hong Kong, the books examine love, loss, and the formation of identity in a foreign land. Born in Hong Kong to parents who were Korean immigrants, Lee moved to the United State to attend Harvard College, where she graduated with a degree in English and American Literature and Language.
One of the world’s leading novelists, Peter Carey is among only five writers who have won the Booker Prize twice, first for Oscar and Lucinda in 1988 and then for True History of the Kelly Gang in 2001. Frequently cited as Australia’s next contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature, the celebrated author was the director of the Hunter College Creative Writing MFA program from 2003 to 2021.
Ari Banias was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the Chicago area. He now lives in the Bay Area and teaches in the MFA programs at the University of San Francisco and Antioch University. He has been the Guest Editor for poetry.org’s Poem-A-Day series. As an MFA student at Hunter College, Banias was the recipient of the Friedman Scholarship, and worked with the celebrated poet Mark Doty.
Alex Gilvarry is the author of two novels, From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant (2012) and Eastman Was Here (2017). Born and raised in Staten Island, Gilvarry is a graduate of the MFA in creative writing program at Hunter College, and was nominated for the PEN Open Book Award for his second novel.
Accomplished author Kaitlyn Greenidge published her debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman (Algonquin Books, 2016) after earning her MFA at Hunter College. The novel explores the legacy of the American eugenics movement, and also served as a meditation on language, family, and race. It was named one of The New York Times Critics’ Top 10 Books of 2016.
Megha Majumdar is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel A Burning (Knopf, 2020), which was nominated for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize, and the American Library Association's Andrew Carnegie Medal. It was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, The Atlantic, Vogue, and Time Magazine.
The celebrated author and Hunter College alumna Alexia Arthurs arrived in Brooklyn from Jamaica at age 12 as an undocumented immigrant. Now a rising literary voice known for her captivating storytelling and exploration of identity, belonging, and the complexities of human relationships, Arthurs has said it was her Hunter College education more than anything else that helped her achieve that dream.
Accomplished author and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay has made a significant impact on the literary world. Klay earned his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth, where he was mentored by acclaimed poet—and Hunter College faculty member—Tom Sleigh. After serving as a United States Marine Corps officer during the Iraq War, Klay pursued his passion for writing and enrolled in the Creative Writing MFA program at Hunter College, with encouragement from Sleigh.
Vinson Cunningham graduated with his bachelor’s degree from Hunter College in 2014, and is now a theatre critic for The New Yorker, where he has been on staff since 2016. An English major, Cunningham credits the courses and instructors at Hunter for helping him dive deeply into subject matter and extracting the most from his studies.
Native New Yorker Dana Czapnik entered Hunter’s MFA program in creative writing after having a successful career as a sports editor at ESPN and other outlets. At Hunter she was recognized with a Hertog Fellowship, and worked with Rivka Galchen.