Karyna McGlynn, Ph.D.

About Karyna

Karyna McGlynn is an award-winning writer, educator, and visual artist, who joined Interlochen Center for the Arts in June 2022 as director of creative writing.

Prior to Interlochen, McGlynn served as the associate professor of creative writing and literature at Christian Brothers University. McGlynn holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan and earned her Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from the University of Houston, where she served as managing editor for Gulf Coast.

She has been a member of five National Poetry Slam teams and was a finalist for the Women of the World Poetry Slam. Other honors include the Rumi Prize for Poetry, the Kathryn A. Morton Prize, the Verlaine Prize in Poetry, the Academy of American Poets' Prize, the Zell Fellowship in Poetry, the Hopwood Award, the Diane Middlebrook Poetry Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the Florida Review Editors’ Award in Fiction, and visiting professorships at Illinois College and Oberlin College.

McGlynn’s new poetry collection, 50 Things Kate Bush Taught Me About the Multiverse, is currently available through Sarabande Books. Her previous collection, Hothouse, was a New York Times Editor’s Choice. Her writing has recently appeared in the Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, New England Review, Georgia Review, Black Warrior Review, Witness, Ninth Letter, the Academy of American Poet’ Poem-A-Day, and Poetry magazine.

Both in and out of the classroom, I strive to model the traits of the best writing mentors I ever had: wonder, enthusiasm, kindness, clarity, bravery, creative activity, personal attention, and community engagement.