M.F.A Program Faculty

Dr. Constance Squires

Dr. Constance Squires teaches undergraduate and graduate workshops in the short story and the novel for the M.F.A., M.A., and undergraduate programs at UCO. Her fiction has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Dublin Quarterly, New Delta Review, The Gingko Tree Review, Bayou, The Briar Cliff Review, The Arkansas Review, The Chiron Review and Eclectica and has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize (2003, 2004, 2005), named among storySouth's Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2005 and nominated for Best New American Voices 2004 and the O. Henry Prize Series 2004. She was awarded the 2007 Matt Clark Prize for Fiction by the New Delta Review, the 2004 Bob Shacochis Award for the Short Story and The Briar Cliff Review 2004 Fiction Award, among others.

Currently, she is at work on a short story collection and a novel. Her scholarly work has appeared in The Philological Review, and she has also edited a textbook for English Composition and Research. She holds a Ph.D. in English from Oklahoma State University, an M.A. from UCO, and a B.A. in English from the University of Oklahoma. She is the director of the M.F.A. program at UCO.

Dr. Steve Garrison

Steve Garrison received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in English at Baylor University and his Ph.D. in English at the University of South Carolina. He has taught at the University of Central Oklahoma since 1982 and was chair of its English Department from 1995 to 2003. For the 1989-1990 academic year he was senior Fulbright lecturer at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Garrison's publications include a series of seven co-authored textbooks promoting writing in different disciplines and a descriptive bibliography of the writings of the American novelist Edith Wharton. His novel Shoveling Smoke, published under the name "Austin Davis," was brought out by Chronicle Books in 2003.

For the M.F.A. program Dr. Garrison teaches the novel writing courses and reading courses on various subjects, including modern American poetry, post-WW II American fiction, and nineteenth-century American fiction.

Dr. Kit Givan

Christopher F Givan has been a professor in the UCO Department of English since 1986. He earned a B.A. from Yale and a Ph.D. from Stanford. Before joining the UCO faculty, Givan taught at UC Santa Barbara, Bucharest, Romania (Fulbright in American Lit), University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez and Rio Piedras, and UCLA. He then became Dean of Franklin College in Lugano, Switzerland, and then Academic Dean at The American College of Switzerland in Leysin, Switzerland. He then taught at Eastern New Mexico State University in Portales, NM, before becoming Dean of Morse College at Yale.

While at UCO, Givan has been awarded two Fulbrights to teach American literature, one at the University of Hong Kong and most recently at the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar. He has published an interview with Nabokov, two chapbooks of poetry, essays on Shakespeare, Salinger, Updike and several short stories, two of which appeared in EPOCH. Givan is currently working on a collection of short stories called "The Cobra Under the Piano" most of which are set in Madagascar. At UCO he teaches poetry, short story, writing comedy and satire, and courses in Shakespeare and Chaucer. Recently, he introduced a course in Homer and Joyce.

Givan lives in Edmond with two cats and two dogs.

Linda McDonald

Linda McDonald, instructor for Playwriting, Screenwriting, Writing for Television and Fundamentals of Creative Writing, earned her B.A. in Speech Education from OCU, an M.A. in Theatre from Kansas University, and an M.A. in English with Creative Writing Emphasis from UCO.

She has directed and acted in productions in the Oklahoma City area for over thirty years. Her own plays have been produced in Oklahoma City, Dallas, Northampton, Mass., and New York City. Pure Gumption, a book of her poetry, was published by the Contemporary Arts Foundation.

She currently is the Theater Reviewer for the Oklahoma Gazette, the paper with the third largest circulation in the state.

McDonald's screenplays have won first place in the Oklahoma Film Institute competition and the Lone Star Screenwriting Competition and have been honored by Best of the West, the Austin Film Festival, and the Educational Broadcasters Association. She has also had several scripts optioned.

Douglas Goetsch

Douglas Goetsch has taught writing to the gifted, the incarcerated, undergraduates, post-graduates, and continuing education students since the 1980s. For fourteen years he was a member of the English faculty at Stuyvesant High School in New York City; then established and directed the creative writing program at Passages Academy, a network of schools that serves court-involved youth in New York City. He's been on staff at the Stonecoast Writing Conference, The Frost Place, The Dodge Poetry Festival, and for nine years at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival.

Doug's books of poetry include Nobody's Hell (Hanging Loose Press, 1999), The Job of Being Everybody (Cleveland State, 2004), winner of the CSU Poetry Center Open Competition, and four prize-winning chapbooks. He is the recipient of awards from Prairie Schooner, MARGIE, Slipstream, The Chautauqua Literary Journal, two fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, many Pushcart Prize nominations, and the Donald Murray Prize for writing on the teaching of writing. His poetry, reviews and essays have appeared in The American Scholar, Poetry, The Iowa Review, Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review, The New England Review, online at PoetryDaily and Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac, on the air at NPR, and in numerous anthologies.

Doug's poems have been cited for their grittiness, craft, and "wicked good humor." Mark Halliday calls them "free of baloney," and Billy Collins wrote, "It's hard to imagine a reader who could resist Goetsch's seductive opening lines." Of his most recent collection, Your Whole Life (Slipstream Press, 2007), Jeffrey Harrison wrote, "Goetsch can't keep himself from going right to [the] edges, whether he is writing about the entanglements of adult life, the cluelessness of childhood, or, as he so deftly does in several poems, both at once."

Doug received a bachelor's from Wesleyan University and a master's in American Civilization from New York University. Since 2002 he has been the editor of Jane Street Press, a not-for-profit press dedicated to publishing undiscovered masters of contemporary American poetry.


About the Program Faculty Plan of Study Apply for Admission FAQ Artists-In-Residence And Visiting Authors Everett Southwest Literary Award The Carol Hamilton Endowed Scholarship Fund UCO Homepage College of Liberal Arts Homepage English Department Homepage	M.F.A Program Faculty Dr. Constance Squires, Program Director Dr. Steve Garrison Dr. Kit Givan Linda McDonald Douglas Goetsch Dr. Constance Squires Dr. Constance Squires teaches undergraduate and graduate workshops in the short story and the novel for the M.F.A., M.A., and undergraduate programs at UCO. Her fiction has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Dublin Quarterly, New Delta Review, The Gingko Tree Review, Bayou, The Briar Cliff Review, The Arkansas Review, The Chiron Review and Eclectica and has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize (2003, 2004, 2005), named among storySouth's Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2005 and nominated for Best New American Voices 2004 and the O. Henry Prize Series 2004. She was awarded the 2007 Matt Clark Prize for Fiction by the New Delta Review, the 2004 Bob Shacochis Award for the Short Story and The Briar Cliff Review 2004 Fiction Award, among others. Currently, she is at work on a short story collection and a novel. Her scholarly work has appeared in The Philological Review, and she has also edited a textbook for English Composition and Research. She holds a Ph.D. in English from Oklahoma State University, an M.A. from UCO, and a B.A. in English from the University of Oklahoma. She is the director of the M.F.A. program at UCO. Dr. Steve Garrison Steve Garrison received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in English at Baylor University and his Ph.D. in English at the University of South Carolina. He has taught at the University of Central Oklahoma since 1982 and was chair of its English Department from 1995 to 2003. For the 1989-1990 academic year he was senior Fulbright lecturer at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Garrison's publications include a series of seven co-authored textbooks promoting writing in different disciplines and a descriptive bibliography of the writings of the American novelist Edith Wharton. His novel Shoveling Smoke, published under the name "Austin Davis," was brought out by Chronicle Books in 2003. For the M.F.A. program Dr. Garrison teaches the novel writing courses and reading courses on various subjects, including modern American poetry, post-WW II American fiction, and nineteenth-century American fiction. Dr. Kit Givan Christopher F Givan has been a professor in the UCO Department of English since 1986. He earned a B.A. from Yale and a Ph.D. from Stanford. Before joining the UCO faculty, Givan taught at UC Santa Barbara, Bucharest, Romania (Fulbright in American Lit), University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez and Rio Piedras, and UCLA. He then became Dean of Franklin College in Lugano, Switzerland, and then Academic Dean at The American College of Switzerland in Leysin, Switzerland. He then taught at Eastern New Mexico State University in Portales, NM, before becoming Dean of Morse College at Yale. While at UCO, Givan has been awarded two Fulbrights to teach American literature, one at the University of Hong Kong and most recently at the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar. He has published an interview with Nabokov, two chapbooks of poetry, essays on Shakespeare, Salinger, Updike and several short stories, two of which appeared in EPOCH. Givan is currently working on a collection of short stories called "The Cobra Under the Piano" most of which are set in Madagascar. At UCO he teaches poetry, short story, writing comedy and satire, and courses in Shakespeare and Chaucer. Recently, he introduced a course in Homer and Joyce. Givan lives in Edmond with two cats and two dogs. Linda McDonald Linda McDonald, instructor for Playwriting, Screenwriting, Writing for Television and Fundamentals of Creative Writing, earned her B.A. in Speech Education from OCU, an M.A. in Theatre from Kansas University, and an M.A. in English with Creative Writing Emphasis from UCO. She has directed and acted in productions in the Oklahoma City area for over thirty years. Her own plays have been produced in Oklahoma City, Dallas, Northampton, Mass., and New York City. Pure Gumption, a book of her poetry, was published by the Contemporary Arts Foundation. She currently is the Theater Reviewer for the Oklahoma Gazette, the paper with the third largest circulation in the state. McDonald's screenplays have won first place in the Oklahoma Film Institute competition and the Lone Star Screenwriting Competition and have been honored by Best of the West, the Austin Film Festival, and the Educational Broadcasters Association. She has also had several scripts optioned. Douglas Goetsch Douglas Goetsch has taught writing to the gifted, the incarcerated, undergraduates, post-graduates, and continuing education students since the 1980s. For fourteen years he was a member of the English faculty at Stuyvesant High School in New York City; then established and directed the creative writing program at Passages Academy, a network of schools that serves court-involved youth in New York City. He's been on staff at the Stonecoast Writing Conference, The Frost Place, The Dodge Poetry Festival, and for nine years at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. Doug's books of poetry include Nobody's Hell (Hanging Loose Press, 1999), The Job of Being Everybody (Cleveland State, 2004), winner of the CSU Poetry Center Open Competition, and four prize-winning chapbooks. He is the recipient of awards from Prairie Schooner, MARGIE, Slipstream, The Chautauqua Literary Journal, two fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, many Pushcart Prize nominations, and the Donald Murray Prize for writing on the teaching of writing. His poetry, reviews and essays have appeared in The American Scholar, Poetry, The Iowa Review, Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review, The New England Review, online at PoetryDaily and Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac, on the air at NPR, and in numerous anthologies. Doug's poems have been cited for their grittiness, craft, and "wicked good humor." Mark Halliday calls them "free of baloney," and Billy Collins wrote, "It's hard to imagine a reader who could resist Goetsch's seductive opening lines." Of his most recent collection, Your Whole Life (Slipstream Press, 2007), Jeffrey Harrison wrote, "Goetsch can't keep himself from going right to [the] edges, whether he is writing about the entanglements of adult life, the cluelessness of childhood, or, as he so deftly does in several poems, both at once." Doug received a bachelor's from Wesleyan University and a master's in American Civilization from New York University. Since 2002 he has been the editor of Jane Street Press, a not-for-profit press dedicated to publishing undiscovered masters of contemporary American poetry.