Meet the MFA Students

Allegra Balbuena

Allegra Balbuena is in her last year of the MFA in Creative Writing program. Her primary genre is nonfiction and her secondary is poetry. Allegra earned a BA in English from CSU East Bay. She is the Lead Art Editor for Reed Magazine, Issue 158 and was the Senior Nonfiction Editor for Issue 157. “House of Blue” is forthcoming in the Fall 2024 digital issue of the online magazine Months to Years. Her previous publications appear in student-run literary magazines: “ABCs of TTC” in ZAUM Issue 26 (2022) and “Blissful Alliance” in Occam’s Razor Issue 37 (2020). Allegra writes memoir essays and poems focusing on infertility, her Filipino culture, growing up in Ewa, Hawaii, being married to her high school sweetheart, being immersed in Latino culture and having worked as a closing shift manager for Michaels. She is currently a hotline counselor for a nonprofit organization that provides support to domestic violence survivors. Allegra lives a fulfilling life with her wonderful and supportive husband and their silly, sassy but insanely lovable kitty, Sylvie.

Jane Berg

Jane Berg is a writer and photographer from South Africa. She’s currently an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at San José State University where she was the Managing Editor of Reed Magazine for Issue 156. Her fiction and poetry has been published in the Badilisha Poetry X-Change, deLuge Journal, Superstition Review, and is forthcoming in Flint Hills Review. You can find more of her writing and photography at: https://janeberg.me/

Cassie Blair

Cassie Blair grew up in Colorado, grew up some more in Seattle, and now splits time between Oakland and Salinas with her partner and two small dogs, who rescued them. Her short fiction is published or forthcoming in The Quarter(ly)Journal and Chestnut Review. Cassie also holds an MS in Architecture History & Theory from University of Washington.

Michael Noah Ford

Mike Noah Ford is a memoirist, poet and screenwriter currently completing an MFA Creative Writing at SJSU. Influenced by his father, a beat poet and founder of the Poetry Flash, Mike began writing poetry at age 9.  He then quickly won first prize in a writing contest through an ice cream company called Bott’s Ice Cream  in South Berkeley. As the winner,  Bott’s told him that he could have free ice cream for life, but then went out of business (not because of Mike).

Raised by two English Professors, Mike grew up in a world of words and a house made out of  books. To Mike’s dismay his parents moved to Palo Alto when he was 14, where he learned the ways of the rich and powerful, but then quickly reverted back to the path of the Berkeley Bohemian after high school.

As an undergraduate Mike majored in Religious Studies at UCSB graduating with Highest Honors. This shaped his writing towards mystical themes and led him to the Kabbalah, which he studied for several years in Jerusalem. Mike then lived in the West Village of New York City,  became a yoga instructor and began writing a well received newsletter and then blog on spirituality and recovery. He has walked along the sober path for over 20 years and now lives in the Bay Area.Mike’s writing was published in the book Dreams and Inward Journeys (8th Edition).

Marilyn Hilton

Marilyn Copley Hilton is an MFA student with a focus in nonfiction and poetry. She holds a BA in Japanese from University of Massachusetts and an MA in English from San Jose State University. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in Mid-American Review, Glassworks, Chariton Review, Sky Island Journal, The Nebraska Review, Zaum, and Reed; she has contributed to several anthologies, including the upcoming DiVERSE (Bloomsbury 2025); and her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Marilyn is also the author of the award-winning novels Found Things (Atheneum 2014) and Full Cicada Moon (Dial 2014). A former software technical writer and editor, she now enjoys the freedom to write, study, resume piano lessons, teach at writers conferences, and spend time with her family.

Taylor Hooten

Taylor Wells Hooten recently moved to the East Bay from Tennessee, where she was born and raised. A first generation college student, she graduated with a BA in English from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2023, where she was also an Innovations in Honors Scholar. Taylor is a Graduate Steinbeck Fellow with a primary focus in poetry, but she enjoys experimenting with screenwriting and fiction as well. She hopes to one day pursue a career as a Narrative Designer or a Lead Writer for story-driven video games and RPGs. Her poetry has thus far been published in the Sequoya Review and Sanctuary Literary Magazine. When not writing or reading, Taylor can usually be found playing games, crocheting, or spending time with her husband and two cats.

Alanah Hunsdorfer

Alanah Hunsdorfer is a poet and fiction writer from Salinas, California. She graduated from CSU Monterey Bay with a B.A in Humanities and Communication and concentrations in Creative Writing and English Studies. Alanah has had multiple works published in Volumes 5-8 of CSU Monterey Bay’s literary arts journal, In The Ords, in addition to serving as the journal’s Editor–in-Chief from 2021 to 2023. In her free time, Alanah looks forward to sunny days and spending too much money in bookstores.

Samuel Michael

Samuel Michael is a published writer, instructor, and artist. His prose poem, "glory be.", was published in Beyond Thought Journal. He works at the Writing Center and as a TA at the university. When he isn't writing, Samuel can be found drawing or playing with his cat.

Michael Muszynski

Born and raised in Sacramento California, Michael Muszynski completed his Bachelor's of Arts in English at San José State University. He has since returned to SJSU for the MFA in Creative Writing where he is also a writing tutor and the senior fiction editor for SJSU's Reed Magazine, California's oldest literary journal. As an avid reader and writer, he usually spends his days researching countries no longer on maps, conjugating verbs in elven languages, and searching for the library's dustiest books. When not reading or writing, he is usually playing video games or screaming at the TV while watching football. 

Jake Ohlhausen

Jake graduated from SJSU with a BA in film production in 2017 and has worked in the department as the equipment manager and production technician since 2018. His professional experience includes producing and writing many projects for dozens of companies and organizations including Sony pictures, Cinequest, Google, Apple, and ESPN.

Mara Olivas

M. M. Olivas is an alumna of the 2022 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop, the 2023 Under the Volcano Writers Residency, and the 2024 Lambda Literary Workshop. Her short fiction has appeared in several publications, including Uncanny Magazine, Weird Horror Magazine, Apex, and Bourbon Penn. As a trans, first-generation Chicana horror writer, Olivas explores the intersection of queer and diasporic experiences in her fiction. She currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, earning her MFA in Creative Writing at San Jose State University and collecting transforming robots. Her debut novel, Sundown in San Ojuela, is available for preorder and will release November 19th, 2024 through Lanternfish Press.

More information about Olivas and her fiction can be found at olivasthewriter.wtf

C.J. Prusi

C.J. Prusi is an eccentric, an anomaly, an enigma, and a fool. Since beginning the MFA program at SJSU, he's weathered a pandemic, married the love of his life, become a father of two, and got a job. He likes potty humor, long runs, and short, cheeky artist bios. His most recent work can be found at patreon.com/cjonia

Olivia Rose

Olivia Rose is a poet and fiction writer born and raised in San Jose. She earned her B.A. in English Literature and Comparative Literature from UCLA, where she earned the Teague-Melville Essay Award for her research paper on the Hebrew Bible, which was subsequently published by UCLA's Journal of Religion. She served as Senior Poetry Editor for Reed Magazine, Issue 157; her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Denver Quarterly, Westwind, and elsewhere. She lives in San Francisco.

Nica Constante Tanaka

Nica is the narrator of a Living Memoir titled Kwento by Nica. Her creative practice explores the convergence of personal narratives, geography, and time as visual expressions on the internet. On the web, Nica can be found sharing reflections and criticisms of her lived experience by telling a story, making kwento, of what happened. Nica is a hybrid MFA student between the Art and English department at SJSU. Her work invites readers to see the complexities of her inner world through digital media art and literary craft. Somewhere on earth, Nica is studying, exploring, and basking under the moon and sun. Find Nica: @kwentobynica

Savannah Vento-Chun

Savannah is from Patterson, California and is now an enthusiastic Livermore resident. She enjoys telling stories through writing, podcasting, filming, and more often than not over a good meal and a special bottle. Her storytelling is inspired by the human condition and our abilities to endure. She enjoys crafting, being outdoors, exercising, reading, traveling, sharing her sommelier knowledge, and spending time with her partner, their dog, and her closest friends. Savannah is the winner of the Occam's Razor Literary Magazine Fiction contest. 

Florian Weinreich

Florian is from Vienna, Austria, where he grew up in a bilingual household. As a way of grappling with linguistic boundaries, he started writing at an early age, comics at first and then, gradually, poetry. After studying philosophy and literature in Vienna and Nice, he received a Fulbright scholarship to finally devote himself to creative writing at San Jose State University. He is a big fan of Liverpool FC and banana bread.