Alumni Career Panel Discussion

This interactive panel discussion (open to MFA students and Zell Fellows only) features four Zell Writers' Program alumni who have pursued diverse post-MFA career paths. Panelists will reflect upon how their MFA experience has positioned them in the professional world, how they navigated the post-MFA transition, how they approached career-related challenges, and which skills they have found to be particularly important for success in their careers.

Natalie Bakopoulos earned her MFA from the University of Michigan in 2005 and is now an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Wayne State. Natalie has been a fellow at the Camargo Foundation (in France), MacDowell Colony (in New Hampshire), Sozopol Seminars (Bulgaria), as well as a Fulbright Scholar in Greece. She is the author of two novels: The Green Shore (Simon & Schuster, 2012) and the forthcoming Scorpionfish (Tin House, 2020). Her work has appeared in Tin House, VQR, The Iowa Review, The New York Times, Granta, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, The Mississippi Review, O. Henry Prize Stories, and various other publications). She is a contributing editor to Fiction Writers Review and a voting member of the National Book Critics Circle.

Paul Barron is the Director of Learning, Data, and Assessment at the LSA Opportunity Hub. He earned his MFA from the University of Michigan in 2000. He previously worked as the interim director of the Lloyd Hall Scholars Program, as the co-director of the Rackham-Sweetland Dissertation Writing Institute, and as a lecturer for the English Department and the Sweetland Center for Writing. He sees his current role as director of learning, data, and assessment as the perfect opportunity to combine his experience shaping curriculum with the conviction that an excellent education helps students become aware, adaptable, and prepared for the lives and work ahead of them. Paul has received several grants and awards for teaching, writing, and curriculum development, including the LSA Excellence in Education Award, BEN Prize, Hopwood Award, Meijer Fellowship, and CRLT Faculty Development Fund and Investigating Student Learning grants. He is also committed to inclusive teaching and serves on the Undergraduate Education Climate Committee.

H.R. Webster completed her Zell Fellowship at the University of Michigan in 2017. Since graduating, she has worked at The Brinery jarring kimchi, completed a solo through-hike of the Long Trail, received a 7-month fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown (where she taught at Provincetown Elementary and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum), read submissions for the Disquiet Prize, and taught writing at the New England Literature Program, Albion College, the University of Michigan Department of English, the Sweetland Center for Writing, Milan Federal Correctional Facility, Room Project, and Salina Intermediate School in Dearborn through InsideOut Detroit Literary Arts. She was 2018 visiting poet at the New Hampton School and has served as Managing Editor of the Michigan Quarterly Review since September of 2018. Her poetry has appeared in Massachusetts Review, Black Warrior Review, Ninth Letter, Ecotone, The Seattle Review, Fairy Tale Review, Sugar House Review, and Missouri Review. She lives in Ypsilanti.

Robyn Anspach received her MFA from the University of Michigan in 2005. Since 2008, she has worked for Google in numerous roles, from customer service rep to data analyst. She currently works as an account executive. She lives in Ann Arbor with her husbands, two small kids, and three pets. Her poetry has been published in Potomac Review, Baltimore Review and Fifth Wednesday.