USU alumna Alyssa Quinn graduated from USU in 2016, with a major in English (Creative Writing) and a minor in Sociology. Alyssa went on to earn an MFA in Creative Writing from Western Washington University, graduating in 2018. In 2019, her chapbook, Dante’s Cartography, was published by The Cupboard Pamphlet. In 2022 Alyssa’s debut novel, Habilis, was published by Dzanc Books.

Alyssa is currently wrapping up her final semester in a PhD program at the University of Utah, having recently finished her dissertation, a second novel titled Notes from the Island, which explores the history and ecology of the Great Salt Lake. In the fall, Alyssa will be joining the faculty at Kenyon College in Ohio as an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing.

“I can’t say enough about my time at USU,” Alyssa says. “Nothing that I’ve achieved would have been possible without the teachers I had at Utah State, who were so inspiring, so dedicated, and so generous. My reading, writing, thinking, and being flourished under their guidance, and I will be looking to them as examples as I now begin my own teaching career. I also formed cherished friendships at USU, friendships that sustain me as a writer and a person to this day. The literary community that exists in and around Utah State is truly something special. As a nervous 18-year-old who wanted desperately to be a writer, I simply could not have landed anywhere better.”