Faculty & Staff
Our Department Chair
Prudence Arceneaux
Poetry, Prose, Forms of Literature, Fiction
MFA in English & Creative Writing
Prudence Arceneaux, a native Texan, is a poet who teaches English and Creative Writing at Austin Community College, in Austin, TX. Her work has appeared in various journals, including The Academy of American Poets’ Poem- A- Day, Limestone, New Texas, Hazmat Review, Texas Observer, Whiskey Island Magazine, African Voices and Inkwell. She is the author of two chapbooks of poetry– DIRT (awarded the 2018 Jean Pedrick Prize) and LIBERTY.
Dee Garcia
Fiction
MFA in Creative Writing
Dee Garcia is a Texas-based, queer Chicano writer, editor, and instructor whose roots run deep in South Texas—particularly “el 956.” He navigates between reflecting and chronicling at the intersection of identity and culture, chismeando his way through IRL and AFK discourse. He insists his students call him “Profe” at Austin Community College’s Creative Writing Department, and outside campus walls, he serves as the nonfiction editor for Infrrarealista Review, where he and a band of literary misfits are committed to amplifying voices across Texas. His debut essay collection, Bien Chingon: Vatos and Other Essays, is slated for publication in Spring 2026 by Plancha Press.
Luke Garza
Screenwriting
MFA in Screenwriting
Luke Garza is a screenwriter and producer. As a story analyst for HBO Films, Ratpac-Dune Entertainment, and Phoenix Pictures, he evaluated projects for potential development into feature films, TV movies and series, and critiqued the works of David Mamet, Elmore Leonard, Ron Bass, and J.J. Abrams. He also co-produced three independent features: the horror film Vampire Winter, the documentary Andy Paris: Bubblegum King, and the sci-fi anthology Xenophobia. His favorite film is The Exorcist, directed by William Friedkin and written by William Peter Blatty
A. R. Rogers
Poetry, Prose
MFA in Creative Writing, B.A. in English
A.R. Rogers (she/her) is a poet living in the permanent summer of Austin. She is a native Texan, as well as a first-generation and former ACC student. In addition to teaching, she is the Creative Writing Department’s Instructional Associate and coordinator of the Balcones Prize. Her work can be found in Juke Joint, Permafrost, North Dakota Quarterly, and elsewhere. When not on campus, you can find her at the cinema or somewhere reading a Sally Rooney novel.
Robert Crowl
Fiction, Poetry
Robert Crowl is a writer, educator, musician, and performer who’s been teaching in and around Austin, Texas for fifteen years where he lives with his wife and two kids. Currently, he’s a professor of composition, literary studies, and creative writing at Austin Community College, but he grew up in Oklahoma and Texas. His writing has appeared in Passengers Journal and the West Trade Review, but his current project is a memoir that explores inherited trauma, his mother’s penchant for strays, and his father’s battles with substance abuse. Follow him at robcrowlwriter.com or at https://www.instagram.com/robcrowlwriter/.
Eli Ryder
Fiction, Playwriting
MFA in Creative Writing, M.A. in English
Eli Ryder‘s (he/him) horror and sci-fi has appeared in numerous online, in-print, and audio publications, and his plays have appeared on stage in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He teaches full time for ACC and has appeared as a panelist and podcast guest for several venues discussing both the craft of writing and the thrill of dark fiction. He is a Roswell Award honoree and stole his M.F.A. from U.C. Riverside. He plays D&D, has the best kid ever, and is an avid lover of all things spooky.
Ysella Fulton Slavin
Poetry, Fiction
M.F.A. in Creative Writing
Ysella Fulton Slavin, a poet and fiction writer, grew up in New Mexico and El Paso, has her MFA from American University and lived with her guitarist husband in Argentina where she taught and also translated the short story collection, Voices from the Pampas. For 20 years she taught at El Paso Community College, was the faculty advisor for the Literary Journal, Chrysalis and director of PaPaGaYo: Community Literary Center. Besides teaching at ACC, she is the Outreach Coordinator for LAHC. She has published the novel Pomegranate and her work has also appeared in Folio, The Juggler, American Literary, BorderSenes among others.
Arun John
Fiction
MFA in Creative Writing
Arun John is a published writer and has an MFA in creative writing from New York University. Since 2007, Arun has been a faculty member in the Composition and Literary Studies Department at Austin Community College. Currently, he is the chair of the Liberal Arts Gateway Program at ACC, where he supervises course redesigns and the program’s administration across various departments at the college. Before joining ACC, Arun taught creative writing at NYU and was a writing instructor at the City University of New York System. Arun continues to reread and marvel at the writing of Etgar Keret, Han Kang, Sylvia Plath, and Albert Camus, among others.
Madeline Vosch
Fiction, Nonfiction
MFA in Creative Writing
Madeline Vosch writes and teaches fiction and nonfiction. Her first book, Undead: A Memoir, is forthcoming from Beacon Press. An excerpt of Undead was selected as the winner of the Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest in 2021. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, The Washington Post, and The Rumpus, among others. She is the recipient of a Fulbright grant and was an Aspen Words Emerging Writer Fellow in 2021.
Vivé Griffith
Poetry, Fiction
M.F.A. Poetry and Fiction, Austin Michener Fellow MA English
Vivé Griffith is a poet and essayist whose work has appeared inThe Sun, Oxford American, River Teeth, Hippocampus, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing in Free Minds, an ACC partnership that brings free college humanities classes to adults who have faced barriers to the classroom, and is Director of Outreach and Engagement for the national Clemente Course in the Humanities. An advocate for nontraditional students in higher education, she has published op-eds in the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Dallas Morning News
Katie McClendon
Fiction
MFA in Creative Writing – Fiction
Katie McClendon grew up on the West Coast, adventured into the Midwest, and settled herself down right here in the South. She received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Purdue University and teaches in the Humanities and English department at ACC. Her fiction has appeared in Cutbank Literary Magazine, Emerge Literary, Juked, and Smokelong Quarterly. Her poems have been published in Crab Fat Magazine, MareNostrum, and Portland Review, among others. She believes great writing will change both the writer and the reader, and that words have the power to make extraordinary things happen.
Joe O’Connell
Fiction, Nonfiction, Memoir
MFA in Creative Writing
Joe O’Connell’s novel in stories, Evacuation Plan, was short-listed for the Writers League of Texas Book Award and won the North Texas Book Award. His biodoc Rondo and Bob won eight film awards and screened at festivals around the world. His first documentary, Danger God, is about B-movie stuntman Gary Kent who inspired the stuntman character in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Joe earned an MFA from Texas State University and more recently completed the Book Project of the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver while working on upcoming historical novel The Contortionists. He teaches fiction and memoir at ACC.
Tessa Livingstone
Poetry
MFA in Creative Writing
Tessa Livingstone is a poet and professor in Austin, TX. She enjoys engaging the transformative and macabre in her poems, which have appeared in Willow Springs, Northwest Review, Salt Hill, Juked, Five:2:One, Whiskey Island, Water~Stone Review, Heavy Feather, South Dakota Review, and Portland Review, among others. She holds an MFA from Portland State University.
Andrew Heinrich
Playwriting
BFA in Theater, MFA in Dramatic Writing
Andrew Heinrich (he/him) is a playwright, director, actor, and violence designer living and working in San Antonio, TX. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Texas State University with a BFA in Theatre, and an MFA in Dramatic Writing. His plays have won national recognition and have been produced in Texas, California, New York, and beyond. Andrew is an Assistant Professor in the Drama Program at Austin Community College. Produced works include Flood, Instructions for Dancing, and Canvas.
Louisa Spaventa
Poetry
MA in English/Creative Writing
Louisa Spaventa (she/her) earned an MA in English/Creative Writing from UT Austin and employs literature to broaden community and mold identity. Studies with performance artist Linda Montano at UT inform her art/life philosophy, alongside her background in punk rock zines and college radio. Her writing appears in the Barrelhouse anthology Bring the Noise, Coconut Poetry, No Tell Motel, and various other publications. She has contributed to alternative weeklies in Austin, Atlanta, and Santa Barbara. At ACC since 2003, Louisa received the League Excellence Award in 2023. Queer texts, music, and dance are her lifeblood.
Amber Luttig-Buonodono
Screenwriting, Poetry
BA in English – Creative Writing, MFA in Screenwriting
Amber Luttig-Buonodono (she/her) was born in Michigan but spent much of her childhood in the United Kingdom. She began writing when she was three years old and has since gone on to write award winning screenplays, commissioned plays, and published poems and novels. When Amber is not writing, she spends her time teaching at ACC, cold-reading Shakespeare’s canon (boom) with her international friends on Zoom, caring for her many pets, and drinking an unhealthy amount of hot yaupon tea with oat milk. Her favorite book is “The Tale of Custard the Dragon” by Ogden Nash.