Clark House Writers-in-Residence

Cameron Busby
2024-2025

Cameron Russell Busby is a poet who writes novels and reads short stories. He served for two years as the Fiction Editor for Porter House Review while earning his MFA at Texas State University, where he now teaches. As the current Writer-in-Residence at the L.D. and LaVerne Harrell Clark House, Busby is working on several projects including a series of interconnected novels and an ambitious short story involving a fictional film franchise, Snake World. 

Rachel Donalson
2023-2024

Rachel Tandoc Donalson is a Filipina writer with Pushcart nominated fiction in Indie It Press and nonfiction in Prairie Schooner and Salt Hill Journal. She is a graduate of Texas State University's MFA Fiction program and is the 2023-2024 Texas State Clark House Writer-in-Residence.

Bianca Alyssa Pérez
2022-2023

Bianca Alyssa Pérez (she/her) is a Latina poet, educator, and editor born and raised in Mission, Texas – a small southern town bordering Mexico. She holds her MFA in Poetry from Texas State University, where she also teaches and coordinates the MFA in Creative Writing program. She was the 2022-2023 Clark House Writer-In-Residence in Smithville, TX. Her chapbook, Gemini Gospel, is published with Host Publications. She is also the co-host of the horror podcast, Basement Girls, with writer, Steph Grossman. Find more chisme at her website: biancaalyssaperez.com.

Ali Riegel
2021-2022

Ali Riegel is a writer and teacher based in Austin, TX. Her work has appeared in Barren Magazine, Rejection Letters, and elsewhere. She served as the Clark Writer-in-Residence from 2021-22.

Melanie Robinson
2019-2020

As a poet, writer, educator and owner of a small content writing business, every aspect of Mel’s work—both creative and professional—is steeped in a reverence for communication. She holds an MFA in poetry from Texas State University and was the 2019-2020 Poet in Resident at the Clark House in Smithville, Texas. She has been published by The Kingfisher Magazine, Dream Boy Book Club, Rust + Moth, Radar, Roanoke Review, Hot Pink Magazine, Hooligan Magazine, Barren Magazine, Burning House Press, The Boiler, and more. She was also a commissioned, featured artist for Luminaria: San Antonio Arts Festival in 2017. She now lives in Los Angeles as a working writer. Learn more about Melanie at her Linktree.

Jennifer Whalen
2015-2016

Jennifer Whalen (she/her) is a poet and educator from the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati, Ohio area. She is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection Eveningful, which was selected by Rick Barot as the winner of the 2022 Lightscatter Press Prize. Her poems can be found in Gulf Coast, Denver Quarterly, Southern Indiana Review, New South, Grist, The Boiler, and elsewhere. She previously served as writer-in-residence at Texas State University’s Clark House and currently teaches English at the University of Illinois Springfield.

Sean Rose
2014-2015

Sean Rose is writer, musician, and teacher from Louisville, KY. His creative work has been published in Ninth Letter, Southern Humanities Review, Day One, and elsewhere. He is the author and co-creator of Spidertown, a mixed-media zine series made with artist Claire Krüeger. He was the 2014-2015 L.D. and LaVerne Harrell Clark House writer-in-residence, and holds an MFA from Texas State University. He has also recorded and released numerous albums and EPs. He used to make a living as a newspaper reporter. He will change your car’s oil for cheap. Find him on Instagram @swritenow.

Ross Feeler
2013-2014

Ross Feeler’s work has appeared in Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, Craft Magazine's First Chapters Compilation, The Common, The Masters Review, New South, The Potomac Review, Story|Houston, Hypertext, and others. His novel-in-progress received the Marianne Russo Award from the Key West Literary Seminar. He is an editorial consultant for Craft Magazine.

Jaime Netzer
2012-2013

Dr. Colin Pope
2011-2012

Colin Pope is the author of Why I Didn’t Go to Your Funeral (Tolsun Books, 2019) and Prayer Book for the New Heretic (NYQ Books, 2023), a finalist for the Louise Bogan Award and the St. Lawrence Award. He received a PhD from Oklahoma State University and has held residencies and fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, Gemini Ink, and the New York State Summer Writers Institute. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day, Slate, Plume, AGNI, and Pleiades, among others. He is Assistant Director of Creative Writing at Northwestern University and works on the editorial boards of Nimrod International, RHINO, and TriQuarterly. He lives in Chicago.