ÎçÒ¹AV

Sarah Mullens joined SMU's English Department as the Hughes Fellow in Creative Writing in August 2026. Her creative work often set in Appalachia and the American South, layers personal narrative against archival research to represent complex truths and belief systems. Before joining SMU English, Mullens received her MFA from Colorado State University, where she was a Hammond- Schwartz Fellow, Leslee Beeker Memorial Fellow, and associate editor of the Colorado Review. Her writing has received support from Bread Loaf Writers Conference and Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, Oxford American, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere.

Area of Expertise:

• Creative Writing 

Areas of Interest:

• Creative Nonfiction 
• Appalachian Literature 
• Southern Literature 

Awards

• Mayday Creative Nonfiction Prize from New American Press, 2025