Georgia State University - Emerging Student Writers

Join us in the Decatur Library to hear from Emerging Student Writers! These special sessions feature talented student writers from Georgia colleges reading their original work in 45-minute sessions throughout the day. 

This event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required, and seating is first come, first served. Emcee: Beth Gylys

About the Georgia State University Emerging Student Writers:

Allegra Armstrong is a descendent of the Jersey Devil and the guy who invented water ice. Originally from Philadelphia, she lives in Atlanta. She is a PhD student, a labor organizer, and an advocate for car free communities.

Genevieve (Eve) Clark is an MFA candidate in Fiction at Georgia State University. She earned her B.A. in Creative Writing from Agnes Scott College and is originally from Florida. Her work primarily focuses on the experiences of queer women and religious trauma with a supernatural twist. She loves old horror movies, fiber arts, queer fantasy and speculative fiction, and her silly orange cat, Freddie.

Elizabeth Cranford Garcia is the author of Resurrected Body, recipient of Cider Press Review’s 2023 Editor’s Prize, and Stunt Double (2016), a chapbook from Finishing Line Press. Her work has appeared in journals such as About Place Journal, Third Coast, The Florida Review, Southern Humanities Review, Tar River Poetry, Image, RHINO, Chautauqua, Rappahannock Review, Portland Review, and CALYX. She is an Assistant Editor for Five Points and a Georgia native.

Karen Javits is a poet, educator, editor and PhD candidate in Creative Writing at Georgia State University. She co-edits Beyond Bars, a journal for and by incarcerated writers and artists and teaches poetry workshops at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center. Her poetry has appeared in Crosswinds Journal, The Ekphrastic Review, and Crab Creek Review. Originally from Miami Beach, Karen lives in Decatur, GA with her family.

Rachel Pittman is a PhD student at Georgia State University where she teaches writing and serves as an Associate Editor at Five Points. Her writing has appeared in Whale Road Review, Strange Horizons, Fairy Tale Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and South Carolina Review.

Joy Alicia Raines is a writer and artist based in Marietta, Georgia. Raines’ work-in-progress literary fiction novel was named Best Manuscript Sample at the Atlanta Writers Conference in 2023. Her comics and illustrated poetry have been published by The New York Times, Crucial Comix, 7x7, and The Offing, who nominated her comic, “The Joy of Nail Polish” for Best of the Net in 2024. Raines is a recipient of the 2024 Comics Advocacy Group Mini Grant. She received a BFA Honors in Illustration at Parsons School of Design in 2019, and is currently an MFA candidate in the Creative Writing Program at Georgia State University.