Kirsten Beachy

Kirsten earned her MFA in creative writing at West Virginia University. She is a contributing editor to The Tusculum Review and edited the anthology Tongue Screws and Testimonies: Poems, Stories, and Essays Inspired by the Martyrs Mirror. Kirsten co-chaired Mennonites Writing VI: Solos and Harmonies, a bi-national writing conference, in Spring 2012.

Kirsten is currently serving as interim director of EMU’s Core Curriculum.

She lives in Briery Branch with her husband, a bevy of backyard chickens and ducks, several hives of honeybees, and Sophie the cat.

B.A. Philosophy & Theology, Eastern Mennonite University
B.A. Theater, Eastern Mennonite University
M.F.A. Creative Writing, West Virginia University

• “Walking.” The Tusculum Review. Forthcoming.

• “Field Notes Toward a Doctrine of Chicken.” The Cresset. Lent 2011

• Tongue Screws and Testimonies: Poems, Stories, and Essays Inspired by the Martyrs Mirror, Herald Press, 2010. Anthology editor.

• “Fertility.” Norton Anthology of Hint Fiction. 2010

• “Wild Things Need a Mother.” Review. Dreamseeker Magazine. Winter 2010

• “The Last Worker.” Tusculum Review Online. December 2010

• “The Last Mile.” Rhubarb. Winter 2009

• “Me and the Martyrs.” (reprint) Center for Mennonite Writing Journal1.5 (Sept. 2009)

• “Selling the Farm.” Shenandoah 59.1 (2009). Listed as “notable” essay in Best American Essays 2010

• “A Butcher of Conscience.” The Tusculum Review 4 (2008).

• “The Institute of Transcendence.” Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression 2.1 (2008):101-108

• “Is that all?” Dreamseeker Magazine 7.4 (2007): 7-11.

• “Me and the Martyrs.” The Tusculum Review3 (2007): 7-24

• “The Comforts of Home.” eightyone Dec. 2006.

• “Cinderella Maneuvers.” WriterAdvice.com June 2006.

• “Report from Amish Country.” Dreamseeker Magazine 5.4 (2005): 5-10.

• “The Day They Ask.” Nonfiction. Dreamseeker Magazine 5.1 (2005): 23-25. [Reprinted in eightyone November 2005.]

• Features, interviews, and columns for eightyone magazine, March 2006-January 2007.

• Features and news articles for Crossroads. 2000, 2005-2006

• “Martyr Stock: Literary Responses to the Martyrs Mirror.” Martyrs Mirror: Reflections Across Time Study Conference. Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College. June 2010.

• “Me and the Martyrs.” Mennonite/s Writing Conference. Bluffton, Ohio. October 2006.

• “Motivating Revision Through Written Response.” WVU Writing Program. Morgantown, W. Va. Spring 2005.

• “Martyr Stock” Sermon. Shalom Mennonite Congregation, Harrisonburg, Va. Summer 2010.

• “Notes from the Chicken Run” Sermon. Shalom Mennonite Congregation, Harrisonburg, Va. Summer 2009.

• “The Blessing of the Dishclothes” Shalom Mennonite Congregation, Harrisonburg, Va. Summer 2008.

• “That’s Not All.” Sermon. Shalom Mennonite Congregation, Harrisonburg, Va. Summer 2007

• Tongue Screws and Testimonies Reading. Arts Council of the Valley’s Smith House, Harrisonburg, Va. Jan. 14, 2011.

• Tongue Screws and Testimonies Release Reading. EMU. Nov. 18, 2010.

• Never Tell Mother Poets. Flash Fiction. Common Grounds Reading. EMU. Fall 2009.

• “Martyrs and Chickens.” Nonfiction reading. EMU Department of Language & Literature, Harrisonburg, Va. April 2007.

• “The Derby.” Fiction reading. WVU Graduate Reading, Morgantown, W. Va. Spring 2006.

• “The Day they Ask.” Nonfiction reading. EMU Honors Program, Harrisonburg, Va. January 2006.

• “Report from Amish Country.” Nonfiction reading. EMU Bible and Religion Department, Harrisonburg, Va. Fall 2005.

• MFA readings. Various fiction pieces. Morgantown, W. Va. Jan. 2005, Sept. 2004, Jan. 2004.

• The Elephant Market Reading. Fiction. Morgantown, W. Va. April 2004.

• Friendly City Food Co-op volunteer

• Shenandoah Valley Community School volunteer

• Shalom Mennonite Congregation, Harrisonburg, Va. Worship committee, Sunday school assistant, worship leader.

• Judge for WriterAdvice.com’s 2007 Flash Fiction contest.

• The Association of Writers and Writing Programs

• AWP 2011.

• Festival of Faith and Writing. Calvin College. 2010.

• Listening for the Language of Nature; Wilderness Wind writer’s retreat with Jeff Gundy, July 2009.

• Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, Jan. 30-Feb. 2, 2008.

• Blackfriar’s Conference, Oct. 23-28. 2007.

• GVC First-Year Seminar/College Writing Committee, Spring 2008

• Adviser to The Phoenix, student Literary and Arts Journal, 2007-08