Our Mission & Staff, Fall 2024-Spring 2025
We're proud of CutBank's fifty-plus years as Montana's foremost literary magazine, founded in 1973 by the Creative Writing program at the University of Montana and helmed initially by favorite literary son William Kittredge.
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We publish two print issues a year of compelling poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction by established writers and new voices alike. We're global in scope, but with a regional bias.
Over the years, we've been privileged to feature work by Wendell Berry, Louise Erdrich, Richard Hugo, Seamus Heaney, James Welch, Patricia Goedicke, James Lee Burke, Chris Offutt, Aimee Bender, Steve Almond, and a number of other writers whose work we're fond of. That's the joy, we think, of both publishing and reading a publication like CutBank: discovering and developing a fondness for new work.
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"Everything about this magazine intrigues: its look, the art,
the poetry, the fiction ... Who could ask for more?"
~ LITERARY MAGAZINE REVIEW ~
The CutBank Team
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Hillary Jo Foreman
Hillary Jo Foreman grew up in and around Anderson, Indiana but considers Athens, Ohio her second home. She earned her MA in Creative Writing with a concentration in fiction from Ohio University in 2020 and is a current MFA candidate in creative nonfiction at the University of Montana. Hillary is the recipient of a 2024 Ridge Scholarship for her project “Divine Child: a Quilt.” Her stories and essays have been published in Relief and Barren Magazine. When she’s not writing, she spends her time running and cuddling with her two best friends, dalmatians named Louisa and Edna Pop.
FICTION EDITORS
Kim Carson Bodie
Kim Carson Bodie has worked a lot of odd jobs and lived a lot of odd places. She is an Editing Intern at Coffee House Press. Her recent work has appeared in Puerto del Sol, LitroUSA, and others. She likes being outside with her dog, Townes Van Dog.
Pamela Huber
Pamela Huber is an MFA candidate in fiction at the University of Montana. She was raised on the water, on Lenape land in Delaware, and educated on Piscataway land in Washington, DC. Her writing has appeared in Atlanta Review, Furious Gravity, The Journal of Lost Time, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Delaware Bards Poetry Review, CommonLit, and elsewhere. She has received awards from Glimmer Train and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. You can find her on a long weekend traveling in her self-converted camper van, which has taken her 35,000 miles around the continent. She lives online at pamelahuberwrites.com.
POETRY EDITORS
Sam Bovard
Sam Bovard is a MFA student studying poetry at the University of Montana in Missoula. He is the coordinator of the Second Wind Reading Series and a bookseller at Fact and Fiction bookstore. An avid biker, gardener, and birder, he is happiest outside. He has been recently featured in Heavy Feather Review's "The Future" section, Traverse, and Bullshit Lit.
Lisa Kouroupis
Lisa Kouroupis is an MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Montana. Originally from the Baltimore, Maryland area, she came to Missoula by way of Chicago, Illinois. She likes tinkering in her kitchen and reading with (and to) her cat. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in West Trade Review, Funicular Magazine, Arboreal Review, and elsewhere.
NONFICTION EDITORS
Grace Schwenk
Grace Schwenk is a writer from the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. Most of her writing is done at a fire tower on the Payette National Forest. When not writing or looking for smokes, she can often be found getting lost with her dog, Selway. Her work can be found in Tiny Seed Literary Journal, WinC Magazine, Chaotic Merge, and others.
Hannah Lee
Hannah Lee is an MFA candidate in nonfiction at the University of Montana. Raised in Salt Lake City, she finds herself at home near mountain ranges and large bodies of water. Her writing has appeared in Sink Hollow and Living Details Magazine. When she’s not antiquing or destroying her kitchen in an attempt to bake, she’s likely attempting to oil paint. Again. This has yet to prove any form of satisfactory result.
ART AND PRINT EDITOR
Jackson Mills Smith
Jackson Mills Smith is a second-year MFA Poetry candidate at the University of Montana. Born in Louisiana and raised in the bottoms of the White River in Southwestern Indiana, Smith is an author interested in the living histories and cultural folkways embedded in the landscapes that surround us. Now living in big-sky country, he maintains the same strong passion for hunting and angling instilled in him by his father and Cajun family friends. Recipient of the Greta Wrolstad Travel Award, Smith's work is featured in publications including Making Waves: A West Michigan Review, The Quarter(ly), Wild Roof Journal, Write Place, Another Earth’s What Makes a Lake?, and Third Room’s You are Here, Vol. 1: Labor.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR
Claire Alongi
Claire Alongi is an MFA fiction candidate at the University of Montana. She grew up in Davis, California then graduated from Willamette University. This is her first time living someplace that isn't within an hour of the ocean, and she's resisting the urge to feel landlocked. She's spent the last five years interning for Elizabeth Rusch and assisted on such novels as You call THIS Democracy?, The 21: The True Story of the Youth Who Sued the U.S Government Over Climate Change, and A Greater Goal: The Epic Battle for Equal Pay in Women's Soccer. Her work has appeared in the Timberline Review.
Special Projects Editor
Emily Harman
Emily Harman is an MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Montana. Born in Minnesota, Emily has spent most of her adult life in the mountains, forests, and beaches of Washington state and considers the PNW home. Emily's work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, The Lumiere Review, Nimrod, and Crosscurrents Literary Journal. She can usually be found near an alpine lake, in a coffee shop, or cuddling on the couch with her dog Sadie.