Ashley Kunsa came to Rocky in 2017 from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, where she completed a PhD in English literature. Prior to this, she earned an MFA in fiction writing from Penn State and a master of library science from the University of Pittsburgh. Her research examines American literature of the twenty-first century, primarily war fiction.

At Rocky, Ashley serves as faculty advisor for The Rocky Mountain Review, the student-run journal that publishes RMC student writing and art; hosts the annual Writers-in-Progress (WIP) reading, which features creative writing capstone students; and organizes end-of-semester student readings. She has twice taken students to New York City to meet with publishing and writing professionals as part of ENG 418. In addition, Ashley has served on numerous college committees.

Ashley’s recent poetry appears in Bennington Review, Barrow Street, Massachusetts Review, and Poetry Northwest, and her prose and scholarship have been published in The Writer magazine, Los Angeles Review, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, and the Journal of Modern Literature, among other venues. She received the Orlando prize for flash fiction from the A Room of Her Own Foundation and tied for first place for the inaugural Experimental Essay Prize from Eastern Iowa Review.