Our Mission & Staff, Fall 2025-Spring 2026

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

"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

FICTION EDITORS

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.  

Kirsten Kearse

Kirsten Kearse is a screenwriter, filmmaker, playwright and short story writer. She’s written for television and adapted novels for the screen. Her short films have traveled the international festival circuit. Her play A VOID won the Encore Award at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Her stories can be heard on MORE BEDTIME STORIES FOR CYNICS (winner of the 2020 Audie Award for humor) and can be read in Joyland Magazine and We Spoke. She’s performed at UCBLA, The KGB, Dixon Place (NYC), and Women’s Center for the Creative Arts (LA). She received her BA at the University of Notre Dame and is currently an MFA candidate in creative fiction at the University of Montana. She is a MacDowell Colony fellow.

POETRY EDITORS

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. 

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 Chestnut Review, Wildness, Poetry Northwest, Nimrod, and elsewhere.  She can usually be found outside. 

Joa Bren Smith

Joa Bren Smith is a writer most currently hailing from the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington. Originally from a small coastal town next to Lake Michigan, Joa spent their childhood body-surfing waves with their father and playing tag with friends in the sand dunes. During college, Joa took their last semester off-campus in Southern Oregon, where their care for community, sustainability, agriculture, activism, and literature collided. When not reading or writing, Joa can be found outdoors, teaching in a classroom, or playing with their camera. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Hooligan Magazine, Poets.org, Enby, and others.

CREATIVE NONFICTION EDITORS

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.

Mayah DeMartino

Kat Kothen-Hill

Kat Kothen-Hill is an essayist and MFA candidate in nonfiction at the University of Montana. She found her way to creative writing through science-based student journalism. Originally from Oregon and most recently living in San Francisco, Kat is adjusting to real winters and big sky in Missoula. You can find her in the backyard with her two dogs -- one old, one scrappy. 

ART AND PRINT EDITOR

Luke Kuennen

SOCIAL MEDIA AND SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR

Despina Norway