08/12/2026
Congratulations to Dr. Bryanne Estes for defending her PhD thesis “The Art of Faith: Catholicism and the Modernist Imagination in Djuna Barnes, Muriel Spark, and Jane Bowles.”
Bryanne Estes is a writer, editor, and translator who received her English B.A. with a Spanish minor from the University of Iowa in 2014. Prior to graduate study, she worked as a journalist and librarian. In 2017 she returned to the University of Iowa, where she earned her M.A. in 2021, received awards including the Helen Fairall Scholarship, and acquired 9 years of teaching and research experience. She specializes in editing and publishing and has served as senior editor of The Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies and associate editor for The Iowa Review. She specializes in the intersection between mysticism and modernist literature, and her publications include conference presentations on Charlotte Brönte and Karen Tei Yamash*ta. She also translates from Spanish. Her dissertation, “The Art of Faith: Catholicism and the Modernist Imagination in Djuna Barnes, Muriel Spark, and Jane Bowles,” examines the influence of Catholicism on three 20th-century female authors. Bryanne is currently looking for work in the publishing industry. Recent writing projects include a translation of short fiction by Carlos Fuentes and an article on the problem of writer’s block for Jane Bowles.
Congrats Dr. Estes!
