Assistant Professor
(719) 502-3626 | brook.bhagat@pikespeak.edu
Box C16, Centennial | PCE-F248
Brook Bhagat, M.F.A., Lindenwood University
Brook Bhagat (she/her) was born in Colorado Springs. She earned a BA from Vassar College
in New York. She worked as a house painter, a gardener, a CNA, a freelance writer,
and a photojournalist for the Ute Pass Courier. Then, she left to travel in India,
where she met her husband, Gaurav, got married, and canceled her ticket home. Four
years later, they returned to Colorado Springs. Gaurav began teaching math at PPSC
in 2007, and Brook began teaching English in 2011. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing
from Lindenwood University in 2016 and began teaching full-time in 2017.
Brook Bhagat (she/her) is an author, editor, visual artist, and assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at Pikes Peak State College. As an instructor, she received three Adjunct Appreciation Awards for diversity/global learning and creative writing curriculum development, and her work in helping developmental students get published. She has developed unique curricula for developmental creative writing, Early Childhood Education- context English composition, and modern poetry writing. In 2017, she founded The Nearby Universe, a creative writers’ group for PPSC faculty and staff. She organizes, hosts, and participates in literary readings and events both on and off campus. She is a founding editor of Blue Planet Journal and the author of Only Flying, a Pushcart-nominated collection of surreal poetry and flash fiction on paradox, rebellion, transformation, and enlightenment from Unsolicited Press. Her writing has won or placed in the top two in contests at Loud Coffee Press, A Story in 100 Words, and most recently, the Pikes Peak Library District 2023 fiction contest. It has been published in Monkeybicycle, Empty Mirror, Soundings East, and other journals and anthologies. Brook’s paintings and drawings have also been published in literary journals and magazines, including The Light Ekphrastic and Aromatica Poetica, and have hung in galleries, art shows, theaters, and coffee shops. Read her work at https://brook-bhagat.com/, and learn more about The Nearby Universe at https://nearby-universe.com/.
• Nomination - Pushcart Prize for “The Mammoth,” Unsolicited Press, 2021
• Tied for second place in All Pikes Peak Writes, the Pikes Peak Library District’s
annual fiction writing contest, for “Magic Chai,” 2023
• First-round winner - Colorado Hearts and Minds Poetry Contest for “The Homes of
Birds,” 2022
• Honorable mention for “When the Pen Is Still,” Loud Coffee Press Haiku Contest,
2022
• Tied for first place for “Be the Poet,” Loud Coffee Press Summer Flash Fiction Contest,
2021
• First place for “The Homes of Birds,” A Story in 100 Words Nature Writing Contest,
2020
• Adjunct Appreciation Award for the development of CCR 092-CW, a unique developmental
creative writing-context English curriculum, 2015
• Adjunct Appreciation Award for helping developmental English students get published,
2016
• Adjunct Appreciation Award for diversity/global learning curriculum development
in Advanced Academic Achievement, 2016
AAA 101- Advanced Academic Achievement
ENG 030- Developmental English
ENG 060- Developmental English
ENG 090- Developmental English
ENG 092- Developmental English
ENG 0094- Studio 1021
ENG 1021- Basic Composition
ENG 2021- Creative Writing I
ENG 2022- Creative Writing II
ENG 2027- Poetry Writing
Select publications since 2015
• Full-length poetry and short fiction collection, Only Flying, November 2021, Unsolicited
Press
Poetry
• “You Were Born in Butterfly,” Ripples on the Pond: Meditation, a special issue from
The Closed Eye Open, 2023
• “Nightfall,” Rat’s Ass Review, 2023
• “The Torch,” GLISSADE: Special Issue on Dance from The Pine Cone Review, 2022
• “Chaplin,” “Soft Fracture,” “We Are Apricot Trees,” and “The Sky of the Sky,” The
Dribble Drabble Review (featured author), 2022
• “It Takes More Sparrows,” Lamplit Underground Magazine Vol. 8, 2022
• “Exodus with Red Delicious,” The Dribble Drabble Review, 2022
• “When the Pen Is Still,” Loud Coffee Press, 2022 (haiku contest winner)
• “The Moment in My Pocket,” A Story in 100 Words, 2021
• “Ember Opens the Door,” Aromatica Poetica, 2021
• “The Courier,” Prometheus Dreaming, 2021
• “The Homes of Birds,” A Story in 100 Words, 2020 (nature writing contest winner)
• “The Sunflower,” Flash Flood Journal, 2020
• “The Homes of Birds,” A Walk with Nature Anthology, University Professors Press,
2019
• Excerpt from “The Goddess Becomes,” A Story in 100 Words, 2019
• “She Comes in on a Peahen” and “Downwelling,” Harbinger Asylum, 2018
• “The Goblin King Slips an Empty String,” A Story in 100 Words, 2018
• “Letter to an Unborn Daughter (Fist Girl),” The Almagre Review, 2018
• “The Golden Thread,” A Story in 100 Words, 2018
• “The Way the World Ends,” A Story in 100 Words, 2018
• “There Is a Mother Waiting for You, a Kangaroo,” Peacock Journal – Anthology: Beauty
First [Volume II, Number 1], 2018
• “I Get Found, 1974” and “I Found a Pair of Hands Digging in the Garden,” Empty Mirror
Magazine, 2017
• “The Widow’s Cat,” A Story in 100 Words, 2017
• “I Have Been Lying Since the Beginning,” Damfino Press, 2017
• “The Star and the Crop,” “There Is a Mother Waiting for You, a Kangaroo,” and “Sailcloth,”
Peacock Journal, 2017
• “The West Wing,” A Story in 100 Words, 2017
• “Bella is Suzanne,” Anthem: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen, 2017
• “Woke Up This Morning,” and “Christmas Candle (Done with You),” Quail Bell Magazine,
2017
• “Pocket Hollow,” Rat’s Ass Review, March 2017
• “The Left Eye is Enough,” A Story in 100 Words, 2017
• “Only Flying,” A Story in 100 Words, 2016
• “Christmas Candle (Done with You),” Nowhere Poetry and Flash Fiction, 2016
• “Wavestar Bang,” A Story in 100 Words, 2016
• “Woke Up This Morning,” Syzygy Poetry Journal, 2016
• “Public Poems Built on Public Property,” “Nightshirt,” and “Craigslist,” A Story
in 100 Words, 2016
• “I Want to Climb Behind Your Eyes,” US Represented, November 2015
Fiction
• “Magic Chai,” Pike Peak Library District All Pikes Peak Writes 2023 Contest Winners
Anthology, 2023
• “June in Winter,” Big City Lit, 2022
• “Sebastian’s Real Friend,” Loud Coffee Press, 2022
• “Be the Poet,” Loud Coffee Press, 2021 (microfiction contest winner)
• “Once Upon a Time I Died,” Lotus-Eater Magazine Issue #10, 2019
• “The Same Woman (Scarlight),” Monkeybicycle, 2019
• “Jump (Magic Pants),” MoonPark Review, 2018
• “Grandma’s Egg” and “The Edge of the Woods,” Peacock Journal, 2017
Creative Nonfiction
• “Just a Story,” Lamplit Underground Magazine Vol. 8, 2022
• “Cracking Collarbone Jones,” Soundings East, 2021
Humor
• “Phyllis” and “Creed,” The Alien Buddha Goes Pop, 2021
Visual art
• “Moon” and “Freefall,” The Light Ekphrastic, 2023
• “Timberline,” Aromatica Poetica, 2021
AWP
the human condition
prose poetry
children's literature
diversity, equity, and inclusion in publishing and education