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. Mentor: Workshops and classes in fiction and nonfiction Statement: Workshops should be places of inquiry where we learn to articulate the why behind our aesthetic values and preferences as writers. In my classrooms I work to foster an environment where students can explore their unique voices and engage with the craft that underlies their work without the pressure of polished products. I encourage my students to experiment with different styles and forms of writing, to read widely and beyond their

. Mentor. Workshops and classes in fiction and nonfiction. Statement: “One day in college, my favorite teacher came to the limit of her patience with me.  I had nearly suffocated a personal essay full of similes and metaphors and the word ‘I.’  She looked at my five drafts, handed them back and said, ‘You can do better than this. Just tell the truth.’  The simple rightness of this struck me like a blow to the head, and still does: it is a model of great teaching.  Of course I still commit, on a daily

mind, then metaphor is an accelerant and poets are arsonists.” Whether a writer intends this fire to provide warmth or to burn something down, my goal as a teacher and mentor is to provide them with the tools necessary to stoke that flame. Meeting students’ writing on its terms and through the lens of their own individual poetic canons, rather than a monolithic notion of craft, I hope to draw out the best and bravest versions of their work. I encourage writers to court failure in their writing

and men to tell their own stories through writing. Davis currently lives in the Ozarks, where he teaches for the Program in Creative Writing & Translation at the University of Arkansas. Raised by the Pacific Northwest, he also serves as Poetry Editor for Iron Horse Literary Review.  Mentor. Workshops and classes in poetry. Statement: I encourage writers to keep sight of what comes next. Yes, we will work on sharpening our craft through intensive practice with technique and through a study of

nonfiction and poetry. Statement: “I am an editor because I am a writer; I am a writer because at some point–I believe I was in my mid-twenties–simply taking in the world no longer seemed enough, and because I have crazy but loving dreams of whacking a few readers in the gut the way my favorite writers have whacked me. I try to edit via compassionate insinuation [from the Latin insinuare: to introduce by windings and turnings], doing my best to enter the intention and spirit of a piece to determine how

 Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays.  Winner of the Oregon Book Award, the Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award, and the Reform Judaism Fiction Prize, he teaches at Willamette University and lives in Salem, Oregon. Mentor. Workshops and classes in fiction. Statement: “As a writer, I am endlessly surprised and fascinated by the possibilities offered by narrative and by language; as a teacher, I try to get students excited about those possibilities by sharing my discoveries and

Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at West Virginia University, and she is on the faculty of the Rainier Writing Workshop, Pacific Lutheran University’s low-residency MFA program.  She lives in Pittsburgh, PA. Mentor. Workshops and classes in poetry. Statement: If, as Muriel Rukeyser says, poems are “meeting-places,” I am ever-ready to meet you in those places and to help you to think through the difficult pleasures of creating such encounters. I am eager, too, to discuss how you situate your work

classes in poetry. Statement:  “I encourage students to think of themselves not as isolated individuals, but as members of a learning community. For me, the writing workshop is a place where students improve their skills in reading, critical thinking, interpretation, and communication through engagement with their own texts and with those written by others.  To be members of a learning community, I teach my students that verbal and written communication are inextricable, neither can take place

innovative teaching methods where she incorporates multimedia resources and immersive experiences to bring the knowledge to life in the classroom. Whether through virtual cultural exchanges or hands-on projects, she continually strives to make the learning process engaging and relevant for her students. Dr. Ekani grew up in Cameroon in a nurturing environment that emphasized the value of knowledge. This laid the foundation for a lifelong commitment to education. She had the opportunity to live in various

Richard L. Nance Professor Emeritus Professional Biography Additional Titles/Roles Term of Service: 1992-2023 Education D.M.A., Music, Arizona State University, 1992 M.A., Music, West Texas State University, 1982 B.M.E., Music, West Texas State University, 1977 Areas of Emphasis or Expertise Choral Conducting Choral Composition Accolades Choirs under Nance's direction were selected to perform for conferences sponsored by the National Association for Music Education in 2009 and 2016. 2016 NWACDA