Teaching Philosophy

I believe everyone can write deeply and creatively. I begin with what I see and allow the student to decide if that is what they want. Then I give the student the tools with which to do what it is they want. A carpenter is not a carpenter unless they have a hammer. Whereas writing can be a mystical experience, that experience derives from a mastery of the concrete tools of writing: grammar, point-of-view, pace, etc. Sometimes the so-called “problems” with someone’s writing are the very things that, once brought into the light, truly inform their work in a valuable way. They are gifts. My job is to see into their work and reflect its gifts back to them.

Education

• MFA in Poetry, University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop
• MFA in Playwriting, University of Iowa

Areas of Expertise

• Playwriting
• Poetry
• Television Writing
• Screenwriting
• Graphic Novel
• Fiction
• Memoir

Pronouns: She/Her

Meaningful Action in the World

I use the skills I have developed as a writer in order to teach writing. I stay open to what I see on the page for all its potential as a set of ideas, and use that to identify what the writer is trying to do. These are all skills I use in my own work as a writer. Seeing the potential in an idea is everything. Teaching keeps those skills honed as much as writing does. It is a way of perpetually learning new things. And I share the evolution of my thinking in my work.

Publications

What’s Bugging Greg? DPC 2016

Joan the Girl of Arc, DPC, 2012

O Pioneers!, DPC, 2007

The Stick Wife, Dramatic Publishing, 1997