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‘It was like we were garbage’: Stanford to ‘cycle out’ creative writing lecturers

One creative writing lecturer requested anonymity due to fears of professional retaliation. Pseudonyms and gender neutral pronouns were used to protect sources’ identities and improve readability.

Many of Stanford’s creative writing lecturers will be phased out over the next two years, as the University restores the Jones Lectureship’s term limit as part of the restructuring of the Creative Writing Program.

The restructuring, executed under the recommendation of a working group formed after the lecturers secured pay raises last September, was announced in a Zoom meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 21 by Humanities and Sciences dean Debra Satz, Humanities and Arts senior associate dean Gabriella Safran and Creative Writing Program co-director Nicholas Jenkins. The working group was composed of creative writing faculty members but no Jones Lecturers. 

The Jones Lectureship came with a four-year cap that only began to be enforced on fellows hired after 2019, but over the course of the years, some lecturers have stayed longer than the terms of the program. With the restoration of the original term-limited appointments, however, all current Jones Lecturers — including those hired prior to 2019 — will be let go within the next two years.

Some lecturers have already been affected; for instance, Rose Whitmore was dismissed in 2023 after winning that year’s Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize.

For Casey, a lecturer who requested the use of a pseudonym due to fear of professional retaliation, the Wednesday meeting felt cold and awkward.

“It was like we were garbage,” Casey said. “They didn’t even acknowledge how difficult this news would be, and when they did give us time to ask questions, the way they fielded the questions, particularly [Jenkins], it was just very cold and very dismissive.”

Safran disagreed with Casey’s characterization in a statement on behalf of the Creative Writing Program and the School of Humanities and Sciences. The Daily also reached out to the University for comment but has not obtained a response.

During the Wednesday meeting, the deans told the lecturers that they would be “cycled out.” They clarified that it meant the lecturers’ jobs would be “terminated,” Jones Lecturer Tom Kealey told The Daily. Some lecturers will be teaching for an additional year, while others will be teaching for two more years. Kealey called the situation a “future fire.” 

“We were brought in to discuss the ‘restructuring’ of the overall program, and then we were all fired,” Kealey said. One lecturer even told him the meeting felt like the Red Wedding from Game of Thrones. 

Five minutes after the meeting, an email from Christina Ablaza, the administrative director of the Creative Writing Program, informed the lecturers that they could sign up for one-on-one meetings to discuss their individual situations. 

Lecturers to be affected by the decision were frustrated that they had no say in the phase-out. But Satz and Safran do not have voting power in the working group either — only the faculty members do. The faculty members made the decision “to fire all 23 of their junior colleagues” in what Kealey called a “secret meeting.” 

“I got the impression that the deans themselves were confused as to why the professors had voted to fire them,” Kealey said.

Kealey believed that 10 out of all the creative writing faculty members on the working group only taught 13 undergraduate classes last year, while the same number of Jones Lecturers would have taught 50 classes. Lecturers also advise about 90% of students in the Creative Writing Program and 50% of students in Department of English, he estimated.

Many students expressed concerns that they will lose a strong community of creative writing peers and classes. They are also confused as to what the program will look like in the future. 

Students are receiving information from each other, lecturers, a recently created Instagram page called “ripstanfordcw” (which stands for rest in peace, Stanford creative writing) and even from Fizz, an anonymous social media platform. The confusion comes a week before course enrollment is set to begin on Sept. 5.

Students have tried to voice their displeasure with the current decision. A petition , started by Kyle Wang ’22 M.A. ‘23, has received over 600 signatures from students and alumni. He began the petition after talking to some of his friends about the positive impact many of the Jones Lecturers have had on their lives. Other community membes tried to write emails to University administrators.

In an online announcement published on Wednesday, Aug. 28, the Creative Writing Program states that Stanford will increase “the number of creative writing classes to better meet high student demand as well as ensuring competitive compensation for both the lecturers and fellows.” According to the statement, more details will be released in the fall. 

“I know they said that they were having meetings and they’re reworking [the program], but it’s not very transparent,” said English major Skya Theobald ’25.

Mia Grace Davis ’27, a prospective English major, wanted to take “English 190E: Novel Writing Intensive,” a class known for its popularity and limited enrollment, in the fall. Now she is not even sure if it will be offered in the future. 

For Davis, the main appeal of Stanford had always been its Creative Writing Program, but “it’s kind of falling apart as we’re watching it,” she said.

To students who have taken numerous creative writing classes like Theobald, it doesn’t make sense why lecturers are being cycled out when the program wants to meet the growing demand for creative writing. 

Prospective English major Annabelle Wang ’27 said what’s happening has even made her reconsider her course of study.

“It definitely makes the English major less desirable,” she said of the phase-out. “I think for students and the student experience, it’s going to be a really big loss. A lot of community is going to be lost.”

Theobald also expressed concerns the variety of creative writing classes will be reduced. A lot of them such as “English 190G: The Graphic Novel” and “English 190E: Novel Writing Intensive” are rarely offered at other universities, but incoming freshmen now may not have the same opportunities to explore those classes. For instance, specialized classes like “The Graphic Novel” may not be offered again if the lecturers who teach them are let go, Kealey said.

Students felt that the Jones Lecturers have shaped the way they view their own writing. Lydia Wang ’27 had often struggled to understand the value of her writing, but her lecturers were the ones to help her realize there is a place in the world for what she creates. 

“That’s the type of impact that really changes people, and when people change, they can change the world as well,” she said. “So I really hope that Stanford learns to value the humanities, and especially creative writing, because we’re creating change, and we’re creating something for ourselves.” 

Some lecturers remain hopeful that the restructuring, which is ongoing, will be reconsidered.

“I may be naive, but I still believe in Stanford. I think Stanford is much better than this,” Kealey said. “I think as light is shed on this, enough people are going to say, ‘This doesn’t make our university better. It makes our university much worse.’”

Judy N. Liu '26 is the Academics desk editor for News and staff writer at The Daily.

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Creative Writing Tips from Harvard’s Faculty

Harvard’s English faculty hosts a powerhouse of acclaimed creative writers. As lecturers and professors, they devote countless hours to passing on the skills of their craft to students. The Crimson asked four faculty members who teach fiction-writing classes to share their creative writing wisdom.

“You can make an entire world up in your head and transmit it to other people with scribbles on a page,” said Claire Messud, a Senior Lecturer. “Making up stories is open to all of us.” While not every Harvard student will have the opportunity to take their classes, anyone can try their hand at creative writing.

Start small, and make time to write.

Paul Yoon, Briggs-Copeland Lecturer, in an email: Start small. Oftentimes when we have an “idea” to write something, we’re operating on a level that is somewhat abstract and leans on the bigger picture. How to begin a story you want to tell? I like starting with just one sentence or focusing on an object or a specific detail, like describing setting or one character trait. Just that. Go micro, focus. Start small. And go step by step from there.

Claire Messud, Senior Lecturer: Learning the habit of making time for writing is the challenge for many people. Almost everybody makes time to exercise now. It’s just the same—you can say, I’m going to sit at my desk for an hour, or write until I have 200 words. You just make a plan. If you do something several times a week for weeks and months, you will get better at it.

Imagine the iceberg, not just the tip.

CM: It isn’t just about figuring out a plot and characters. It’s about really imagining the world, circumstances, and particularities of those characters and that situation—not just what’s going to appear on the page, but the entire world. Hemingway speaks about the tip of the iceberg. The tip of the iceberg is what the story is, but there’s an entire iceberg under the water. You have to make the iceberg to make the story.

Revise for clarity.

Laura M. van den Berg, Briggs-Copeland Lecturer, in an email: In my experience, a common struggle for students is the discomfort of sitting with the uncertainty of the first draft—i.e. I’m not sure where this story is going, I don’t know what this character is up to, I don’t know how it will end . Sometimes students worry that this not-knowing is a sign that they’re doing something wrong, when the not-knowing is very often an essential part of the process.

I tend to write my own drafts very quickly and messily and intuitively—and then spend a lot of time re-shaping and re-casting and re-imagining. In the first draft, the most important question I ask myself is “Why not?“ For every draft after the first, the question is, “Why?”

CM: Revision is really at least 50 percent of the work. Some of the things to think about: How much of what’s in my head have I conveyed on the paper? Have I been clear? It’s great to be beautiful or lyrical or inventive, but none of it matters if you haven’t expressed clearly what you wanted to express. The process of revision is about a clarification and a distillation. If you have three scenes, each of which does one thing, can you figure out a way to have one scene that will do all three things?

Read as if living depended on it.

Jamaica Kincaid, Professor of African and African American Studies in Residence, in an email: It is more important that you read than to write because when you are writing you have first read what you are writing before you write it. So the best thing, so it seems to me, for a writer is to read as if living depended on it. Nothing else really matters.

LMV: If you want to write poems or short stories or essays or novels, it is critically important to have read deeply in the genre—from the canon to what the canon has missed to what’s being written right now to everything in-between. And of course writers should also read expansively, roaming outside the genres they themselves work in.

PY: Always be open to inspiration. “Best American Short Stories” is a fantastic anthology. In terms of literary magazines, I think my current favorite, the ones that feel bold and ambitious and the ones I consistently want to pick up are: Tin House, A Public Space, and Ecotone. Books and stories are our best teachers.

Take your time during the publishing process.

LMV: Take your time getting to know the landscape. Read literary magazines and get a feel for who regularly publishes work that you love. Pay attention to where writers you admire have published/are publishing their work. Make sure you have given your work everything you have before you send it out into the world—an editor (almost always) is only going to read the piece once. Mightily resist the urge to rush.

No writing is wasted.

CM: No writing is a waste of time. You can always write better, and any writing you do is going to teach you how to write. You just have to dive in. You have to be unafraid. The language is ours. What a great freedom.

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• Faculty Issues
• Shared Governance

‘Red Wedding’: Storied Stanford Creative Writing Program Laying Off Lecturers

The university says creative writing faculty recommended returning its Jones Lectureships to their “original intent” as short-term teaching appointments for talented writers. A lecturer of 20 years said he thinks there’s a “peasants and lords issue” in the program.

By  Ryan Quinn

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Stanford University is laying off its current Jones Lecturers.

Some Stanford University lecturers are likening it to the “red wedding” in Game of Thrones —a massacre of characters by their supposed allies amid what had been billed as a celebratory feast.

Last Wednesday, a dean, a senior associate dean and a co-director of Stanford’s storied and popular creative writing program held a Zoom meeting with the program’s 23 Jones Lecturers, according to some of those lecturers, who were chosen from the ranks of those who have held the university’s prestigious Stegner Fellowship for writers.

The university leaders complimented the Jones Lecturers over Zoom. “They praised us to the moon,” Tom Kealey, a lecturer for two decades, told Inside Higher Ed . “Endlessly” praised was how Edward Porter, a lecturer of eight years, put it.

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Then, Kealey said, the leaders announced they would all be losing their jobs within the next two academic years. “The worst part is to be praised while you’re being fired,” Porter said. According to notes he took of the meeting, Nicholas Jenkins, the program’s co-director, said something to the effect of “you’re excellent, but others will be excellent in the future.”

There was an added sense of betrayal. The deans—Debra Satz, dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Gabriella Safran, senior associate dean of humanities and arts—said this wasn’t their decision, according to Kealey. In Medium posts on the ordeal, he wrote that they said it came from “the senior professors of creative writing.”

“These are literally our teaching colleagues of the last five to 15 years,” Kealey wrote. “And they decided in a previous secret meeting to fire all 23 of their junior colleagues.” In another post, he wrote that “it was only the MALE professors who voted to fire us.” ( Inside Higher Ed reached out Tuesday to some of the male creative writing professors on Tuesday, but received no responses.)

In an unsigned announcement last Wednesday on the university’s website, Stanford said it is returning to the “original intent of the Jones Lectureships: one-year appointments with the possibility of renewal for a limited term.” That announcement said the recommendation came from faculty members on a “Working Group of Creative Writing Academic Council faculty,” but it didn’t name them.

Satz, Safran and Jenkins said in an emailed joint statement to Inside Higher Ed that "this change will again allow Stegner Fellows the opportunity to apply to be Jones Lecturers once they have completed their fellowships. Jones Lecturers will have one-year appointments with the possibility of renewal for up to four additional years."

While it’s no longer rare for non-tenure-track faculty members to be laid off by higher education institutions facing budget woes, Stanford is a wealthy institution and creative writing is, by its own admission, a popular program.

“We have a large number of fully enrolled classes, many with significant waitlists and some where the waitlists are longer than the enrollment roster,” Jenkins said in a February 2023 article on the university’s website. He also said, “We’re in a remarkable period of hiring during which we’re fortunate enough to be bringing to campus an extraordinarily talented array of significant artists and teachers.”

But the lecturers say they’re the ones teaching most of the creative writing classes for undergraduates, and that their years of experience improve teaching. Kealey said some lecturers teach five classes a year; others teach four. He wrote on Medium of the senior creative writing professors that “the 10 of them … taught 13 undergraduate classes last year (and 19 overall, less than two classes taught per professor).”

The leaders said during the Zoom meeting the decision wasn’t about money, according to Porter. “It’s maddening to have outstanding enrollment and be phased out anyway,” he said. While the university has said it wants to simply return the Jones Lectureships to the short stints they used to be, Kealey suggests the tenured professors in his department had other motives.

“I think there’s a peasants and lords issue here,” Kealey said.

A Long Time Coming?

In 1946, Wallace Stegner, who would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for Angle of Repose , founded Stanford’s creative writing program. The Stegner Fellowships are named in his honor.

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E. H. Jones, who had an oil fortune, funded the fellowships and also established the connected Jones Lectureships, according to the university’s announcement from last week. It said these were meant to be “limited, fixed-year teaching appointments, allowing exceptional Stegner Fellows some time and support to prepare a manuscript for publication, hone their teaching skills and transition to a longer-term teaching career elsewhere.”

But “over time this framework of term-limited appointments was not followed,” the university said. It did not say when that change occurred. It might have had something to do with Eavan Boland.

Boland, an Irish poet, led the creative writing program for 20 years until her sudden death in 2020. “Eavan was just a fierce defender of the program,” Kealey said. He said her death “was a great loss to all of us.”

When Boland joined the program, Kealey said, it had maybe 20 or 25 classes. But Boland wanted every student who so desired to be able to take a creative writing class. Kealey said lecturers went to residence halls in early years to speak with students about the program. Over about 15 years, Kealey said, the program grew to offer about 120 classes.

Porter said Boland “developed a large cadre of about 20 to 25 lecturers.” Even though they were on one-year contracts, Porter said, they kept getting renewed. He said it’s true that Boland did move the lectureships away from their original intent—but that it was beneficial for students, teaching and the program.

“There are a lot of human skills to playing this game, and those don’t come in a year,” Porter said. “We have letters, testimonials from students about how much we’ve meant to them. We’re also very available to them—we talk to them outside of class, there’s a sense of continuing mentorship if they want it.”

Now, Porter said, “there is at least the appearance” of the university creating “artificial scarcity,” suggesting there’s no room for the new, younger Stegner Fellows writers to get a leg up by becoming Jones Lecturers “because these crusty old folks are hogging up all the real estate.” Safran, the senior associate dean, said, per Porter’s meeting notes, that “in some years few or no Stegners were able to advance.”

Kealey said, “There’s no shortage of space for new Stegner Fellows to be hired into the Jones Lectureships, but, I don’t know, the professors wanted to do a scorched earth with this, and that’s what they’ve done.”

The lecturers said they pushed for, and received, raises from the university in September 2023. “Exactly a year later we’re all fired,” so “connect the dots here,” Kealey said. “I think the lords didn’t like that—didn’t like the peasants speaking up.”

Porter talked about “balancing one set of values against the other.” He said the tenured or tenure-track “creative writing faculty doesn’t teach many classes and many of them are not involved—they don’t care about the undergraduates. It’s not their job to care; it’s their job to write books, be famous and raise money, and that’s very necessary.”

And part of the purpose of the Jones Lectureship program is to give new writers a step up. But Porter worries about the other side of the equation being lost. “It’s our job to care about the undergrads,” he said.

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University Writing Program

Senior Lecturer + Associate Director (Writing Center)

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Nate Brown joined the University Writing Program in 2022, after having taught fiction and creative nonfiction for five years in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins. He is a graduate of Cornell University and of the MFA program at the University of Wisconsin, and he has taught composition and creative writing courses at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, Stevenson University, Georgetown University, and the George Washington University.       

Since graduating from college, he has worked in literary publishing, first at Random House and currently at the award-winning literary journal American Short Fiction, where he serves as the managing editor. He is a board member of Writers in Baltimore Schools, an arts nonprofit serving Baltimore City middle and high school student writers.     His current teaching and research interests include equity and access in contemporary American publishing, visual studies and the intersection of written and visual rhetoric, community-based writing programs, and writing about art and media.    

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BFA Creative Writing Program

Co-hosts Virtual Reading Event with 30 BIPOC Women Writers

TSAILE, AZ — On Thursday, September 22, 2022, Diné College’s BFA in Creative Writing Program launched the 2022-2023 academic year with a virtual reading for a newly-released anthology, Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro-Essays on Being in the World (ISBN: 978-1-949116-69-4). The event was co-hosted with Woodhall Press and the anthology’s executive editor, Darien Hsu Gee, along with 30 of the writers who were contributors to the book. All contributors are women of color.

There were 117 registered online participants, including the panelists, who attended the two-hour event to listen to the authors read their work and answer questions about writing micro and the creative process. Each micro essay is 300 words or less—true stories that speak to otherness, familial relationships, impossible beauty standards, ancestral heritage, coming of age, and owning one’s place in the world.

“People asked us, why micro? For the past few years, I’ve been doing a lot of writing and teaching on micro narratives…it was even the topic of my MFA thesis. A lot of people are familiar with flash, which is around 750-1000 words, but micro is much more compact,” said Gee. “It’s a very precise, short form.”

Gee added during the online event, “Crafting a micro narrative, be it fiction, prose poetry, or a micro essay like the ones contained in our anthology, is about true decision making, about tuning in deliberately and with great focus and care to what is wanting to be said or shared in a moment. We wanted to include as many voices as possible in this book, and micro was the perfect fit.”

Shaina Nez, a second-year doctoral scholar and Creative Writing department faculty member, was also a contributor to the collection. “Writing micro was a learning a new process, unfolding these experiences during a pandemic required a liminal space. I reflected mostly on my day-to-day with my daughter and that was a metaphor to what I perceived as coloring within a white space. Using pieces of Diné Bizaad in my micro-essay, “Hazʼą́,” I was providing a space for my daughter, self, and the world looking at self-image what it will mean for my daughter’s future as a Diné and Bilagáana woman,” Nez said.

The Nonwhite and Woman anthology includes author commentaries, discussion questions for further exploration, resources for additional reading, and a guide to writing micro essays. Perfect for personal or classroom use; the anthology is available for purchase through the following websites:

Woodhall Press: https://bit.ly/nww-2022

Bookshop: https://bit.ly/nww-bookshop

B&N: https://bit.ly/NWW-BN

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3f6B761

A recording of this online event will be posted on the BFA Creative Writing, Diné College Facebook Page. Like and follow the page here: https://www.facebook.com/BFA-Creative-Writing-Din%C3%A9-College-108038488720958

Shaina A. Nez is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and English at Diné College. She is Táchii’nii born for Áshįįhi. She earned her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from IAIA in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, Yellow Medicine Review, Chapter House Magazine, and Abalone Mountain Press, as well as the anthology, Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro Essays on Being in the World (Woodhall Press).She is an alum of Tin House and a recipient of the 2021 Open Door Career Advancement Grants for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) women writers.

Darien Hsu Gee is the author of five novels published by Penguin Random House that have been translated into eleven languages. In 2021, her collection of micro essays, Allegiance , received the Bronze IPPY award in the Essays category. In 2018, she received the Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship award for Other Small Histories and the 2015 Hawai‘i Book Publishers’ Ka Palapala Poʻokela Award of Excellence for Writing the Hawai‘i Memoir .

Darien holds a B.A. from Rice University and an M.F.A. from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. She lives with her family on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, Darien currently serves on the Hawaiʻi Island Leadership Council for the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation. Past board positions include the Friends and Foundation of the San Francisco Public Library, ZYZZYVA, and the Kahilu Theatre.

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Meet some of our Tutors

Dr Jenn Ashworth, Senior Lecturer in Creative writing

When I write I like to start with what I know: the places in the North of England where I’ve lived and grown up, the literary genres – crime, horror, the gothic and supernatural – that I’ve always loved – and the conundrums about faith, family, illness and what writing is for that I’ve spent a career thinking about. But no matter where I start, the blank page always seems to take me into unfamiliar places and ways of seeing the world anew, and is a mysterious process that allows me to explore the edges of what a form or a genre is capable of. I know that when I write I'm having a conversation not only with my reader, but also with many of the other novels and short stories I've read along the way so writing becomes a way of re-reading, and reading – closely and adventurously – is always the first stage in the writing process. I hope writing works that way for my students too: a way of bringing the unfamiliar into view, and of making the familiar persistently, incurably strange.

Dr Tajinder Hayer, Lecturer in Creative Writing

I’ve ended up writing scripts for the stage and radio despite coming from a family background where there was little history of theatre attendance and no BBC Radio Four playing in the house in the afternoons. There were also not many books (consistent generational literacy only really started with my parents). There were, however, stories; not necessarily the epics or folk tales that we associate with oral storytelling, but a steady flow of village gossip that unfolded on to the urban and familial landscapes of Bradford, the West Midlands and Glasgow like a pop-up book. This overlap of cultural geographies has defined subsequently my writing, reading and viewing interests (with a liberal dash of fantasy and sf genres). It’s also made me keen to develop writing from underrepresented areas and writers.

Dr Brian Baker, Senior Lecturer in English

I’ve always been a reader of popular genres: Stephen King’s horror novels (the ones my Mum didn’t drop in the bath, that is), crime thrillers and police procedurals, spy novels, and science fiction, of course, always science fiction. Literatures of the imagination have been my thing since my Dad and I read 2000AD comic together. Future cities, weird goings on, robots, alternative histories, secrets, worlds within worlds within worlds. You might want to call it escapism, but I would prefer ‘seeing things differently’, off-kilter, if you like. All kinds of imaginative literature is about understanding the world not as it is presented to us, but as how it might be, in terms of dreams, fears, or hopes.  Whatever I teach here at Lancaster, and whatever students study, thinking differently is always vital.

Dr Philip Dickinson, Lecturer in Postcolonial Studies and World Literature

My love of literature really grew during my A levels. I remember reading stacks of books on family holidays — mainly the classics like Dickens and Austen but also more contemporary writers like Ian McEwan or Muriel Spark — whatever I could get my hands on at the school library. At university my horizons widened. I vividly recall reading Toni Morrison and Derek Walcott in my first year, both of whom used language in intense and unfamiliar ways, and accessed new and often painful horizons of experience. My research and teaching at Lancaster revolves around postcolonial literatures, including writing from Africa and the Caribbean, and I am also interested in connecting environmental questions to the legacies of empire and colonialism. Lancaster is the perfect place for me to pursue these interests, given the vibrant research community here exploring place, landscape and transcultural writing. What I most love about Lancaster are the students, who are engaged, committed and always challenging my own preconceptions.

Dr Liz Oakley-Brown, Senior Lecturer in English

Nearly all of my childhood adventures took place via the written word. Saturday afternoons were often spent with the boarders at Elinor Brent-Dyer’s  Chalet School  series and I was inspired by Jo March’s writerly ambitions in Louisa May Alcott’s novels. My one act of rebellion at school involved the confiscation of  The Man Who Fell to Earth  when I should have been reading  Great Expectations . My teenage passion for Thomas Hardy’s writing underpinned my desire to study for a degree in English literature. However, as a second-year undergraduate at Cardiff University I took a course which included Edmund Spenser’s  The Fairie  Queene  and I was immediately fascinated by the Elizabethan epic. Almost all of my subsequent research can be linked to this compelling poem and I remain completely captivated by Tudor writing and its particular examination of what it is to be human.

Professor Catherine Spooner, Professor of Literature and Culture

I discovered Gothic aged fourteen via The Cure , and scandalised my parents by dying my hair black and smothering myself in eyeliner. Then at A-level I studied Mary Shelley’s  Frankenstein , and realised there was a whole world of Gothic literature out there to enjoy – from Ann Radcliffe to Angela Carter. But I never quite lost sight of the music and fashion that had drawn me to Gothic in the first place. I remain fascinated with the intersections between Gothic literature and film, fashion and popular culture. A typical research day for me might involve close-reading Victorian novels, or scrutinising the imagery used by fashion shoots in Vogue. What I love about Lancaster is that its open-minded, cutting-edge approach allows me to combine both – and share them with my students in classes like ‘Victorian Gothic’, where we use nineteenth-century painting and photography to contextualise fictions of vampires, werewolves and ghosts.

Dr Eoghan Walls, Lecturer in Creative Writing

Writing was a shameful secret for me when I was a student. I would read promiscuously - Emily Dickinson, Stephen King, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Stan Lee - but kept my own writing hidden. Like it was a precious bloom that might wither if I shared it. When I eventually came out to other writers in my mid-twenties it was the best thing I ever did. Responding to other engaged readers helped me to see what wasn't working in my poetry, but also what was working, and areas I could push. Making experimental statements to see how they chimed off readers. It let me take risks, write weirdly, write better. So as an academic - and as a creative writing tutor - I see this as my first role: to offer an engaged reading of the students' work - both to hone their work and to encourage risk.

Okechukwu Nzelu: Lecturer in Creative Writing

My debut novel was published in 2019, but I've been writing for as long as I can remember. As soon as I learned to write letters, words and sentences, writing stories seemed to be the next logical step. Like many writers, I began writing because it felt natural and fun; then, as I was growing up, the fiction and nonfiction of Arundhati Roy and Zadie Smith in particular have helped me find my voice. Writing still feels natural and fun but the older I get, the more I think about the different things that writing can do, and what purpose(s) my writing can serve. Now, as I write and as I edit, I think about every image, every allusion, every joke and how it contributes to the overall work. What kinds of humour can I bring to my writing? What am I saying about a character, by making certain writing choices? What am I saying about the themes that are close to my heart? With which techniques can I experiment, while still writing in a voice that feels like mine? I think these questions stay with you from the beginning, all the way through your writing life. They're challenging questions, and the answers shift and change with time and text and author, which is part of what makes teaching writing so much fun. My hope is for my students to develop a sense of their own voices while being aware of the multitude of voices around them and around the world.

Professor Kamilla Elliott: Professor of Literature and Media.

I grew up in a missionary family where daily life revolved around studying the Judeo-Christian Bible. At age 11, I read Shakespeare for the first time, and ran all the way home from school to tell my mother, ‘It’s just like the Bible!’ I still remember her puzzled and slightly disapproving face. My twin passions at school were reading and theatre; after a BA in Mass Communications and Theatre at the University of Colorado, I studied one year of an MSc in Film at Boston University. It wasn’t until relatively late in life, I returned to study literature, first at a night school, and later in the ‘day’ school of Harvard University. For my PhD thesis, I was torn between two topics: Protestant Mariology in American anti-slavery fiction and proto-cinematic techniques in Thomas Hardy’s fiction. I chose the latter and have never looked back, finding joy and constantly new discoveries about literature through the lenses of its relations with other media.

Dr Elen Caldecott: Lecturer in Creative Writing.

Like many writers, I began by writing fan fiction. I loved series like Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers books and – because I couldn’t bear to say goodbye to the characters – I wrote my own sequels. For years I kept my writing private, almost secret. I worked in a whole range of jobs – waitress, theatre usher, museum security guard – before finally feeling brave enough to share my words with the world. I write for children and young people. Partly, I think because my writing and reading experiences were so intense at that age, but also because I enjoy living in the hopeful space that art for young people inhabits. Children’s literature has a rich history, but it is also dynamic and inventive. It has to respond and speak to the way we life now. I mostly write contemporary fiction, with working-class children as my stars. Every now and again, a young reader will send me stories they’ve written inspired by my books, and it delights me that the creative baton is being handed on.

Dr Azelina Flint: Lecturer in Nineteenth Century Literature

Research overview.

My research interests are: nineteenth-century women’s writing, the transatlantic and archival turns, the intersection between nineteenth-century religious and feminist thought, and the connection between creative and critical writing. My practice and teaching in Creative Writing concerns creative non-fiction, life-writing and memoir, and I am currently working on the first biography of the nineteenth-century painter, writer and activist, May Alcott Nieriker. Additionally, I am a practising poet who has collaborated with visual artists in Italy and the US.

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Creative Writing Currently: My First-Year Faculty Experience Teaching for the BFA Program at Diné College

Shaina nez (diné), senior lecturer, creative writing & english | may 2023.

My first year as a faculty lead teaching and overseeing the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) program in Creative Writing (CW) at Diné College was an eye-opening experience, even though I was not new to the tribal college setting. I have worked with the tribal institution since November 2019, starting as a BFA Program Coordinator, later transitioning to a Program Manager, and now a full-time faculty member with the School of Arts and Humanities .

Teaching foundational and junior-level courses in the genres of Fiction and Creative Nonfiction allowed me to highlight contemporary Native American and Indigenous authors who paved the path of inquiry, transformation, and social justice. I’m also a doctoral scholar in Justice Studies at Arizona State University and believe this experience is informing my pedagogy to address the necessary inclusions for tribal college CWP’s to have a larger role in literary spaces such as AWP, including those literary communities seeking emerging diverse poets and writers.

With the support from the students and faculty, here’s what we achieved in the academic year  2022–2023.

To jumpstart the year, I hosted an online reading event in collaboration with Darien Hsu Gee, editor of the anthology, Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro-Essays on Being in the World published by Woodhall Press . Bringing this online experience to the undergraduate students was a reward in itself; we had over fifty contributors reading from the anthology. Event feedback reflected success in terms of recognition, belonging, and identity, engaging in our experiences as women together in the online space.

Promoting our program with student involvement became the next step. With our twelve students widespread throughout the Navajo Nation and out-of-state, highlighting the students and faculty together in real-time is the continuing challenge to solve. One approach was establishing a program-led brochure encouraging students to engage with their aesthetic by answering the question, what does storytelling mean to you? Here are some student contributions from the forthcoming graduating class of 2025:

“Storytelling is a cultural skill that has evolved over the years. Presently, storytelling allows us to reflect and listen to the past while nurturing our future storytellers to continue sharing human experiences. Poetry allows me to write freely from my mind and spirit, and to appreciate the abundance life shows us daily. It has changed from oral storytelling to written literature. Today, we are expressing our writing in different media forms.”

-Jalen Smallcanyon, Diné, double majoring in Creative Writing and Diné Studies

“Writing to me is the key to a portal to the past, to the present, and to the future."

-Zenaida Lee, Diné, Creative Writing

“Storytelling is an act of creation. And the act of creation is inherent in all beings. From the smallest fragment to the largest object, we are all part of a never-ending cycle of transformation. Storytelling is a delicate fusion of past and present reflected back to us from the universal. A narrative of our own making, in perpetual motion, etched into the bone. Story telling is our essence laid bare for all the world to see.”

-Lambert Martin, Jr., Diné, double majoring in Education and Creative Writing

“I am learning how to improve my self-expression with words I write in the Navajo language.”

-Danielle Manygoats, Diné, Creative Writing

What is unique about the students are their ways of knowing in writing and other art forms. For instance, Ruth “Bazhnibah” Kawano is a digital photographer and a daily contributor to the local newspaper Navajo Times. With a keen eye for shape, texture, and depth, Bazhnibah assisted with photographing faculty during our BFA CW Photoshoot at the second college campus located in Shiprock, New Mexico.

The Saad Na'ach'aah Reading Series hosted by faculty member Orlando White (Diné) featured Navajo poets and writers Esther Belin, Sherman Bitsui, Jesse Maloney, and myself on the main campus in Tsaile, Arizona. The reading series is historically significant to the college campus—even when I was a former undergraduate student; I read my first published poem at one of his events in 2010. Orlando has hosted distinguished poets and writers at the college, including Joy Harjo (Muscogee/Creek Nation), Arthur Sze, Natalie Diaz (Mohave/Gila River Indian community), Luci Tapahonso (former Diné Poet Laureate), Santee Frazier (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), and Simon Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo).

Spring 2023

The spring semester began with acknowledging our partnerships with graduate programs, such as the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) MFA Low-Residency Creative Writing Program. MFA Director Deborah Taffa (Yuma Nation and Laguna Pueblo) along with Program Assistant, Rachel Marquez (Chicanx), visited our students online with special guest readers from IAIA’s current MFA cohort. This event inspired the undergraduate class to plan their future in writing—the hope is to continue these tribal institutional partnerships as part of expanding the representation of Native American and Indigenous worldviews in storytelling and publishing as a way of reclaiming our literary landscapes.     

Tribal institutions across the nation come together for annual gatherings, such as AIHEC (American Indian Higher Education Consortium) hosted in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Competitions in Indigenous knowledge, creative writing, and arts highlight the unique perspectives and practices our students are encouraged to submit. This year, Kelli Jo Ford was the guest judge for this year’s Creative Writing competition. The BFA CW program was pleased to see Jalen Smallcanyon’s piece ‘The Aura’ placed as ‘honorable mention’ in the Creative Nonfiction category for her work.

My first year concluded with seeking additional grant and research funding to further hear from the CW students about their experiences in the program. Becoming a justice researcher influences my ways of knowing, being, and learning in these Native community spaces. I’m grateful to be among these courageous creatives, as they are the future in telling their stories for our communities and themselves. Our goal is to attend AWP conferences to build our network with other literary programs in solidarity as mainstream and tribal institutions. Our program continues to blossom with the support of students, faculty, and literary communities. Ahéhee' to AWP for highlighting the Navajo Nation’s first tribal institution since 1968. 

Shaina A. Nez is Táchii’nii born for Áshiihi. She serves Diné College as a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and English. She is a doctoral scholar in Justice Studies with the School of Social Transformation and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University. She earned her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is a two-time Blanchard Pre-Dissertation fellowship recipient with the American Indian College Fund (AICF) for 2022 and 2023. Her forthcoming dissertation is “Emerging BIPOC Women Writers: A Mixed-Methods Examination of Experiences in Career Preparation, Social Capital, and Gender Inequality in Creative Writing Programs.”

For more information about the BFA CW Program at Diné College, contact Shaina A. Nez at [email protected] , or by phone (505) 368-3664.

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OFD Welcomes New Faculty Members & Librarians to Campus

On August 26, the Office of Faculty Development (OFD) welcomed new faculty and librarians to campus at its annual New Faculty Orientation (NFO) event. The theme of the day was sustainability – a topic highlighted by Provost Abd-El-Khalick who invoked the Okanagan Charter in his opening remarks, pledging, “to make the university a better place to live, work and learn by embedding well-being practices in our culture.”  

NFO was hosted in the Marriott Center where attendees heard from offices across campus about the ongoing support available to new faculty as they transition into their new role.  You can view the full day’s program and offices represented here . 

Angela de Oliveira , Associate Provost for Faculty Development, shares, “We are so pleased to welcome almost 130 new faculty and librarians to UMass Amherst from across the globe and many different disciplines. Our goal at New Faculty Orientation is to help these folks make connections, build community and introduce them to their support network at UMass Amherst.”  

New Faculty Orientation is the first event in a series of programming for new and early career faculty offered by OFD throughout the 2024-2025 academic year. “We are so excited to create inclusive spaces for new faculty and librarians to connect and learn from each other both personally and professionally,” shares, Leyla Keough-Hameed , Director of Faculty Development. Check out the list of our new faculty and librarians with their scholarly interests and specialties below!*

2024-25 New Faculty & Librarians

• Anna Antoniou , Assistant Professor of Anthropology, community-engaged archaeology 
• Eugene Bagdasaryan , Assistant Professor of Computer Science, security and privacy 
• Desiree Bailey , Assistant Professor of English, creative writing, poetry, poetics 
• Hedyeh Beyhaghi , Assistant Professor of Computer Science, algorithms and machine Learning 
• Nikko Bovornkeeratiroj , Lecturer in Computer Science, teaching and sustainability research 
• Emmanuel Branlard , Associate Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, wind turbine modeling 
• Amanda Cass , Lecturer in Biology, evolutionary developmental biology 
• Brandon Castle , Librarian, Native American studies 
• John Clegg , Assistant Professor of Economics, economic history 
• Christopher Cox , Senior Lecturer in Mathematics and Statistics, billiard dynamical systems 
• Libby Coyner , Librarian, University Archivist 
• Nelson da Luz , Assistant Professor - Clinical, Extension or Research of Civil and Environmental Engineering, water infrastructure management 
• Selasi Dankwa , Assistant Professor of Microbiology, malaria parasite-host interactions 
• Tim DeLuca , Assistant Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, DLD, Dyslexia, Language 
• Anne Dietrich , Lecturer in Sport Management, sustainability in sport 
• Meng Qi Ding , Assistant Professor of Marketing, AI, machine learning, user-generated content 
• Indika Dissanayake , Associate Professor of Operations and Information Management, crowd-based platforms 
• Madeline Endres , Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Software Engineering 
• Edwin Everhart , Lecturer in Anthropology, Linguistic anthropology; dialect 
• Brenda Garcia , Lecturer in Political Science, Anthropology, Latina/o Studies, Legal Studies 
• Mindy Gonzales Backen , Associate Professor in the College of Natural Sciences, adolescent development; ethnic-racial identity; ethnic-racial socialization 
• John Griffin , Lecturer in Finance, Finance and Economics 
• Melissa Harter , Librarian, library access service 
• Amanda Hernandez , Lecturer in School Counseling, school counseling 
• Gonzalo Hidalgo , Assistant Professor of Music and Dance, community, family, and excellence 
• Annie Hikido , Assistant Professor of Sociology, urbanization, globalization, intersectionality 
• Simon Hoellerbauer , Lecturer in Data Analytics and Computational Social Science, social science methods 
• Michal Horny , Assistant Professor of Health Promotion and Policy, Patient cost-sharing 
• Katie Ingraham Dixie , Lecturer in the Center for Teaching and Learning, inclusive teaching development 
• Heesoo Jang , Assistant Professor of Journalism, ai, media, ethics 
• Marlon Jean , Lecturer in Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences,study of volcanism on Earth, moon, and Mars 
• Adam Jorring , Assistant Professor of Finance, Economics, Inequality, Mortgages 
• Ajhanai Keaton , Assistant Professor of Sport Management, diversity, organizational behavior, leadership 
• Brendan Kelly , Librarian, Science, Engineering Librarian 
• Kristin Lacey , Lecturer in Communication, Composition, public speaking 
• Hannah Laue , Assistant Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, environmental molecular epidemiology 
• Sang Hyun Lee , Assistant Professor of Microbiology, biofilm, microfluidics, bio-proccess 
• Jianyu Li , Assistant Professor - Clinical, Extension or Research in the Stockbridge School of Agriculture, sustainable agriculture production 
• Yuan Li , Assistant Professor of Astronomy, astrophysics, hydrodynamics, computation 
• Jialin Li , Lecturer in Mathematics and Statistics, uncertainty quantification 
• Jianjing Lin , Assistant Professor of Resource Economics 
• Chang Liu , Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, clinical diagnostics, biomarkers 
• YiYi Luo , Assistant Professor of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Chinese literature, classical poetry, culture 
• Thomas Mackie , Full Professor of Health Promotion and Policy, health services research 
• Azima Majeed , Lecturer in Judaic and Near Eastern Studies, expertise in Persian language 
• Sadiyah Malcolm , Assistant Professor of Sociology, Black girlhoods, ethnography 
• Elizabeth Martin , Lecturer in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, adult cognitive-linguistic disorders
• Craig McNally , Director of CNS Undergrad Student Success and Diversity 
• Roshad Meeks , Lecturer in Afro-American Studies, African American poetry 
• Emily Nutwell , Senior Lecturer in Computer Science, public interest technology 
• Cana Park , Assistant Professor of Biology, aging neurobiology, cognitive aging and rejuvenation, body-to-brain communication 
• Riccardo Pedrotti , Assistant Professor - Clinical, Extension or Research of Mathematics and Statistics, symplectic geometry, low dimensional topology 
• Signe Predmore , Lecturer in Political Science, Writing, political economy, gender studies 
• Kun Qian , Assistant Professor of Marketing, quantitative marketing, content economy, digital platforms 
• Zihao Qu , Assistant Professor of Operations and Information Management, operations management, Revenue Management, Emerging Technologies 
• Amanda Raimer , Lecturer in Biology, molecular genetics 
• Carolina Rossini , Director for Public Interest Technology Programs and Professor of Practice; public interest technology; technology law, governance, and policy; international geopolitics of technology governance; human rights, gender, and technology impacts.
• Kristine Ruggiero , Associate Professor - Clinical, Extension or Research of Nursing, pediatric Health clinician/researcher 
• Yuanrui Sang , Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, energy system decarbonization 
• Sunandita Sarker , Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, advanced manufacturing 
• Sarah Rose Stack , Lecturer in Journalism, public Relations, communication 
• Marta Stelmaszak Rosa , Assistant Professor of Operations and Information Management, managing digital data 
• Eric Toole , Librarian, Supporting systematic reviews 
• Ulya Tsolmon , Associate Professor of Management, business strategy 
• Adaora Ubaka , Assistant Professor - Clinical, Extension or Research of Management, positive intergroup contact in the workplace; non-prototypical leaders (i.e., BIPOC and women); organizational responses to societal Events in organizations 
• Maria Vint , Lecturer in the Business Communication Program, business communication 
• Sarah Vitelli , Librarian, STEM Librarian 
• Meichen Wang , Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, toxicology, environmental health, exposure 
• XiaJun Wei , Assistant Professor - Clinical, Extension or Research of Biomedical Engineering, nanotechnology biosensing 
• Caitlin Worth , Senior Lecturer II in Mathematics and Statistics, math education 
• Nathan Wycoff , Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, computer simulations/experiments 
• Mengfan Xu , Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, online & statistical Learning 
• Alexandra Zagalskaya , Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, catalysis, energy conversion 
• Ka Zeng , Full Professor of Political Science, international political economy 
• Hongyu Zhang , Lecturer in Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences, privacy, place, GIS 
• Qian Zhao , Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, statistical inference, machine learning, data science education 
• Jia Zheng , Assistant Professor of Student Development, critical qualitative inquiry, racial equity, higher education 

*Please note that this list is not all-inclusive and instead represents new faculty and librarians who have opted into sharing their names publicly. If you are a new faculty member or librarian and would like to have your name added to this list, please email [email protected]

2604 W. E. B. Du Bois Library 154 Hicks Way, Amherst, MA 01003-9275 413-545-1675 [email protected]

• Senior Lecturer/ Associate Professor/ Professor: Creative Writing

• Categories:
• Creative Writing

Job Details

• Expires 12 September 0 days left to apply
• University: NWU
• Contract: Permanent appointment
• Reference number: P001047
• Province: Gauteng
• Type of engagement: Permanent appointment
• Posted: September 6th
• Remuneration package: The annual total remuneration package will be commensurate with the level of appointment as advertised and in line with the NWU policy guidelines.

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The unitalentza website was launched out of necessity. It is a direct off-shoot of Academic Partners , the pre-eminent talent accessing and assessing service company within the South African Higher Education sector. A company that started 44 years ago in the commercial sector, but which in the last 26 years, has focused almost exclusively in the HE sector. Having founded the company, Jimmy Wayland took retirement in May 2022, but as a swansong objective, he undertook to develop Unitalentza website to uphold the same values, levels of confidentiality, trust and reliability as the founding company. Anything less and Jimmy would like to hear about it.

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Background to Position

NORTH-WEST UNIVERSITY (POTCHEFSTROOM CAMPUS) FACULTY/ DIVISION: HUMANITIES POSITION NUMBER: P001047 VACANCY: SENIOR LECTURER/ ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR/ PROFESSOR: CREATIVE WRITING PEROMNES GRADE: A5/A6/A7 EMPLOYMENT TYPE: PERMANENT PURPOSE OF THE POSITION This position will be vacant from 01 January 2022 in the Subject Group: Creative Writing in the School of Languages (PC). ALL PREVIOUS APPLICATIONS WILL BE CONSIDERED

Job Description

Job description

1.     Teaching & Learning

·         Undergraduate teaching and learning and post-grad supervision, preferably with specialization in Afrikaans & English poetry.

2.     Research and Creative Writing

·         Individual research and creative writing, preferably with specialization in Afrikaans and English poetry, pre-reviewing of research articles and scholarly book contributions, co-operation in subject group projects in creative writing and research.

3.     Management and University Services

·         Fulfilling management tasks and duties in service of the University as a whole, as they arise.

4.    Community Involvement

·         Participating with director of the ATKV School for Creative Writing of the NWU in presenting non-accredited workshops in creative writing, reviewing literary works on invitation.

KEY FUNCTIONAL/ TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES:

·         Excellent communication skills (in both Afrikaans and English)

·         Excellent level of computer literacy and experience of online teaching and learning

·         Successful creative writing (published by mainstream publishers), preferably poetry

·         Effective (proven) teaching and research guidance skills

·         Relevant and scholarly valued (published) literary researching

KEY BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES:

·         Excellent administrative and organising ability

·         Ability and willingness to work as part of a team

·         Ability to self-motivate and work independently

·         Good interpersonal skills

Inherent Criteria

Minimum requirements

·         PhD in Literature and/or Creative Writing

·          Senior Lecturer : 2 years’ experience in teaching at a tertiary institution (in literary studies and/or creative writing).

·          Associate Professor : 4 years’ experience in teaching at a tertiary institution (in literary studies and/or creative writing). Post-graduate study guidance at a tertiary institution (in literary studies and/or creative writing). CV to provide clear evidence of standing, recognition and publication outputs appropriate to the level of associate professor.

·          Professor : 6 years’ experience in teaching at a tertiary institution (in literary studies and/or creative writing). Post-graduate study guidance at a tertiary institution (in literary studies and/or creative writing). CV to provide clear evidence of a continued record of excellent achievements and publication outputs in relation to what is expected of a professor according to national and international norms.

ADDED ADVANTAGE & PREFERENCES:

·         Membership to relevant Afrikaans and/or English literary and/or writers’ societies

·         2 years’ experience in post-graduate study guidance at a tertiary institution (in literary and/or creative writing)

Application Requirement

Kindly take note: applications must be submitted online through the official NWU vacancy website.

Incomplete applications and those submitted through any other platform will not be considered.

The University subscribes to and applies the principles of Employment Equity (EE) Act and is committed to transformation. Preference will be given to candidates from the designated groups, in accordance with the principles of the EE Act and NWU Employment Equity Plan.

The University reserves the right not to make an appointment. Communication will be limited to shortlisted candidates only.

If you are not contacted within two months from the closing date of this advertisement, please accept that your application was unsuccessful.

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