Faculty Mentors

Faculty Mentors                              Visiting Residency Faculty                               Recent Faculty

(Fiction/CNF) PATRICIA LEAR was born in Memphis, Tennessee and lives in Evanston, Illinois. Three of the stories from her collection Stardust, 7-Eleven, Route 57, A&W and So Forth (Alfred A. Knopf) have been anthologized in Prize Stories 1991, The O’Henry Awards; New Stories From The South, The Year’s Best (1992); In A Country of Her Own (1993); Best of the South, From Ten Years of New Stories From The South, Selected and Introduced by Anne Tyler (1996); and The Antioch Review 2002 60th Anniversary Issue, The Best of the Decade. The New York Times Book Review included Stardust on their 1992 Summer Reading List, The Editor’s Choice, and also named Stardust as one of their Notable Books of the Year. Her stories have also been published in TriQuarterly, and Chicago Works: a Collection of Chicago Authors' Best Works. “The Bridge Playing Ladies” was published in The Antioch Review, Winter 2003 as their lead story with the cover art illustrating the story. She was their featured writer at a fundraiser in Chicago 2003. She has written for The New York Times Magazine, Chicago Magazine, Allure, New City, and the Chicago Tribune Book Review. She is at work on a novel. Lear has been awarded an Illinois Arts Council Finalist Award and received fellowships to Yaddo, Breadloaf, Virginia Center For The Creative Arts, Ucross foundation, and The MacDowell Colony. She was awarded a Tennessee Williams Fellowship at The University of The South and taught there with Tim O’Brien. Recently, she was awarded an Evanston Arts Council Grant to support the completion of her current novel, as well as an Illinois Arts Council Award for Literature 2003 for her story “Nirvana,” originally published in StoryQuarterly. “Nirvana” was included in 2003 New Stories From the South: The Year’s Best.

“I am ambitious for my students. The mark of a good teacher is how her students do, and I take that personally.  I was a student of Gordon Lish in New York, and he remains my editor and mentor. I seek to develop a strong relationship with my students, and from a place of mutual trust, I push, well, kind of hard. But harsh as that might sound, you will have no greater cheerleader in your corner and no one singing your praises higher than I will be when there comes the breakthrough we are both working for. 

“I am also very interested in language, beats, rhythms on a sentence level, and especially in finding the thing that only YOU could have written, not writing that ANYBODY could have written. I am interested in bringing out your voice, the voice that really goes on in your head uncensored, in the language that is most natural to you. If you are grounded with that, you will be unassailable by others.  Often I will ask what story a student would have died happy to have written, and to me, it’s a quick way to get my head around what it is that you love in literature, and usually what direction you want to take your own work in. It’s also a great reference point to use when explaining some aspect of craft.  A short story (or novel, or CNF) should be like a good rock song that picks you up, carries you along and drops you off at the end—with an uppercut. And its effects should linger.”

(Poetry/Fiction) JIM PETERSON was born in Augusta, Georgia; grew up in South Carolina; and has lived in Montana and Virginia.  He received is BA, MA, and PhD from the University of South Carolina.  He is currently Coordinator of Creative Writing at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia.  He has published four full-length poetry collections: The Man Who Grew Silent (The Bench Press), An Afternoon with K (Holocene Press), The Owning Stone (Red Hen Press), and the Bob and Weave (Red Hen Press).  Also, two chapbooks have been published: Carvings on a Prayer Tree (Holocene) and Jim Peterson’s Greatest Hits 1984-2000 (Pudding House).  His poems have appeared widely in literary publications including Poetry, Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Poetry Northwest, Connecticut Review, Texas Review, Chariton Review, Greensboro Review, Laurel Review and numerous others.  His manuscript The Owning Stone won The Benjamin Saltman Award, and his poetry was awarded a Poetry Fellowship by the Virginia Commission on the Arts.  He also writes fiction, plays, and nonfiction.  His novel Paper Crown was published by Red Hen Press in 2005, and several of his plays have been produced in college and regional theaters.  A new essay entitled “The Kreskin Effect” has just been published in an anthology from the University of Nebraska Press entitled Living Blue in the Red States.  He has been married for many years to the amazing Harriet, and the two of them live in service to their Welsh Corgi, Dylan Thomas.

“Everything I do as a teacher is oriented toward helping the student reach a better relationship with her or his own purpose as a writer.  It’s important that a student understand the positive side of all of the work she does.  If she writes a poem or story that misses its mark, she needs to understand the benefits of that effort as it applies to revisions and to her future work on other pieces.  I believe that writing should be the kind of work that’s fun.  I accept that I have to write badly at times in order to get to the writing that’s good.  I accept that everything I write is an important step in the journey I’m on as a writer and a person.  If we can build that realization into the process, then we can take a deep breath, get on with the work, and enjoy every minute of it because we know it’s taking us where we ultimately want to go.  This approach includes every thematic interest and every stylistic direction, as long as they serve the writer’s purpose.  Inclusivity and connection are the central ideals of all of my work.  The more perspectives the writer can include in her repertoire, the more range and depth she will bring into her work.  The more skills the writer develops, the better she will connect to her reader.  A lot of reading and a lot of writing are probably the most important teachers.  And the occasional guidance of someone a little farther along on the path can make an important difference.  I very much like what Candace Black says about staying ‘out of my students’ way.’  I always feel privileged to work with any student.  I always want to honor the student’s vision for her own work as primary.  Whether it’s working on poems, stories, or a novel, this adventure the student and teacher embark on together is an opportunity for both to learn and grow.”

(CNF/Fiction) JOHN T. PRICEis the author of the memoirs Man Killed by Pheasant and Other Kinships (Da Capo Press, 2008) and Not Just Any Land: A Personal and Literary Journey into the American Grasslands (University of Nebraska Press, 2004).  Born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, in 1966, he attended the University of Iowa, where he earned his BA in Religion, MFA in Nonfiction Writing and PhD in English.  A recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and other recognitions, his nonfiction writing about nature, family, and spirit has appeared in many journals, magazines, newspapers, and anthologies including Orion, The Christian Science Monitor, Creative Nonfiction, North Dakota Quarterly, In Brief,Isotope, and Best Spiritual Writing 2000.  He is a Professor of English at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he teaches nonfiction writing, and lives with his wife Stephanie and two sons in the Loess Hills of western Iowa.

“As a writer, I have published a wide range of creative nonfiction, including personal essays, literary journalism, nature writing, and memoir. Likewise, as a teacher of nonfiction writing I welcome a variety of forms and stylistic approaches. I believe that the standards by which a work of nonfiction should be read are to be found in the work itself. Whether it be family memoir or literary biography, my goal is to help students reach the potential of each individual piece. That can mean discussing the big picture—the development of ideas, the unifying themes—or focusing on style, voice, and form. I think it's important to study the work of other writers in the field, and also to reflect on the more personal and idiosyncratic dimensions of the writing process. Developing a work of nonfiction from the initial brainstorm to publishable draft is a journey of faith that requires dedication and discipline, but one that should also involve joy and celebration.” http://johntprice.com/

(Poetry) RICHARD ROBBINS’ first collection, The Invisible Wedding, was published by the University of Missouri Press in 1984 as part of its Breakthrough Series. His second book of poems, Famous Persons We Have Known, was published in 2000 by Eastern Washington University Press. His latest collection, The Untested Hand,was published by Backwaters Press in 2008. Over the years, he has received various awards and fellowships for his work, including those from The Loft Literary Center, the McKnight Foundation, The Minnesota State Arts Board, The Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers, The National Endowment for the Arts, and The Poetry Society of America.  His poems have appeared in numerous periodicals, including CrazyHorse, Field, The Nation, The North American Review, Paris Review, Poetry Northwest, Puerto del Sol, The Seattle Review, and Stand, as well as in over 20 anthologies, including A New Geography of Poets, The Decade Dance, As Far as I Can See:  Contemporary Writing of the Middle Plains, Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry, Where We Are:  The Montana Poets Anthology, and Rain in the Forest, Light in the Trees:  Contemporary Poetry from the Northwest.  He currently directs the creative writing program and Good Thunder Reading Series at Minnesota State University, Mankato.  Robbins is a graduate of the University of Montana MFA program, where he studied under mentors Richard Hugo, Madeline DeFrees, and Tess Gallagher.

“Poems that reach the deepest into me are slightly crooked and shaped for the ear, because images aren’t able to do it all, because wit and cleverness and thought-out structure are never enough. Something surprises the writer, something makes him or her swerve in the writing, and, most important, he or she lets the poem follow the new pull. I want students to learn to love those moments their work almost goes into the ditch, those times they think they are in control only to find they are working on the poem that is impossible for them to write. I want them to grow more alert to their process, and to have them know that’s the poem they should always be writing.”

(Poetry/Fiction) LEE ANN RORIPAUGH’s second volume of poetry, Year of the Snake, was published by Southern Illinois University Press as part of the Crab Orchard Award Series in Poetry, and was named winner of the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award in Poetry and Prose.  Her first volume of poetry, Beyond Heart Mountain (Penguin Books, 1999), was a 1998 winner of the National Poetry Series, and was selected as a finalist for the 2000 Asian American Literary Awards.  The recipient of a 2003 Archibald Bush Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship, she was also named the 2004 winner of the Prairie Schooner Strousse Award, the 2001 winner of the Frederick Manfred Award for Best Creative Writing awarded by the Western Literature Association, the 1995 winner of the Randall Jarrell International Poetry Prize, as well as the winner of an AWP Intro Award and an Academy of American Poets Prize.  Roripaugh’s poetry and fiction have appeared or will be forthcoming in journals such as Ploughshares, Shenandoah, Michigan Quarterly Review, Parnassus: Poetry in Review, New England Review, North American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, River Styx, and Crab Orchard Review, among others.  Her poetry has also been selected for inclusion in the following anthologies:  Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation (University of Illinois Press), Poets of the New Century (Godine) American Poetry: The Next Generation (Carnegie Mellon Press), Woven on the Wind (Houghton Mifflin), American Identities: Contemporary Multicultural Voices (University of New England Press), and Waltzing on Water: Poetry by Women (Dell).  A native of Laramie, Wyoming, she received an MFA in creative writing from Indiana University.  Other degrees include an MM in music history from Indiana University and a BM in piano performance from Indiana University.  Roripaugh is currently an Associate Professor of English at the University of South Dakota.

“The creative writing teacher cannot ‘teach’ her students to be writers.  Rather, I attempt to aid and abet my students in thinking about, exploring, experimenting with, and working through the creative process.  In doing so, I assume the multiple guises of mentor, guide, professional advisor, sympathetic reader, audience at large, critic and collaborator.  My goal is for students to become better writers, and it is ostensibly this same goal that leads student writers, either intuitively or deliberately, into the creative writing classroom—to seek out audience, guidance, and feedback.  Along these lines, I strive to be generous with my own creative energy—offering students serious and careful consideration of their work, administering professional/career advice and encouragement, and taking the time to enter into a process of artistic collaboration with each individual student. Ultimately, it is never my goal to impose my own aesthetic sensibilities and tastes upon the student, but rather to be flexible and versatile enough to approach each piece of work on its own terms. 

“Another important goal is for students become better readers—engaged, diverse and sensitive readers who read not only for pleasure and scholarship, but are capable of reading with a ‘writerly’ eye.  I want students to constantly explore a wide panoply of creative possibilities found within diverse literary models.  I feel it is important to break down preconceived notions or prohibitions about what constitutes ‘literature,’ as well as develop the necessary critical tools to consider the concepts of craft, style and technique. In the same way that visual artists or musicians refine and hone their technical skills in their respective mediums, so, too, must writers learn to refine and hone their technical skills through experimentation, practice and revision.  The application of these reading skills not only develops the students’ ability to provide constructive criticism within the workshop environment, but also allows students to become increasingly independent in the critical process of assessing and revising their own work.  In addition to literary models, I also believe students should be encouraged to explore the other arts as sources of creative stimuli and inspiration, so that they may be open to the wealth of possibilities for trans-disciplinary modeling or multi-disciplinary collaboration.