I'm an energetic and outgoing writing instructor who specializes in creative writing in various genres--poetry, prose, creative non-fiction, screenwriting, and hybrid forms. I also teach and have an acute interest in composition and rhetoric. As an undergraduate, I attended The Johns Hopkins University, where I majored in Writing Seminars and Political Science, and also served as a writing tutor for three years, working on projects ranging from medical school personal statements to flash fiction. I received my M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Washington, where I taught at its Seattle and Rome campuses for three years, in a variety of capacities for a number of classes under the umbrella of English studies.
My teaching philosophy is simple: a student has to own his or her sense of writing, and has to love what he or she is doing. Writing is not a perfunctory, rote act: it's an expression of self, of ideas, of arguments, of emotions. The most convincing and moving writing comes from a sense of awareness--both of self, and of audience, too. In this way, I view academic writing less as an intimidating, ambiguous set of rules, but instead as a liberating avenue for thought and change.
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