Teaching

University of King's College

MFA Program in Creative Nonfiction

​The two-year MFA program in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is the first of its kind in Canada. Focused solely on creative nonfiction, the program is offered on a low-residency model with summer and winter residencies. Through the fall and winter terms, students work one-on-one with their mentors. In the summer, students, mentors, and faculty gather at the King's campus for ten full days. Students participate in everything from workshops and one-on-one meetings with their mentors to readings, discussions, panels, and talks by faculty, mentors, and guests. It's a rich, busy, full time. In 2020 all this was translated to an online format. While there's nothing to replace being together in a tangible way, somehow—remarkably—much of the good feeling of sharing thoughts and time with fellow lovers of nonfiction made it through the screens and into our respective homes.  

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WRITING TIPS 
So many places to go for help. Here are a few of my favourites:

BOOKS

• Art and Fear, David Bayles & Ted Orland
• If You Want to Write, Brenda Ueland
• On Writing Well, William Zinsser
• The Sound on the Page, Ben Yagoda
• Steering the Craft, Ursula K. LeGuin
• Still Writing, Dani Shapiro
• Tell it Slant, Brenda Miller & Suzanne Paola
• The Truth About Stories, Thomas King
• The Situation and The Story, Vivian Gornick​
• The Writing Life, Annie Dillard

PODCASTS & OTHER FINDS​

• All-Time Favorite Writing Prompts from Ploughshares
• Craft Essays, Brevity
• Maya Angelou Interview, Paris Review  No. 119
• If you want to write a book, John McPhee's advice is indispensable, Roy Peter Clarke, Poynter, 2018
• 10 Rules for Writing Fiction (that also apply to nonfiction) The Guardian, 2010
• Sugar Calling Podcast. Cheryl Strayed calls writers she admires . Begin with George Saunders, carry on to Amy Tan, Joy Harjo, and others. 
• The Heart Work: Writing About Trauma as a Subversive Act, Melissa Febos
• Leslie Jamison's introduction to Best American Essays, 2017. 
• Also, listen to what George Saunders has to say about story in this short video HERE and then listen again in this clip HERE as he talks about revision and the relationship between writer and reader.