Creative Writing Program Faculty
Good teaching is, and has always been, the heart of Creative Writingat Carolina. One reason the program has flourished so long is its excellent faculty, award-winning teachers who devote themselves to their classes, dedicating considerable time and energy to students and their manuscripts. The number of faculty has grown as the program itself has grown, but quality of teaching has remained its primary emphasis. In 2006, professors who teach Creative Writing include:
Pam Durban. The first Doris Betts Distinguished Professor in Creative Writing, Durban has published two novels (most recently So Far Back) and a book of stories. One of her uncollected stories, “Soon,” was selected by John Updike as one of the Best American Short Stories of the Century in 1999.
Marianne Gingher. Gingher has published a much-praised novel, Bobby Rex's Greatest Hit (an NBC Movie of the Week in 1992), a collection of stories called Teen Angel and Other Stories of Wayward Love, and a book of essays, A Girl’s Life: Horses, Boys, Weddings, and Luck.
Randall Kenan. One of the leading younger African-American writers in the country, Kenan has published four books, including a collection of stories, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead (1992), which won the Lambda Book Award and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Michael McFee. McFee--a 1976 graduate of the program--has written seven books of poems (most recently Earthly) and edited two anthologies of contemporary North Carolina literature, including The Language They Speak Is Things to Eat: Poems by Fifteen Contemporary North Carolina Poets.
James Seay. Author of four books of poems—most recently Open Field, Understory: New and Selected Poems (1997)—and a film, Seay has also received an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and won the Roanoke-Chowan Prize in Poetry.
Alan Shapiro. Shapiro has published seven books of poetry (including The Dead Alive and Busy and Mixed Company), a book of criticism, a translation of The Oresteia, and two memoirs (Vigil and The Last Happy Occasion). He was presented the Kingsley Tufts Award, a prestigious national prize, in 2001.
Bland Simpson. Author of two novels and four books of creative non-fiction, among them The Great Dismal: A Carolinian’s Swamp Memoir and Into the Sound Country, Simpson is also a member of the Tony-award-winning musical group The Red Clay Ramblers, with experience on Broadway and in films.
Daniel Wallace. Wallace has published four novels, including Big Fish (1998), Ray in Reverse (2000), The Watermelon King (2003) and most recently Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician (2007). Big Fish was made into a motion picture of the same name by Tim Burton in 2003, a film in which the author plays the part of a professor at Auburn.
The Creative Writing Program has always depended greatly on the contributions of lecturers—accomplished writers on their own—who teach courses full- or part-time. The lecturers for 2006-2007 include longtime teacher Daphne Athas, author of the acclaimed novel Entering Ephesus and five other books; Michael Chitwood, poet, who has published four books of poems, among them The Weave Room; Ruth Moose, author of five collections of short stories and poetry, who also teaches Writing for Children; Lawrence Naumoff (see “Alumni” below); poet Nina Riggs, former editor of the Greensboro Review; and Daniel Wallace, who has published four novels, including Big Fish, which became a major motion picture.
Beginning with the academic year 2000-2001, a generous donation made possible the Kenan Writer-in-Residence program, designed to bring to campus an up-and-coming writer of poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction who has only published one book. This writer will teach one course a semester and work on a second book. The Kenan Writers to date have been poets Christine Garren, Daniel Anderson, David Roderick, and Wilmer Mills; creative non-fiction writers Virginia Holman and Joni Tevis; and fiction-writers June Spence and Nic Pizzolatto.