Approach to Teaching and Writing

   First, reading literature should be fun. It may be fun and easy, or it may be fun and difficult—but either way, it is by enjoyment and intellectual play that we absorb wisdom from literature. Animated by pleasure, we enter the literary worlds conjured by the words of authors, and we discover there how to re-create and re-envision ourselves, our fellow human beings, and the real world—exhilarating, tedious, perilous—in which we must live our actual days.

   As human beings, we are hard-wired to love stories and to learn from them. In my literature courses, I try to allow my students' natural delight in literature (narrative, plays, poetry) to lead the way. My classes are structured to bring out students' reflections, in discussions that are liberating and nondoctrinaire.

   Since students (and all readers) often undervalue their own creative interpretations in deference to some looked-for "expert opinion," I encourage students to express themselves in my classes, take risks, and have fun. I believe teaching should be reciprocal and creative: I tell my students my thoughts, they tell me theirs, and the interchange brings new thoughts into being.  

   In the same spirit, I have a passion for creating stories. I enter the imaginary lives of my characters as I write, and I follow them through events that range from humorous to devastating. Although my writing brain is always swirling with possible meanings, there is no official author-approved meaning for my fiction, and readers are free to speculate. I simply hope that my fiction is fun to read.

 

 

 

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